Funeral Oration for Pericles
As part of the funeral oration honoring Pericles, the author turns metaphorical attention to the issues of heroism and those who have excelled at the highest level. The oratory here is manifests some of the more poetic flights of language found in the History:
“For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.”
Flocking Together
Some of the metaphorical language put to use in the text amplifies philosophical concepts and conventions of wisdom. One might call them adages or pearls of proverbial wisdom; whatever the case, they illustrate what the author clearly takes to be universal truths:
“identity of interest is the surest of bonds, whether between states or individuals”
The Attraction of Wordiness
There are those who insist that the best writing is the most concise. Usually, these people tend to place Hemingway at the zenith of their literary pantheon. Which tells you all you need to know about their advice. The misguided instructors at the Hemingway School might prefer something along the lines of “It’s silly not to hope but sillier to have it only” and Thucydides (or, more likely, his translator) might be accused of wordiness, but you be the judge:
“Hope, danger’s comforter, may be indulged in by those who have abundant resources, if not without loss at all events without ruin; but its nature is to be extravagant, and those who go so far as to put their all upon the venture see it in its true colors only when they are ruined”
Outdoing Hemingway
Such is the literary quality of the History that the author (or, more likely, the translator) can switch from Faulknerian wordiness to Hemingway terseness without losing a step in his control of figurative language. This particular example brings to mind an infamous quote about water being as angry as an old man from George Constanza on Seinfeld while at the same proving as worthy as anything Ernest ever wrote in that famous story of his about an old man and water:
“The sea-fight was an obstinate one, though not remarkable for its science; indeed it was more like a battle by land.”
Equality
The author expends a great deal verbiage engaging with the concept and philosophy of equals. Although, oddly, the word equality itself rarely pops up. One notable metaphor related to this subject takes an unusual position on the status of war versus the courtroom:
“Men’s indignation, it seems, is more excited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.”
