Instead of making an immediate appeal for his people to go into battle, Pericles discusses the difficulty of properly honoring the dead. Speak too little, and you risk offending those who knew the deceased best. Say too much and risk bringing about envy from those who knew them not. Pericles says that this problem arises because “[p]raise of other people is tolerable only up to a certain point, the point where one still believes that one could do oneself some of the things one is hearing about. Once you get beyond this point, you will find people becoming jealous and incredulous.” (2,35). Pericles knows his audience well and it is for this reason that he begins the oration on this note. He must fulfill the traditional role of the funeral oration before he can introduce his intended
Instead of making an immediate appeal for his people to go into battle, Pericles discusses the difficulty of properly honoring the dead. Speak too little, and you risk offending those who knew the deceased best. Say too much and risk bringing about envy from those who knew them not. Pericles says that this problem arises because “[p]raise of other people is tolerable only up to a certain point, the point where one still believes that one could do oneself some of the things one is hearing about. Once you get beyond this point, you will find people becoming jealous and incredulous.” (2,35). Pericles knows his audience well and it is for this reason that he begins the oration on this note. He must fulfill the traditional role of the funeral oration before he can introduce his intended