Thucydides 'Placement Of Perikles' Funeral Oration

Thucydides’ placement of Perikles’ “Funeral Oration” followed by the account of the plague is in every sense a “dramatic juxtaposition”[1]. The deliberate binary opposition of logos and ergon, and nomos and physis between the speech and plague makes these two events the antithesis of his work. With both the eulogy and the narrative that follows, the reader should understand a point of truth in human nature, and teach them something that time with never change, the past gives way to the events of the future.

In his writing, Thucydides uses words and phrases to contrast Perikles’ speech with the plague in such a jarring way. In the “Funeral Oration”, Perikles describes war with phrases such as, “nobly died in battle” and “conclusion of men’s

Instead of “cover[ing] them with earth” they set fires to bodies piled on top of each other. Because nomos is followed by physis with the plague narrative, the truth of human nature comes out. When it comes to the nature of things, is shows how quickly people will abandon order of society to do what they can for themselves. At the end of the “Funeral Oration” Perikles, says, “…the city will rear their sons at public expense…” showing that the death of their sons is one caused by society, a death for and by the public (2.46). However, in talking about the devastation of the plague, Thucydides says it's “the nature of the plague” that kills these men so horribly (2.50) War is a death caused by nomos, it is a death due to society and its structure while the plague is a death through physis, a natural cause. The irony of a death that is noble and one that is destructive in correlation to nomos and physis makes this juxtaposition so dramatic. The death that is destructive to society is due to the abandonment of the nomos because of the “nature of the plague” and the real toll of death on society. The noble and worthy death in Perikles’ eyes is one society has

The plague allows for us, the readers, to see the moral corruption of society hidden in the purpose and words of the oration. The glorification of death in war in contrast with the carnage of disease shows us moral corruption because Perikles hides expediency of the death in war with valor and courage. Perikles gives this huge speech about how men should be honored with a deed and not word, but when followed by the narrative of people dying of the plague, the oration should be then read as a fabrication of what death looks like, and the plague representing the truth of dying. Death is one action and its one that is horrific whether it is the plague, old age, or war. The plague accurately depicts the truth about the action of dying and the atrocities that follow with death at such a large-scale because it is not dressed up, but graphic and realistic. By defining it as a grand and courageous action due to war, Perikles is creating a false identity of death in order to get more men to fight a war created by society’s need to be the