Finding Support from Those Without

It's difficult enough to prepare an eulogy for a man who died under relatively pleasant circumstances- let alone a mass burial for soldiers who expired during a failed excursion.  I suppose the main reason such a speech seems a daunting task lies in a general feeling of inadequacy: How, under any circumstance, could one person deliver the proper words to accurately convey the emotions, thoughts, and dreams of another?

In the Spring of 2013, my father passed away unexpectedly from a pulmonary embolism.  As we made preparations for the funeral, there was particularly heavy deliberation surrounding the speakers, and I ultimately felt, as Pericles stated, "Our belief in the courage and manliness of [a man] should not be hazarded on the goodness or badness of [another] man’s speech. ... The man who knows the facts and loves the dead may well think that an oration tells less than what he knows and what he would like to hear."  Despite what Isaac said in his post, that's exactly what I wanted from the speakers at my dad's funeral: An admission that, no matter how hard they tried to capture his essence, their words couldn't compare in the slightest to the experiences and personal history I had with him.  Frankly, I really wish tradition didn't dictate the necessity of attempt.

Assuming the Grecians felt similar ties to their loved ones, Pericles' words and decision to speak instead of the reason those men fought in the first place created a greater sense of healing and closure for those in attendance.

In speaking so deliberately of each soldier's dedication to the valor of Greece, Pericles' call to action is difficult to miss: True to the form of encomium, he exhorts his audience, "It is for you to try to be like them."  Of all people to attempt to convince of the necessity to uphold an empire, I feel the greatest success is to be had with the bereaved- so much raw emotion comes from such circumstances, and it can prove destructive.  However, Pericles' invitation provides a route through which to channel that energy: Raising children, enjoining the war effort, and attempting to remember that "One’s sense of honor is the only thing that does not grow old, and the last pleasure when one is worn out with age, is not, as the poet said, making money, but having the respect of one’s fellow men."