Menexenus by Plato
A short Socratic conversation built around an elaborate funeral oration that Socrates claims to have learned from Aspasia, in which the city’s past deeds, civic virtues, and sacrifices are extolled in the grandiloquent terms of public epideictic rhetoric. The speech imitates and gently lampoons the conventional Athenian epitaphios logos—mixing myth, praise, and consolation—so that patriotic fervor and the language of honor are shown both to comfort and to gloss over the realities of war and imperial policy. Through its ironic tone and concentrated critique of rhetorical formulae, the piece probes how education, persuasion, and public speech shape collective memory, identity, and political self-justification.
- Published
- -379
- Nationality
- Greek
- Length
- Unknown
- Pages
- Unknown
- Original Language
- Ancient greek
- Avg User Rating
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(3.0)
- Alternate Titles
-
- Menexenos
- Μενέξενος
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