Book contents
- The Athenian Funeral Oration
- The Athenian Funeral Oration
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 The Funeral Oration after Loraux
- Part I Contexts
- Part II The Historical Speeches
- Part III The Literary Examples
- Part IV Intertextuality
- Part V The Language of Democracy
- References
- General Index
- Index of Sources
1 - The Funeral Oration after Loraux
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2024
- The Athenian Funeral Oration
- The Athenian Funeral Oration
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 The Funeral Oration after Loraux
- Part I Contexts
- Part II The Historical Speeches
- Part III The Literary Examples
- Part IV Intertextuality
- Part V The Language of Democracy
- References
- General Index
- Index of Sources
Summary
The Invention of Athens by Nicole Loraux was the first book-length study of the Athenian funeral oration. Before its publication, ancient historians had accorded little importance to this genre. Loraux established for the first time the vital importance of this almost annual speech in the formation of Athenian self-identity. She showed how each staging of it helped the Athenians to maintain the same civic identity for over a century. Yet, in spite of its impact, Loraux’s first book was still far from complete. It left unanswered important questions about each of the surviving funeral speeches. An even larger gap concerned intertextuality: Loraux rightly saw traces of the funeral oration right across Athenian literature, but she never systematically compared the funeral oration with other types of public speech as well as drama. Therefore, she was unable to demonstrate whether the other literary genres of classical Athens were ever a counterweight to the funeral oration’s cultural militarism. The principal aim of this volume is to finish The Invention of Athens. Our book answers the important questions that Loraux left unanswered. It completes the vital intertextual analysis of the genre that is missing in The Invention of Athens.
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- The Athenian Funeral OrationAfter Nicole Loraux, pp. 1 - 56Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024