Pericles, Funeral Oration

This term comes from demos kratos—literally, rule by the demes, or the 10 artificial tribes created by the Athenian statesman Cleisthenes in 508 BCE. These tribes were the basic political unit in Athens from that time until the end of the Peloponnesian War, which Athens lost to Sparta. The “Funeral Oration” begins with the ashes of the dead being placed in 11 coffins: One for each of the 10 tribes, or demes, and one for the missing soldiers whose bodies were not found. Pericles emphasizes the moral and rational superiority of the people of Athens as a product of their unique democratic constitution, although in reality only 10-20% of Athenians were male citizens who were eligible to fully participate in the democratic process.

In the Hellenes’ view, everyone was ruled by destiny, which could involve either good or bad fortune. Tyche, the goddess of chance or fortune, was specifically honored as the divine representative of a city’s destiny or fortune. The Greeks presented public offerings to their gods in an effort to entice fortune to treat them well, but the gods were viewed as fickle, and one’s destiny remained unpredictable. Pericles presents soldiers’ valiant deaths as a means of escaping the whims of fortune.