The Funeral Speech (31-35)

The Hippothoontidae bore in mind the marriage of Alope, from which Hippothoon was born, and they knew also who their founder was; about these matters—to avoid impropriety on an occasion like this[*] I forbear to speak plainly—they thought it was their duty to be seen performing deeds worthy of these ancestors. It did not escape the Aeantidae that Ajax, robbed of the prize of valor, did not consider his own life worth living.[*] When, therefore, the god was giving to another the prize of valor, at once they thought they must die trying to repel their foes so as to suffer no disgrace to themselves. The Antiochidae were not unmindful that Antiochus was the son of Heracles.[*] They concluded therefore that they must either live worthily of their heritage or die nobly.

Now, though the living kinsmen of these dead deserve our sympathy, bereaved of such brave men and divorced from close and affectionate association, and though the life of our native land is desolate and filled with tears and mourning, nevertheless these dead by a just calculation are happy.[*] First of all, bartering little for much, a brief time for all eternity, they leave behind them an ageless fame[*]

In which the children of these men shall be reared in honor and the parents of these men shall enjoy distinction[*] and tender care in their old age, cherishing the fame of these men as an assuagement of their sorrow.[*] In the second place, immune from disease of body and beyond the reach of anguish of spirit,[*] such as the living must suffer because of the misfortunes which have befallen, they today receive high honor and inspire great emulation while they are accorded the customary obsequies.[*] How, then, since the whole country unites in according them a public burial, and they alone receive the words of universal praise, while their kinsmen and fellow-citizens are not alone in mourning them, but every land that has the right to be called Hellas and the greater part of the whole world mourns with them,[*] how can we do otherwise than consider them blessed of fortune?

With excellent reason one might declare them to be now seated beside the gods below, possessing the same rank as the brave men who have preceded them in the islands of the blest. For though no man has been there to see or brought back this report concerning them, yet those whom the living have assumed to be worthy of honors in the world above, these we believe, basing our surmise on their fame, receive the same honors also in the world beyond.[*]

While it is perhaps difficult[*] to mitigate the present misfortunes by the spoken word, nevertheless it is our duty to endeavor to turn our minds to comforting thoughts, reflecting that it is a beautiful thing for parents who have begotten men like these, and themselves were born of others like unto them, to be seen enduring their affliction more decorously than the rest of mankind, and, no matter what fortune befalls, to be like them;