HOl.MKS: A STUDY OF THK TVI'K OK T'MK ORF.EK KFIIAPHIOS. 223 



Naucrates the Erythraean, are mentioned among the candidates. 

 The prize is reported by some to have been awarded to Theodectes, 

 by others to Theopompus. The oration of Naucrates is mentioned 

 by Dion3'sius of Halicarnassus, as among the models of this kind 

 of composition. 



8. Demosthenes has left on record an express testimony- that lie 

 was appointed to deliver a speech in honor of those Athenians who 

 fell at the battle of Chaeronea, B. C. 338. (Dem. de corona, p. 320): 



)(€LpoToi'wv o Brjfxo'; rhv ipovvT ivrl Toi? TtTeXtvTrjKOdL i^eLpoTovrjcrev 



.... e/xe. 



The epitaphios logos given in editions of his works manifesth' 

 refers to the battle of Chaeronea. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (de 

 adm. vi dicendi in Dem., c. 13) speaks of this speech with great 

 contempt and considers it spurious, which is likewise the general 

 opinion of ancient critics. The question has been carefully dis- 

 cussed by Westermann. Its bungling imitations of the Menexenus, 

 the un-Demosthenic manner of its treatment of Philip, its ridiculous 

 falsification of history so far as the Thebans are concerned, are little 

 less than conclusive against it, though the imitator has successfully 

 reproduced the Demosthenian rhetorical whip-crack in several 

 instances. The Epilogus indicates that the writer, whoever he 

 was, was acquainted with the epitaphios of Hyperides, and had 

 imitated it. 



9. The last extant funeral oration which belongs to the Hellenic 

 period is that of Hyperides (B. C. 322). As a work of art it may 

 be placed on a level with the speeches of Pericles and Aspasia as 

 these are delivered to us by Thucydides and Plato. It deals more 

 in historical allusions than any extant epitaphios. It enjoys the 

 distinction of having the most simple and the most pleasing style. 



I^iterary Origin of the Epitaphios LiOgos. 



The Epitaphios Logos claims for itself, like the early inhabitants 

 of Greece, an autochthonic origin. Homer, in the twenty-fourth 

 book of the Iliad, commencing with line 720, gives a brief account 

 of the threnos, "lamentation", which attended the reception of 

 the body of Hector. From other authorities also, (for whom con- 

 sult Becker's Charicles and Guhl and Kohner) we learn that the 

 threnos was an essential feature of the funeral rites of the early 

 Greeks. The best detailed account of the funeral ceremonies is, 

 perhaps, that given by Lucian, (de Luctu, 10). Plato in his laws 

 (947 B) gives the regulations for the burial of a lepei!?. From these 

 descriptions of later writers as well as of Homer, we learn that an 

 aoiSy} of a mournful character was sung by the Opr]vw8ol (the minstrels 



