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Questions
to consider when reading the Pericles Funeral Oration
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Sources: www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup=Thuc.+2.34
and www.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/pericles-funeralspeech.html
In the same winter the Athenians gave a funeral
at the public cost to those who had fallen first in this war. It was a custom
of their ancestors, and the manner of it is as follows. Three days before
the ceremony, the bones of the dead are laid out in a tent which has been
erected; and their friends bring to their relatives such offerings as they
please. In the funeral procession cypress coffins are borne in cars, one
for each tribe; the bones of the deceased being placed in the coffin of their
tribe. Among these is carried one empty bier decked for the missing, that
is, for those whose bodies could not be recovered. Any citizen or stranger
who pleases, joins in the procession, and the female relatives are there
to wail at the burial.
The dead are laid in the public sepulchre in
the Beautiful suburb of the city, in which those who fall in war are always
buried; with the exception of those slain at Marathon, who for their singular
and extraordinary valor were interred on the spot where they fell. After
the bodies have been laid in the earth, a man chosen by the state, of approved
wisdom and eminent reputation, pronounces over them an appropriate panegyric;
after which all retire. Such is the manner of the burying; and throughout
the whole of the war, whenever the occasion arose, the established custom
was observed.
Meanwhile these were the first that had fallen,
and Pericles, son of Xanthippus, was chosen to pronounce their eulogy. When
the proper time arrived, he advanced from the sepulchre to an elevated platform
in order to be heard by as many of the crowd as possible, and spoke as
follows:
"Most of my predecessors in this place have
commended him who made this speech part of the law, telling us that it is
well that it should be delivered at the burial of those who fall in battle.
For myself, I should have thought that the worth which had displayed itself
in deeds would be sufficiently rewarded by honors also shown by deeds; such
as you now see in this funeral prepared at the people's cost. And I could
have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled
in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke
well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is
even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth.
On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story
may think that some point has not been set forth with that fullness which
he wishes and knows it to deserve; on the other, he who is a stranger to
the matter may be led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything
above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so long
as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the
actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it
incredulity. However, since our ancestors have stamped this custom with their
approval, it becomes my duty to obey the law and to try to satisfy your several
wishes and opinions as best I may.
"I shall begin with our ancestors: it is both
just and proper that they should have the honor of the first mention on an
occasion like the present. They dwelt in the country without break in the
succession from generation to generation, and handed it down free to the
present time by their valor. And if our more remote ancestors deserve praise,
much more do our own fathers, who added to their inheritance the empire which
we now possess, and spared no pains to be able to leave their acquisitions
to us of the present generation. Lastly, there are few parts of our dominions
that have not been augmented by those of us here, who are still more or less
in the vigor of life; while the mother country has been furnished by us with
everything that can enable her to depend on her own resources whether for
war or for peace. That part of our history which tells of the military
achievements which gave us our several possessions, or of the ready valor
with which either we or our fathers stemmed the tide of Hellenic or foreign
aggression, is a theme too familiar to my hearers for me to dilate on, and
I shall therefore pass it by. But what was the road by which we reached our
position, what the form of government under which our greatness grew, what
the national habits out of which it sprang; these are questions which I may
try to solve before I proceed to my panegyric upon these men; since I think
this to be a subject upon which on the present occasion a speaker may properly
dwell, and to which the whole assemblage, whether citizens or foreigners,
may listen with advantage.
"Our constitution does not copy the laws of
neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves.
Its administration favors the many instead of the few; this is why it is
called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to
all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public
life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed
to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is
able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition.
The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary
life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other,
we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbors for doing what
he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to
be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease
in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this
fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the
laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether
they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although
unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.
"Further, we provide plenty of means for the
mind to refresh itself from business. We celebrate games and sacrifices all
the year round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily
source of pleasure and helps to banish the spleen; while the magnitude of
our city draws the produce of the world into our harbor, so that to the Athenian
the fruits of other countries are as familiar a luxury as those of his
own.
"If we turn to our military policy, there also
we differ from our antagonists. We throw open our city to the world, and
never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or
observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our
liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit
of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles
by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as
we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger.
In proof of this it may be noticed that the Lacedaemonians do not invade
our country alone, but bring with them all their confederates; while we Athenians
advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbor, and fighting upon a
foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes.
Our united force was never yet encountered by any enemy, because we have
at once to attend to our marine and to dispatch our citizens by land upon
a hundred different services; so that, wherever they engage with some such
fraction of our strength, a success against a detachment is magnified into
a victory over the nation, and a defeat into a reverse suffered at the hands
of our entire people. And yet if with habits not of labor but of ease, and
courage not of art but of nature, we are still willing to encounter danger,
we have the double advantage of escaping the experience of hardships in
anticipation and of facing them in the hour of need as fearlessly as those
who are never free from them.
"Nor are these the only points in which our
city is worthy of admiration. We cultivate refinement without extravagance
and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for
show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but
in declining the struggle against it. Our public men have, besides politics,
their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied
with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for,
unlike any other nation, regarding him who takes no part in these duties
not as unambitious but as useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all
events if we cannot originate, and, instead of looking on discussion as a
stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary
to any wise action at all. Again, in our enterprises we present the singular
spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point,
and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit
of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely
be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship
and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity
we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving,
favors. Yet, of course, the doer of the favor is the firmer friend of the
two, in order by continued kindness to keep the recipient in his debt; while
the debtor feels less keenly from the very consciousness that the return
he makes will be a payment, not a free gift. And it is only the Athenians,
who, fearless of consequences, confer their benefits not from calculations
of expediency, but in the confidence of liberality.
"In short, I say that as a city we are the school
of Hellas, while I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has
only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced
by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian. And that this is no mere boast
thrown out for the occasion, but plain matter of fact, the power of the state
acquired by these habits proves. For Athens alone of her contemporaries is
found when tested to be greater than her reputation, and alone gives no occasion
to her assailants to blush at the antagonist by whom they have been worsted,
or to her subjects to question her title by merit to rule. Rather, the admiration
of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our
power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing
a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose verses might charm
for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch
of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring,
and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments
behind us. Such is the Athens for which these men, in the assertion of their
resolve not to lose her, nobly fought and died; and well may every one of
their survivors be ready to suffer in her cause.
"Indeed if I have dwelt at some length upon
the character of our country, it has been to show that our stake in the struggle
is not the same as theirs who have no such blessings to lose, and also that
the panegyric of the men over whom I am now speaking might be by definite
proofs established. That panegyric is now in a great measure complete; for
the Athens that I have celebrated is only what the heroism of these and their
like have made her, men whose fame, unlike that of most Hellenes, will be
found to be only commensurate with their deserts. And if a test of worth
be wanted, it is to be found in their closing scene, and this not only in
cases in which it set the final seal upon their merit, but also in those
in which it gave the first intimation of their having any. For there is justice
in the claim that steadfastness in his country's battles should be as a cloak
to cover a man's other imperfections; since the good action has blotted out
the bad, and his merit as a citizen more than outweighed his demerits as
an individual. But none of these allowed either wealth with its prospect
of future enjoyment to unnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of a
day of freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger. No, holding
that vengeance upon their enemies was more to be desired than any personal
blessings, and reckoning this to be the most glorious of hazards, they joyfully
determined to accept the risk, to make sure of their vengeance, and to let
their wishes wait; and while committing to hope the uncertainty of final
success, in the business before them they thought fit to act boldly and trust
in themselves. Thus choosing to die resisting, rather than to live submitting,
they fled only from dishonor, but met danger face to face, and after one
brief moment, while at the summit of their fortune, escaped, not from their
fear, but from their glory.
"So died these men as became Athenians. You,
their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the
field, though you may pray that it may have a happier issue. And not contented
with ideas derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up with
the defence (sic) of your country, though these would furnish a valuable text to
a speaker even before an audience so alive to them as the present, you must
yourselves realize the power of Athens, and feed your eyes upon her from
day to day, till love of her fills your hearts; and then, when all her greatness
shall break upon you, you must reflect that it was by courage, sense of duty,
and a keen feeling of honor in action that men were enabled to win all this,
and that no personal failure in an enterprise could make them consent to
deprive their country of their valor, but they laid it at her feet as the
most glorious contribution that they could offer. For this offering of their
lives made in common by them all they each of them individually received
that renown which never grows old, and for a sepulchre, not so much that
in which their bones have been deposited, but that noblest of shrines wherein
their glory is laid up to be eternally remembered upon every occasion on
which deed or story shall call for its commemoration. For heroes have the
whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column
with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record
unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart. These
take as your model and, judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and
freedom of valor, never decline the dangers of war. For it is not the miserable
that would most justly be unsparing of their lives; these have nothing to
hope for: it is rather they to whom continued life may bring reverses as
yet unknown, and to whom a fall, if it came, would be most tremendous in
its consequences. And surely, to a man of spirit, the degradation of cowardice
must be immeasurably more grievous than the unfelt death which strikes him
in the midst of his strength and patriotism!
"Comfort, therefore, not condolence, is what
I have to offer to the parents of the dead who may be here. Numberless are
the chances to which, as they know, the life of man is subject; but fortunate
indeed are they who draw for their lot a death so glorious as that which
has caused your mourning, and to whom life has been so exactly measured as
to terminate in the happiness in which it has been passed. Still I know that
this is a hard saying, especially when those are in question of whom you
will constantly be reminded by seeing in the homes of others blessings of
which once you also boasted: for grief is felt not so much for the want of
what we have never known, as for the loss of that to which we have been long
accustomed. Yet you who are still of an age to beget children must bear up
in the hope of having others in their stead; not only will they help you
to forget those whom you have lost, but will be to the state at once a
reinforcement and a security; for never can a fair or just policy be expected
of the citizen who does not, like his fellows, bring to the decision the
interests and apprehensions of a father. While those of you who have passed
your prime must congratulate yourselves with the thought that the best part
of your life was fortunate, and that the brief span that remains will be
cheered by the fame of the departed. For it is only the love of honor that
never grows old; and honor it is, not gain, as some would have it, that rejoices
the heart of age and helplessness.
"Turning to the sons or brothers of the dead,
I see an arduous struggle before you. When a man is gone, all are wont to
praise him, and should your merit be ever so transcendent, you will still
find it difficult not merely to overtake, but even to approach their renown.
The living have envy to contend with, while those who are no longer in our
path are honored with a goodwill into which rivalry does not enter. On the
other hand, if I must say anything on the subject of female excellence to
those of you who will now be in widowhood, it will be all comprised in this
brief exhortation. Great will be your glory in not falling short of your
natural character; and greatest will be hers who is least talked of among
the men, whether for good or for bad.
"My task is now finished. I have performed it
to the best of my ability, and in word, at least, the requirements of the
law are now satisfied. If deeds be in question, those who are here interred
have received part of their honors already, and for the rest, their children
will be brought up till manhood at the public expense: the state thus offers
a valuable prize, as the garland of victory in this race of valor, for the
reward both of those who have fallen and their survivors. And where the rewards
for merit are greatest, there are found the best citizens.
"And now that you have brought to a close your
lamentations for your relatives, you may
depart."
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