The Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens began in 431 BC and would last for almost 28 years.
There, a speaker chosen from among the leading men of the polis, gave a complimentary speech.
The reader who does not know the speech may think that he has never heard it.
Statue of ancient Athens statesman Pericles.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
It is not by chance that Churchill knew very well the work of Thucydides and Athenian prayer.
On the other hand, the authorship of the funeral oration is not clear.
Plato, for example, in hisMenexenus, attributes it to Aspasia, the companion of Pericles.
But we must not forget that Plato did not like democracy at all, much less Pericles.
This article was originally published inLa Brujula Verde.
It has been translated from Spanish and republished with permission.
