The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City
How does the funeral oration relate to democracy in ancient Greece? How did the death of an individual citizen-soldier become the occasion to praise the city of Athens? In The Invention of Athens, Nicole Loraux traces the different rhetoric, politics, and ideology of funeral orations—epitaphioi—from Thucidydes, Gorgias, Lysias, and Demosthenes to Plato. Arguing that the ceremony of public burial began circa 508-460 BCE, Loraux demonstrates that the institution of the funeral oration developed...
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A revised edition of a groundbreaking work tracing the rhetoric, politics, and ideology of funeral orations in ancient Greece, arguing that they served to celebrate the city of Athens and the Athenian citizen.
Introduction : a very Athenian invention25IThe funeral oration in the democratic city43IIThe address to the dead and its destination119IIIThe Athenian history of Athens189IV"As for the name ... it is called a democracy"219VThe funeral oration as political genre279VIUnder the spell of an ideal331Conclusion : imaginary Athens or the invention of the city407
