Source edition
Platonis Opera, Tomus III: Tetralogia V-VII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA (per Perseus's terms)
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a dialogue centered on the funeral oration (epitaphios) for the war dead, examining the nature of rhetoric and Athenian identity. Upon meeting Menexenus, who has returned from the council chamber, Socrates offers to recite a funeral speech he claims to have learned from his teacher of rhetoric, Aspasia. The oration begins with praise for Athens' "mother soil" and its democratic constitution, followed by an account of the ancestors' heroic deeds during the Persian Wars. It then reflects on Athens' generosity during internal Greek conflicts and civil strife, and concludes with a message of exhortation from the fallen soldiers to their surviving relatives. Through this recited speech, the dialogue leads the reader to reconsider the relationship between civic glory and individual virtue.