Pericles' Funeral Oration

Pericles’ Funeral Oration, recorded by Thucydides in History of the Peloponnesian War (Book II), is Athens’ most famous self-portrait. Spoken over the first dead of the war with Sparta, it becomes less a eulogy for fallen soldiers than a meditation on the city they died to defend. Pericles praises a daring, open, law-governed democracy that blends freedom with discipline and honors both courage in battle and usefulness in peace. This oration asks what makes a community worthy of sacrifice—and challenges listeners to live so that their city deserves such loyalty, honor, and remembrance across generations and in every crisis.