Macht der Rhetorik - Rhetorik der Macht. Zum athenischen Epitaphios

Abstract

The epitaphios logos played an integral part in the construction of an idealised self-image of democratic Athens (5^th / 4^th century BC). This paper shows that two famous examples of this rhetorical genre, the orations of Pericles (in the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides) and Socrates (in the Platonic dialogue Menexenos), generally regarded as affirmative, are very critical of the institution and the democratic polis as such.