HOI.Ml'.S: A STUDY OK I'HK 'IVl'F. Ol' llll-; (;REKK El'lTAPHIOS. 225 



The Siaiiifioaiioe of the F|)itaIlIlto^<. 



The meaning of the Epitaphios is revealed b}' a stud}- of the 

 times in which it flourished. We have already said that it was 

 impersonal and democratic. The family had become the city. 

 No more of the superiorit\- of birth as an element of government. 

 Yet the Athenian could not easily forget the pleasant taste of the 

 old aristocracy. And while at Athens absolute equality must be 

 insisted upon, the orator who would praise the Ivyiveui of their dead 

 relatives and by so doing indicate their own noble origin, was 

 loudly applauded. If they could not give vent to their feeling of 

 aristocracy, as toward' other families, it could find expression for 

 itself as toward other cities. All Athenians were equal, but 

 Athens was a good deal better than Sparta. The medium of this 

 expression was the Epitaphios or the Panegyric. So the Epita- 

 phios was one of the ways the democracy had of expressing its aristo- 

 cratic sentiments. In this respect we have a close parallel to the 

 Epitaphios in our Fourth of July oration. On every Fourth of 

 July, we Americans endeavor to stifle our individual aristocrac)', 

 and adopt the motto '-evsrv man is as good as another and a good 

 deal better," and become nationallv very aristocratic as toward 

 other nations. 



The Type of the r.pitaphioss. 



The Epitaphios in its later development came to be regarded as 

 a distinct species of epideictic orator\-. The earlier epitaphioi 

 were, no doubt, much less formal, but the differences chiefly to be 

 noted between the earlier and the later representatives of this type 

 must have been in point of diction rather than in subject-matter. 

 And so, for the Sicilian school made many changes in this art, and 

 the epitaphioi that are extant bear very conspicuously the stamp of 

 this school. That the Epitaphios is epideictic and therefore ver}' 

 near the Panegyric in its nature, is not onlv evident internally from 

 the similarity in diction and to a less extent in subject-matter, but 

 there are certain external coincidences, a few of which it may not 

 be amiss to mention. Thus, races and athletic contests attended 

 the delivery both of the Epitaphios and the Panegyric. Again, the 

 same writers produced the same kind of literature. Gorgias who 

 set the pattern for the Epitaphios also wrote a Pythicus and an 

 Olympicus. L^^sias has also an Olvmpiacus. The chief difference 

 between the Epitaphios and the Panegyric seems to be in the 

 greater range of subjects of the later. Nor was there the same 

 libert}' in the choice of subject-matter peculiar to each. The 

 Epitaphios was much more restricted also in this respect. "They 



