Among the surviving Funeral Orations, Pericles’s is the only one that does not mention the mythical Catalogue of Exploits. To explain this anomaly, this paper situates Pericles’s Funeral Oration within a contested debate regarding the nature of Athenian identity. It argues that Pericles’s Oration addresses a challenge posed by a commonly held depiction of Athens’s national character, tropos, which highlights the restless and venturesome aspects of Athenian identity and its natural tendency for risk-taking. While these traits are potentially productive, they can also be unpredictable, volatile, and thus politically dangerous. Recognizing these potential challenges, Thucydides’ Pericles offers an alternative image of Athens that balances this restless and daring nature with quietness and moderation. While Pericles was largely successful in his intervention, his death and the later events depicted by Thucydides—most notably, the Sicilian debate and expedition—underscore the potentially dangerous consequences of Athens’ restless and daring character.
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