Sophie Mills (Strasbourg 2018), 'Making Athens Great Again', Audio Recording Only, The Athenian Funeral Oration: 40 Years after Nicole Loraux: 9-11 July 2018: An International Conference at the University of Strasbourg (France): Convened by David M. Pritchard

Abstract

The audience of the epitaphios logos assembled to hear a leading politician recount the earlier military exploits of the Athenians and how they had shaped the contemporary exploits of the war dead. The funeral oration upheld an idealised image of Athenian action in which Athens excelled in war and undertook warmaking only for noble ends. This focus attempted to reconcile the mourners to loss and grief by appealing to common and unquestionably good outcomes. By contrast, it is now orthodox to state that Athenian tragedy encouraged questioning and self-critique among the Athenians. Although the funeral speeches intimately connected past and present, at another level they clearly distinguished between them, as one speaker on one day showed how the war dead of a particular year had exemplified eternal Athenian superiority. Tragedy, however, avoided explicit coverage of the present, operating in a vague space between ancient and contemporary. This vagueness might have offered theatre-goers opportunities for critique of Athens and self-critique. However, what they brought to tragedy from the funeral speeches might equally have pushed them to a strongly affirmative idea of Athenian action. Recent readings often argue that tragedians criticised Athenian warmaking. Yet, every surviving tragedy where Athens features is fully intelligible as an endorsement of Athenian action, often combined with the spectacle of the suffering of others. Clearly to identify as a citizen of a state that helped those who were suffering while remaining untouched by this suffering was pleasurable. The funeral oration and tragedy probably worked together from different perspectives to solidify a strongly positive view of Athens for Athenians