"Pericles' Funeral Oration" by Thucydides: "Pericles' Funeral Oration" by Thucydides, List 2

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.