Pericles' funeral oration is one of the most famous discourses in history. It was so influential that Edward Everett, who spoke just before Abraham Lincoln in 1863, made constant reference to it. What makes this speech so powerful? The answer, the use of epideictic rhetoric to produce pathos. According to Aristotle there are three types of speeches, forensic, deliberative, and epideictic. While there are certainly other aspects of rhetoric being employed by Pericles, he uses primarily epideictic rhetoric, not simply because the occasion calls for it, but in order to stir the emotions of his audience (pathos ) and move them to continue to fight bravely in the war with Sparta. Another very famous speech that might very well have been modeled