The Funeral Speech

I believe also that if someone were to ask those in the opposite ranks whether they thought they had won by their own deeds of valor or by a startling and cruel turn of fortune and by the skill and daring of their own commander, not one of them would be so shameless or audacious as to claim credit for what happened. Furthermore, in contests of which the deity, the master of all, has disposed the outcome as it chose, it is necessary of course to acquit all others, being but human, of the charge of cowardice, but when it comes to the means by which the leader of our opponents prevailed over those appointed to the command of our army, no one could justly locate the cause in the rank and file of either the enemy or ourselves.

But if, after all, there is any human being who might rightly lay a charge concerning the issue of that battle, he would with good reason advance it against those of the Thebans who were appointed to this command,[*](Philip seems to have deceived the Athenians by a feigned retreat while throwing his strongest troops against the Thebans. This stratagem broke the line and decided the battle. The Theban general Theagenes and his colleagues seem to have been no more to blame than the rest.) nor could anyone rightly lay blame upon the rank and file of either the Thebans or ourselves. Those men, receiving command of a military force that would neither brook defeat nor make excuse and had an emulous zest for glory, made the right use of none of these.

As for the other questions touching this campaign, each individual is at liberty to draw conclusions according to his judgement, but what has become manifest to all living men alike is this—that, in effect, the freedom of the whole Greek world was being preserved in the souls of these men. At any rate, since fate removed them, not one of those remaining has made a stand against the foe. While I desire that my words may be free from offence, it seems to me that if one should declare that the valor of these men was the very life of Greece he would speak the truth;

for at one and the same time their spirits were separated from their dear bodies and the self-esteem of Greece was taken from her. We shall therefore seem guilty perhaps of a bold exaggeration, but still it must be uttered: for just as, if the light of day were removed out of this universe of ours,[*](Kennedy quotes Cicero De Amic. 13.47 solem enim e mundo tollere videntur qui amicitiam e vita tollunt. According to Aristot. Rh. 1.7 and Aristot. 3.10, Pericles had once said in a funeral speech it was as if the spring had been taken out of the year.) all the remnant of life would be harsh and irksome, so, now that these men have been taken from us, all the old-time ambition of the Greeks is sunk in gloom and profound obscurity.

While it stands to reason that many influences helped to make them what they were, not least was their virtue ascribable to our form of government.[*](This topic is treated in Plat. Menex. 238b-239d. Blass compares Dem. 20.108, but the similarity is not impressive.) For though absolute governments dominated by a few create fear in their citizens, they fail to awaken the sense of shame. Consequently, when the test of war comes, everyone lightheartedly proceeds to save himself, knowing full well that if only he succeeds in appeasing his masters by presents or any other civility whatsoever, even though he becomes guilty of the most revolting conduct, only slight reproach will attach to him thereafter.

Democracies, however, possess many other just and noble features, to which right-minded men should hold fast, and in particular it is impossible to deter freedom of speech, which depends upon speaking the truth, from exposing the truth. For neither is it possible for those who commit a shameful act to appease all the citizens,[*](Under an oligarchy, the speaker means, it is possible for the wrongdoer to seal the mouths of the small ruling clique by means of bribes, but under a democracy it is impossible to buy the silence of thousands of citizens. The reference is to oligarchic governments set up by the Spartans in subject states. Pericles praised the Athenian form of government as against the Spartan, Thuc. 2.37-39.) so that even the lone individual, uttering the deserved reproach, makes the guilty wince: for even those who would never speak an accusing word themselves are pleased at hearing the same, provided another utters it. Through fear of such condemnation, all these men, as was to be expected, for shame at the thought of subsequent reproaches,[*](The fear of exposure as a factor in democratic government is mentioned by Pericles, Thuc. 2.37.3, and by Hyp. 25. Blass compares Dem. 22.31.) manfully faced the threat arising from our foes and chose a noble death in preference to life and disgrace.

The considerations that actuated these men one and all to choose to die nobly have now been enumerated,—birth, education, habituation to high standards of conduct, and the underlying principles of our form of government in general. The incentives that challenged them severally to be valiant men, depending upon the tribes to which they belonged, I shall next relate.[*](The list which here begins is our chief authority for the names and order of precedence of the ten Athenian tribes as established by Cleisthenes in 508 B.C. The particular myths that suit the context, however, are for the most part obscure and of relatively recent origin. For example, the older legends speak of but one daughter of Erechtheus as being sacrificed. The later version is known to Cicero Tusc. Disp. 1.48.116.) All the Erechtheidae were well aware that Erechtheus, from whom they have their name, for the salvation of this land gave his own daughters, whom they call Hyacinthides, to certain death, and so extinguished his race. Therefore they regarded it as shameful, after a being born of immortal gods had sacrificed everything for the liberation of his native land, that they themselves should have been found to have placed a higher value upon a mortal body than upon immortal glory.[*](Hyp. 24 reads in part θνητοῦ σώματος ἀθάνατον δόξαν ἐκτήσαντο, gained immortal glory at the price of a mortal body.)

Neither were the Aegeidae ignorant that Theseus, the son of Aegeus, for the first time established equality in the State.[*](According to Plut. Thes. 25, it was equality between newcomers and natives that Theseus established; the word ἰσονομία usually means equality before the law and is almost a synonym for democracy.) They thought it, therefore, a dreadful thing to be false to the principles of that ancestor, and they preferred to be dead rather than through love of life to survive among the Greeks with this equality lost. The Pandionidae had inherited the tradition of Procne and Philomela, the daughters of Pandion, who took vengeance on Tereus for his crime against themselves.[*](Procne is said to have murdered her own son Itys and to have served his flesh to her husband Tereus in revenge for his treachery to herself and his cruelty to Philomela. It is curious that the speaker seems less shocked by this crime than by the innocent tale of Alope, Dem. 60.31, below.) Therefore they decided that life was not worth living unless they, akin by race, should have proved themselves to possess equal spirit with those women, when confronted by the outrage they saw being committed against Greece.

The Leontidae had heard the stories related of the daughters of Leo, how they offered themselves to the citizens as a sacrifice for their country’s sake. When, therefore, such courage was displayed by those women, they looked upon it as a heinous thing if they, being men, should have proved to possess less of manhood. The Acamantidae did not fail to recall the epics in which Homer says that Acamas sailed for Troy for the sake of his mother Aethra.[*](Aethra is mentioned in Hom. Il. 3.144, but the rest of the story is not Homeric. This Acamas is unknown to Homer, though he mentions two other individuals of the same name. It was later myths that told of the rescue of Aethra after the fall of Troy by her two grandsons, not sons, Acamas and Demophon.) Now, since he braved every danger for the sake of saving his own mother, how were these men not bound to face every danger for the sake of saving their parents one and all at home?

It did not escape the Oeneidae that Semele was the daughter of Cadmus, and of her was born one whom it would be sacrilegious to name at this tomb,[*](Dionysus, or Bacchus, god of wine, who, as an Olympian, could not associate with death.) and by him Oeneus was begotten, who was called the founder of their race.[*](Two demes in Attica were named Oenoe, which was sufficient to justify the invention of a hero Oeneus, but he is not to be confused with the Homeric hero of this name who was associated with Calydon in Aetolia and with Argos. The word means wineman, from οἶνος. At Athens the anniversary of this hero fell in the month Gamelion, like the Lenaea of Dionysus. It was natural, therefore, to call him the son of the god, but the relationship plays no part in recorded myths.) Since the danger in question was common to both States, on behalf of both they thought themselves bound to endure any Anguish to the end.[*](The suggestion is that the Oeneidae would have felt equally bound to fight on behalf of Thebes, of which the founder was Cadmus, and on behalf of Athens, one of whose heroes was Oeneus, great-grandson of Cadmus. This is the weakest link in this series.) The Cecropidae were well aware that their founder was reputed to have been part dragon, part human, for no other reason than this, that in understanding he was like a man, in strength like a dragon. So they assumed that their duty was to perform feats worthy of both.

The Hippothoontidae bore in mind the marriage of Alope, from which Hippothoon was born, and they knew also who their founder was; about these matters—to avoid impropriety on an occasion like this[*](Alope’s son was said to have been twice exposed, and twice rescued and suckled by a mare. The use of mare’s milk as a food prevailed among the Scythians, as the Greeks knew well from their colonists in the region of the Black Sea, if not from Hdt. 4.2; Gylon, grandfather of Demosthenes, had lived in the Crimea and was said to have married a Thracian wife. The orator was sometimes twitted by his opponents about his Thracian blood. He may have been sensitive. Consequently the attitude here revealed might be construed as evidence for the genuineness of the speech.) I forbear to speak plainly—they thought it was their duty to be seen performing deeds worthy of these ancestors. It did not escape the Aeantidae that Ajax, robbed of the prize of valor, did not consider his own life worth living.[*](Ajax, worsted by Odysseus in a contest for possession of the arms of Achilles, was said to have slain himself: Hom. Od. 11.541-567; the story of his madness and of slaughtering flocks and herds as if they were his enemies is not Homeric: Soph. Aj.) When, therefore, the god was giving to another the prize of valor, at once they thought they must die trying to repel their foes so as to suffer no disgrace to themselves. The Antiochidae were not unmindful that Antiochus was the son of Heracles.[*](The mother of Antiochus was Meda, daughter of Phylas, king of the Dryopes, but the story was unimportant and little known.) They concluded therefore that they must either live worthily of their heritage or die nobly.

Now, though the living kinsmen of these dead deserve our sympathy, bereaved of such brave men and divorced from close and affectionate association, and though the life of our native land is desolate and filled with tears and mourning, nevertheless these dead by a just calculation are happy.[*](Compare Hyp. 24 Are we not to think them fortunate because their valor was proven rather than unfortunate because their lives were lost?) First of all, bartering little for much, a brief time for all eternity, they leave behind them an ageless fame[*](With εὔκλειαν ἀγήρω compare Thuc. 2.43.2 ἀγήρων ἔπαινονand Hyp. 42 εὐδοξίαν ἀγήρατον.)

In which the children of these men shall be reared in honor and the parents of these men shall enjoy distinction[*](This topic is touched upon in Hyp. 27.) and tender care in their old age, cherishing the fame of these men as an assuagement of their sorrow.[*](Thuc. 2.44.4and be comforted by the fair fame of these your sons.) In the second place, immune from disease of body and beyond the reach of anguish of spirit,[*](In Hyp. 43 may be found ἀπηλλαγμένοι εἰσὶ νόσων καὶ λύπης, as Blass observes.) such as the living must suffer because of the misfortunes which have befallen, they today receive high honor and inspire great emulation while they are accorded the customary obsequies.[*](Annual sacrifices were performed at the public sepulchre in Athens. They were followed by athletic contests.) How, then, since the whole country unites in according them a public burial, and they alone receive the words of universal praise, while their kinsmen and fellow-citizens are not alone in mourning them, but every land that has the right to be called Hellas and the greater part of the whole world mourns with them,[*](Thuc. 2.43.3for the whole world is the sepulchre of famous men.) how can we do otherwise than consider them blessed of fortune?

With excellent reason one might declare them to be now seated beside the gods below, possessing the same rank as the brave men who have preceded them in the islands of the blest. For though no man has been there to see or brought back this report concerning them, yet those whom the living have assumed to be worthy of honors in the world above, these we believe, basing our surmise on their fame, receive the same honors also in the world beyond.[*](A similar sentiment is found in Hyp. 43.)

While it is perhaps difficult[*](Blass compares Hyp. 41 χαλεπὸν μὲν ἴσως ἐστί.) to mitigate the present misfortunes by the spoken word, nevertheless it is our duty to endeavor to turn our minds to comforting thoughts, reflecting that it is a beautiful thing for parents who have begotten men like these, and themselves were born of others like unto them, to be seen enduring their affliction more decorously than the rest of mankind, and, no matter what fortune befalls, to be like them;

for to the departed such conduct would seem most becoming in you and honorable to them, and to the whole State and to the living it would bring the greatest glory.[*](This topic is treated at greater length in Plato Menex. 247d-248c.) It is a grievous thing for fathers and mothers to be deprived of their children and in their old age to lack the care of those who are nearest and dearest to them. Yes, but it is a proud privilege to behold them possessors of deathless honors and a memorial of their valor erected by the State, and deemed deserving of sacrifices and games for all future time.

It is painful for children to be orphaned of a father. Yes, but it is a beautiful thing to be the heir of a father’s fame. And of this pain we shall find the deity to be the cause, to whom mortal creatures must yield, but of the glory and honor the source is found in the choice of those who willed to die nobly.

As for myself, it has not been my concern how I might make a long speech, but how I might speak the truth. And now do you, having spent your grief and done your part as law and custom require, disperse to your homes.