The Athenian Funeral Oration
After Nicole Loraux
Published on 25. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
554 pages
978-1-009-41303-9 (ISBN)
Description
In classical Athens, a funeral speech was delivered for dead combatants almost every year, the most famous being that by Pericles in 430 BC. In 1981, Nicole Loraux transformed our understanding of this genre. Her The Invention of Athens showed how it reminded the Athenians who they were as a people. Loraux demonstrated how each speech helped them to maintain the same self-identity for two centuries. But The Invention of Athens was far from complete. This volume brings together top-ranked experts to finish Loraux's book. It answers the important questions about the numerous surviving funeral speeches that she ignored. It also undertakes a comparison of the funeral oration with other genres that is missing in her famous book. What emerges is a speech that had a much greater political impact than Loraux thought. This volume puts the study of war in Athenian culture on a completely new footing.
Reviews / Votes
'This is an interesting, useful and timely volume, featuring focused and well-grounded essays of consistently superior quality by some of the best contemporary Hellenists ... As a monument to [Loraux's] pathbreaking work, as well as a critical advance on parts of it, the book should command real interest. It will also be a valuable reference resource for scholars and students of Greek history, literature and Classical reception.' Richard P. Martin, Antony and Isabelle Raubitschek Professor in Classics, Stanford University 'This is a very high-quality volume ... very well introduced and contextualised by its editor, whose opening chapter is very clear and very full on the contribution of Nicole Loraux and the Paris School to the study of ancient Greek life and thought, on her original intellectual context and on her influence ... This new volume provides much that [The Invention of Athens] no longer can, yet still preserves its status as a landmark in the study of ancient Athenian ideology.' Douglas Cairns, Professor of Classics, The University of Edinburgh 'The Athenian Funeral Oration: After Nicole Loraux is destined to be the new reference work on this vitally important genre. Building on the significant advances in cultural history since the 1980s, it will be essential reading for all those interested in Athenian democracy, literature and warfare.' Christophe Pebarthe, Associate Professor of Greek History, Universite Bordeaux Montaigne (France) 'Drawing on the latest research on the epitaphios logos as a genre, the distinguished contributors succeed in offering a more nuanced view, enriched by insights into Athenian democracy that have emerged in recent years.' Veronica Capriotti, H-Soz-KultMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises; 3 Tables, black and white; 21 Halftones, color
Dimensions
Height: 169 mm
Width: 244 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
956 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-41303-9 (9781009413039)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2024
Cambridge University Press
€142.99
Available for download
Persons
David M. Pritchard is Associate Professor of Greek History at the University of Queensland, where he has chaired the Discipline of Classics and Ancient History. He has authored Athenian Democracy at War (Cambridge, 2019), Public Spending and Democracy in Classical Athens (2015) and Sport, Democracy and War in Classical Athens (Cambridge, 2013), edited War, Democracy and Culture in Classical Athens (Cambridge, 2010) and co-edited Sport and Festival in the Ancient Greek World (2003). He has held fifteen fellowships in Australia, Europe and the US, most recently at l'Institut d'etudes avancees de Nantes, and speaks on radio and regularly writes for newspapers around the world.
Content
List of figures and tables; List of contributors; Foreword by Paul Cartledge ; Preface; List of abbreviations; 1. The funeral oration after Loraux David M. Pritchard; Part I. Contexts: 2. The 'beautiful death' from Homer to democratic Athens Nicole Loraux (translated by David M. Pritchard); 3. Between ideology and the imaginary: the invention of The Invention of Athens Vincent Azoulay and Paulin Ismard (translated by David M. Pritchard); 4. An imaginary with images: reconsidering the funeral oration and material culture Nathan T. Arrington; Part II. The Historical Speeches: 5. The epitaphios logos of Pericles: Thucydides' ambivalence towards the genre Bernd Steinbock; 6. Demosthenes after the defeat Leonhard Burckhardt (translated by Edith Foster and David M. Pritchard); 7. Originality and tradition in Hyperides' Funeral Oration Judson Herrman; Part III. The Literary Examples: 8. Gorgias' Funeral Oration Johannes Wienand; 9. Authorship and ideology in Lysias' Funeral Oration Alastair J. L. Blanshard; 10. Corrupting the youth in Plato's Menexenus Ryan K. Balot; 11. 'To gloat over our catastrophes': Isocrates on commemorating the war dead Thomas Blank; Part IV. Intertextuality: 12. Imagining Athens in the assembly Peter Hunt; 13. Fighting talk: war's human cost in drama and law-court speeches Jason Crowley; 14. Making Athens great again: tragedy and the funeral oration Sophie Mills; 15. Euripides' Erechtheus and the Athenian catalogue of exploits: how a tragic plot shaped the funeral oration Johanna Hanink; 16. 'Back then when the barbarian came': old comedy and the funeral oration Bernhard Zimmermann (translated by Edith Foster and David M. Pritchard); Part V. The Language of Democracy: 17. The funeral oration as a self-portrait of Athenian democracy Dominique Lenfant (translated by David M. Pritchard); 18. Sailors in the funeral oration and beyond David M. Pritchard; 19. 'Freedom is the sure possession': modern receptions of Pericles' Funeral Oration Neville Morley; References; General index; Index of sources