Pericles' Funeral Oration (431 BCE)¶

Author: Pericles (as recorded by Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II) Type: Primary Source · Political Speech Source: Public domain — multiple translations available; MIT Classics Archive recommended Era/Period: Era 1 — Ancient Civilizations WH Standards: WH.6_12.3 · WH.6_12.4 · WH.6_12.6 ELA Standards: 9-10.R.9 · 9-10.W.4 · 9-10.C.1

What This Text Is About¶

Pericles — marble bust, Vatican Museums Roman copy of a Greek original, c. 430 BCE. Pericles (494–429 BCE) led Athens at its democratic peak.

In the winter of 431 BCE, during the first year of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, the Athenian general and statesman Pericles delivered a funeral oration honoring the first soldiers killed in the war. The speech — recorded (and likely shaped) by the historian Thucydides — is not primarily about the dead soldiers. It is a defense of Athenian democracy itself: what it is, why it is worth dying for, and what makes Athens different from Sparta and every other city-state. It is the earliest and arguably greatest argument for democracy as a form of government in Western history. Abraham Lincoln knew it well when he wrote the Gettysburg Address. It is also, read alongside the Melian Dialogue, part of a devastating two-text portrait of what Athenian democracy looked like from the inside versus what it did to others.

Read It¶

Key selections — Crawley translation, public domain. Full text at Project Gutenberg.

The Opening — Honoring the Ancestors¶

"I shall begin with our ancestors: it is both just and proper that they should have the honour 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 valour. 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."

On Athens and Democracy¶

"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours 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 neighbour 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."

On the Athenian Way of Life¶

"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."

"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."

The Call to Action — Fix Your Eyes on Athens¶

"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 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 honour 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 valour, but they laid it at her feet as the most glorious contribution that they could offer."

"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 valour, never decline the dangers of war."

ELA Standards This Connects To¶

R.9 — The oration is a formal public argument: its claim is that Athens is worth defending because of what it represents, not just what it is. Students map the argumentative structure: What is Pericles' thesis? What evidence does he offer? Who is his audience? What does he want them to believe and do?
W.4 — The speech is a model for argument from values: Pericles doesn't argue that Athens is winning or that the war is going well — he argues that the values Athens represents are worth the cost. Use as a W.4 model for argument grounded in principle rather than outcome.
C.1 — A foundational model of formal public oratory: clear audience, clear purpose, deliberate structure, and a conclusion that calls the audience to action. One of the most analyzed speeches in the history of rhetoric.
R.7 — Pericles' style choices: the move from praise of ancestors → praise of Athens → specific democratic values → praise of the soldiers → call to action. The deliberate structure builds toward the emotional conclusion.

WH.6_12.3 — The oration is the defining primary source document for understanding Athenian democracy: what Athenians believed democracy meant, how they distinguished it from oligarchy and tyranny, and why they considered it the superior form of government. Every subsequent argument for democracy — including the U.S. Declaration and Common Sense — draws on this tradition.
WH.6_12.4 — The speech reveals Athenian values: openness, meritocracy, civic participation, the relationship between private life and public duty. It also reveals what Athenians did NOT include in their democracy (women, enslaved people, non-citizens) — a gap the oration carefully avoids mentioning.
WH.6_12.6 — The Funeral Oration is the beginning of the democratic tradition that runs through Magna Carta, Common Sense, the French Declaration, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Students trace this lineage through the reading library.

Key Vocabulary¶

Term	Definition
Polis	The Greek city-state — the political and civic community; the unit of political life in ancient Greece
Democracy	From Greek demos (people) + kratos (rule) — government by the people; in Athens, direct participation of (male, citizen) residents in political decisions
Oligarchy	Rule by a small group — the Spartan model Pericles implicitly contrasts with Athenian democracy
Meritocracy	The idea that civic standing should be based on ability and contribution, not birth or wealth — Pericles argues this is an Athenian distinction
Thucydides	The Athenian historian who recorded the speech — note that he likely reconstructed it from memory and his own understanding of what Pericles would have said; the speech is Pericles through Thucydides

Key Passages¶

Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours 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... — History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, trans. Crawley

We are lovers of the beautiful, yet with economy, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness. Wealth we employ, not for talk and ostentation, but when there is a real use for it. To avow poverty with us is no disgrace; the true disgrace is in doing nothing to avoid it... — History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, trans. Crawley

Fix your eyes on the greatness of Athens as you have it before you day by day, fall in love with her, and when you feel her great, remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honour in action... — History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, trans. Crawley

Why these passages matter: The first passage articulates the democratic principle that still drives political argument today — merit over class. The second complicates it: Pericles praises Athens for combining beauty and economy, culture and toughness — a civic ideal that is both inspiring and exclusive. The third is the call to action, and it is the passage Lincoln echoed at Gettysburg.

Read This Alongside: The Melian Dialogue¶

This text should never be read alone. It pairs with the Melian Dialogue — also from Thucydides, fifteen years later.

In the Funeral Oration, Pericles argues that Athens is great because it is just and open, a model for others. In the Melian Dialogue, Athenian envoys tell the people of the small island of Melos: "The strong do what they can; the weak suffer what they must." The Athens that destroyed Melos was the same democracy Pericles praised.

The question this pair forces: Is the Funeral Oration a description of what Athens was, an aspiration for what it should be, or a justification for what it actually did?

Studio Ideas¶

"What Is Democracy For?" — EQ: Is democracy the best system of government, and who gets to define 'best'? · Standard: WH.6_12.3 + R.9 · Demo Mode: Written Assessment (analyze Pericles' argument for democracy — what is his evidence? What does he leave out? Would his argument convince someone who didn't already live in Athens?)
"The Gettysburg Connection" — EQ: Can the same argument be used by a democracy that excludes people? · Standard: WH.6_12.6 + W.4 · Demo Mode: Extended Writing (compare Pericles' Funeral Oration to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address — same argument, 2,000 years apart. What stays the same? What changes? Both speeches exclude someone: who, and does it matter?)
"Two Faces of Athens" — EQ: Is a democracy that acts like a tyrant still a democracy? · Standard: WH.6_12.3 + WH.6_12.5 + R.9 · Demo Mode: Verbal Conversation (read both the Funeral Oration and the Melian Dialogue. Is the Athens that praises openness and justice the same Athens that tells Melos "the strong do what they can"? How do you hold both?)
"Values We Claim vs. Values We Practice" — EQ: Does a nation's stated values matter if its actions contradict them? · Standard: WH.6_12.6 + C.1 · Demo Mode: Multimedia/Performance (create a 3-minute presentation that uses both the Funeral Oration and the Melian Dialogue as evidence for a claim about the gap between democratic ideals and imperial behavior — in ancient Athens or today)

Why This Is Relevant Today?¶

Pericles' Funeral Oration is the most eloquent argument ever made for why democracy is worth defending — and it was delivered while Athens was making the decisions that would eventually destroy it. The speech asks what makes a political community worth belonging to: military strength? economic prosperity? Or something about how the city treats its people, what freedoms it protects, what kind of life it makes possible? Those questions are live in every democracy right now. When people argue about whether a country lives up to its ideals, what civic participation requires, what citizens owe their community alongside what the community owes them, or whether freedom is worth its obligations — they're in the argument Pericles started. The speech is also an example of political rhetoric at its best: not manipulation but genuine persuasion, making the case for a way of life on its merits. Which makes it useful to read alongside speeches that are the opposite — and to ask what the difference is.