Funeral Orations

THE CHRISTIAN FUNERAL ORATION

THE CHRISTIAN FUNERAL ORATION IIHE CHRISTIAN FUNERAL ORATION is one of the most elaborate of Christian literary forms. It represents an attempt to adapt to Christian use a pagan Greek form with many hundreds of years of tradition behind it, a form which in itself is only one branch, but an important branch, of the literary genre known as the encomium. Beside the funeral oration, there arose also a closely related literary genre, the treatise on grief or consolation, which was often given an epistolary form. It was inevitable that the systematic, philosophical treatment of grief and consolation in such treatises should have an increasing influence on the content of the funeral oration. The Greek treatise on consolation impressed the Romans profoundly and many of its essential features passed into the Latin cansolalio. Furthermore, the native Latin laudalia funebris, in its later form at least, could not escape the influence of the Greek encomium and of the Greek and Latin treatises on grief and consolation. The Christian masterpieces presented in this volume reflect, then, a long, rich, and varied pagan literary tradition in East and West, and at the same time exhibit modifications and new elements which give them their specific Christian character. Before attempting to evaluate their form and Vll Vlll INTRODUCTION content properly, it will be useful, therefore, if not necessary, to examine their background in some detail. The Greek funeral speech developed out of the formal laudation or commemoration of those who had fallen in battle for their country. The famous funeral speech of Pericles as presented by Thucydides (c. 460-395 B.C.) is probably the earliest extant example. The fallen are collectively praised for their bravery. The State expresses its thanks to them for victory and preservation, public and private grief for them must be borne with dignity, and all, especially members of their families, must remember that their fellow citizens, sons, and brothers were mortal, and that in dying a beautiful death they have escaped the ravages of disease and the afflictions of old age. Isocrates (427-329 B.C.), the great publicist and teacher of rhetoric, apparently was the first to compose a funeral oration on an historical individual. His speech on Evagoras of Cyprus, addressed to the latter's son Nicocles, and the Epitaph or funeral speech of the Attic orator Hypereides on his friend Leosthenes, in their form and content had considerable influence on the development of the funeral speech as a literary type. Consolation is furnished by the thoughts that the dead had enjoyed many advantages and blessings in life, that all men must die, that the present dead were fortunate in the time of their death, and that they escaped disease, sorrow, and other kinds of human misfortune. H ypereides adds the consolation to be derived from the thought of happiness in a future life for those who have honored the gods in the present life. In the period after Alexander the Great the funeral oration was regarded more and more as a branch of epideictic oratory, and a special schema with a whole series of topoi or commonplaces was elaborated for this as well as for other branches of the epideictic genre. Fortunately, we have extant INTRODUCTION IX the treatise on epideictic oratoryl composed by the Greek rhetorician Menander in the third century A.D. This representative work gives us much precious information on the various kinds of encomia when the genre had reached its zenith, at least on the side of theory. Menander divides encomia or eulogies into two main classes: the basilikos 16gos or 'royal oration,' for the living, and the epitaphios 16gos or 'epitaph' for the dead. The latter is subdivided into four types: (1) Tbe pure encomium, which treats of one long dead, and is primarily concerned with praise. (2) The epitaph, which has two forms: the first or general type, like the ancient funeral oration of Pericles; the second or particular type, dealing with a specific individual . The second type is concerned with an individual who has recently died, and usually combines praise with consolation and lament. (3) The monody, a brief but intense lament. (4 ) The consolatory speech, which is closely related to the monody, but places much more emphasis on consolation. The schema of the typical epitaphios 16gos may be presented as follows: (1) exordium; (2) encomium (laudation proper, combined with lament and developed under the following t6poi or commonplaces: family, birth, natural endowment, upbringing, education, life and occupation, with emphasis...