Friends of Antiquity Sunday Series: the funeral oration in classical Athens
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Join UQ’s Friends of Antiquity at the August Sunday Series talk, titled ‘The Funeral Oration in Classical Athens’.
Funeral speeches played an important role in reaffirming the collective identity of Athenians. The most famous example is the funeral oration that Pericles delivered in 430 BC.
In 1981, Nicole Loraux – the great French ancient historian – transformed our understanding of this literary genre with her seminal work, The Invention of Athens.
Join Associate Professor David Pritchard as he explains the strengths and shortcomings of Loraux's approach, and shares more recent research in order to paint a picture of a speech form that had a much greater political impact than previously imagined.
The talk will be followed by afternoon tea.
About Classics and Ancient History Seminars
The seminars of UQ's Discipline of Classics and Ancient History are held on Fridays at 4 pm.
Their format is in person and live on online.
The physical venue for all seminars is room E302 of the historic Forgan-Smith Building (building no. 1) on UQ's St Lucia campus in Brisbane.
For the online link please contact the seminar convenor Associate Professor David M. Pritchard (d.pritchard@uq.edu.au).
Seminars 2-3 and 6-7 will be recorded for subsequent publication as open-access podcasts.
Professor Maria Wyke (Seminar 2) is the 2026 Visiting Professor of UQ's Centre for Western Civilisation.
Dr Roslyne Bell comes to Brisbane as a guest of UQ's Friends of Antiquity. She will be delivering the keynote address at the 2026 Ancient History Day on Saturday 21 March.