"Pericles' Funeral Oration" by Thucydides: "Pericles' Funeral Oration" by Thucydides, List 1

Delivered after the first battles of the Peloponnesian War, this oration by Pericles is nothing short of an attempt to reaffirm a civilization's underpinnings in the face of massive death and destruction. The speech transcends mere mourning and commemoration of the heroic dead. It reminds the listeners who they are as Athenians, and why that is something worth dying, and living, for.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. incredulity
    doubt about the truth of something
    For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.
  2. dominion
    control or power through legal authority
    Lastly, there are few parts of our dominions that have not been augmented by those of us here, who are still more or less in the vigour of life; while the mother country has been furnished by us with everything that can enable her to depend on her own resources whether for war or for peace.
  3. augmented
    added to or made greater in amount or number or strength
    Lastly, there are few parts of our dominions that have not been augmented by those of us here, who are still more or less in the vigour of life; while the mother country has been furnished by us with everything that can enable her to depend on her own resources whether for war or for peace.
  4. dilate
    add details to clarify an idea
    That part of our history which tells of the military achievements which gave us our several possessions, or of the ready valour with which either we or our fathers stemmed the tide of Hellenic or foreign aggression, is a theme too familiar to my hearers for me to dilate on, and I shall therefore pass it by.
  5. panegyric
    a formal expression of praise
    But what was the road by which we reached our position, what the form of government under which our greatness grew, what the national habits out of which it sprang; these are questions which I may try to solve before I proceed to my panegyric upon these men; since I think this to be a subject upon which on the present occasion a speaker may properly dwell, and to which the whole assemblage, whether citizens or foreigners, may listen with advantage.
  6. obscurity
    an unimportant and not well known standing
    If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition.
  7. magistrate
    a lay judge or civil authority who administers the law
    Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.
  8. banish
    expel, as if by official decree
    We celebrate games and sacrifices all the year round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily source of pleasure and helps to banish the spleen; while the magnitude of our city draws the produce of the world into our harbour, so that to the Athenian the fruits of other countries are as familiar a luxury as those of his own.
  9. spleen
    a large oval organ between the stomach and the diaphragm
    We celebrate games and sacrifices all the year round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily source of pleasure and helps to banish the spleen; while the magnitude of our city draws the produce of the world into our harbour, so that to the Athenian the fruits of other countries are as familiar a luxury as those of his own.
  10. antagonist
    someone who offers opposition
    "If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our antagonists.
  11. vanquish
    defeat in a competition, race, or conflict
    In proof of this it may be noticed that the Lacedaemonians do not invade our country alone, but bring with them all their confederates; while we Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbour, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes.
  12. dispatch
    the act of sending off something
    Our united force was never yet encountered by any enemy, because we have at once to attend to our marine and to dispatch our citizens by land upon a hundred different services; so that, wherever they engage with some such fraction of our strength, a success against a detachment is magnified into a victory over the nation, and a defeat into a reverse suffered at the hands of our entire people.
  13. confer
    present
    In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
Created on Tue Jun 03 10:42:11 EDT 2025 (updated Tue Jun 03 10:43:02 EDT 2025)

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