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| Pericles Funeral Oration |
Homer, 8th century BCE
Achilles (Brad Pitt) -- Speech to Troops before Attacking Troy
30 second clip
The Iliad read out loud as it was meant to be heard. You may begin at 4:00:00 to hear book 8 which has battle scenes and warrior speeches.
Iliad, Book 2
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| Trojan Warrior Hector with his wife and infant son. Hear this story end of book 6 at 3:15:00 |
Key Quote
Bk II:278-332 Odysseus reminds the troops of Calchas’ prophecy
Such was the general verdict and now Odysseus, sacker of cities, arose, staff in hand, and by his side, disguised as a herald, bright-eyed [goddess] Athene stood, calling the Assembly to order, so the nearest and farthest ranks of the Greeks might hear Odysseus’ words and counsel.
He, with their interests at heart, began his speech: ‘King Agamemnon, son of Atreus, it seems the Greeks intend to make you an object of contempt to all mortal men, breaking the oath they swore to you when they sailed from Argos, the horse-pasture, that they would only sail home again when Troy had been destroyed. They wail like children or widowed wives with their longing to return. Of course there is toil enough here to make a man disheartened. Doesn’t a sailor in his benched ship fret, when the winter gales and roaring seas keep him from wife and home for even a month; while we are still held here after nine long years?
Small blame then to you Achaeans, impatient by your beaked ships, yet how shameful it would be after this to return empty-handed! My friends endure a little longer, so we may know the truth of Calchas’ prophecy.
You all have it in mind; you were witness to it, all you whom death has spared. It seems but yesterday when our ships gathered at Aulis, presaging woe for Priam and the Trojans, and we offered sacrifice to the immortals on their holy altar beside the spring: from under a fine plane tree that glittering water flowed. Then the portent: a fearsome serpent with blood-red scales on its back, that Zeus himself had sent to seek the light, slid from under the altar and sped to the tree. On the highest branch, cowering beneath the leaves, were a sparrow’s nestlings, eight in all, and their mother there too making nine. The snake caught and ate the nestlings as they cried piteously, while the mother fluttered round calling for her children, then he uncoiled and caught her by the wing as she screeched by. But when he had eaten them all, the god transformed him in the light; the son of Cronos of the Crooked Ways turned him to stone, while we stood by and marveled.
Calchas it was who swiftly prophesied, explaining the fatal portent that intruded on the rite. He addressed us, saying: “Long-haired Achaeans, why are you so silent? Zeus the Counsellor has shown us this great sign, late to arrive, late fulfilled will be our imperishable fame. Just as the snake ate the nestlings and the mother, eight in all and the mother made nine, so we will be at war as many years, but in the tenth we shall take the broad-streets of that city.” So said Calchas, and now it comes to pass. Stand your ground, you bronze-greaved Achaeans, till Priam’s great city [Troy] falls.’ MORE
Speeches among warriors: Agamemnon, Diomedes, Nestor, Achilles, Odysseus, Phoenix, Ajax
Speeches among warriors: Agamemnon, Diomedes, Nestor, Achilles, Odysseus, Phoenix, Ajax
Key Quote
Phoenix Tries to Persuade Achilles to fight
And I was the one, godlike Achilles,
who raised you up to be the man you are.
You would refuse to attend a banquet
with anyone or eat in your own home,
unless I set you on my knees, fed you,
cut the meat, and held the wine cup for you.
Many times you soaked the shirt on my chest,
slobbering your wine, a helpless baby.
I've gone through a lot for you, worked hard,
bearing in mind that gods had taken care
I'd have no children of my own.And I was the one, godlike Achilles,
who raised you up to be the man you are.
You would refuse to attend a banquet
with anyone or eat in your own home,
unless I set you on my knees, fed you,
cut the meat, and held the wine cup for you.
Many times you soaked the shirt on my chest,
slobbering your wine, a helpless baby.
I've gone through a lot for you, worked hard,
bearing in mind that gods had taken care
Godlike Achilles, I made you my son,
so that if I ever met disaster,
you'd protect me. So, Achilles, subdue
your giant passion. It's not right for you
to have an unyielding heart. Gods themselves
are flexible, and they have more honour
than we possess, more power, too.
MORE
Golden Age of Greece 480 -- 430 BCE
14 minute video overview
It is this fate, I solemnly assure you, that I dread for you, when the time comes that you make your reckoning, and realize that there is no longer anything that can be done. May you never find yourselves, men of Athens, in such a position! Yet in any case, it were better to die ten thousand deaths, than to do anything out of servility towards Philip [or to sacrifice any of those who speak for your good]. A noble recompense did the people in Oreus receive, for entrusting themselves to Philip’s friends, and thrusting Euphraeus aside! And a noble recompense the democracy of Eretria, for driving away your envoys, and surrendering to Cleitarchus! They are slaves, scourged and butchered! A noble clemency did he show to the Olynthians, who elected Lasthenes to command the cavalry, and banished Apollonides! It is folly, and it is cowardice, to cherish hopes like these, to give way to evil counsels, to refuse to do anything that you should do, to listen to the advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that you dwell in so great a city that, whatever happens, you will not suffer any harm.
MORE here.
Golden Age of Greece 480 -- 430 BCE
14 minute video overview
342 B.C.; Athens, Greece
Key Quote
It is this fate, I solemnly assure you, that I dread for you, when the time comes that you make your reckoning, and realize that there is no longer anything that can be done. May you never find yourselves, men of Athens, in such a position! Yet in any case, it were better to die ten thousand deaths, than to do anything out of servility towards Philip [or to sacrifice any of those who speak for your good]. A noble recompense did the people in Oreus receive, for entrusting themselves to Philip’s friends, and thrusting Euphraeus aside! And a noble recompense the democracy of Eretria, for driving away your envoys, and surrendering to Cleitarchus! They are slaves, scourged and butchered! A noble clemency did he show to the Olynthians, who elected Lasthenes to command the cavalry, and banished Apollonides! It is folly, and it is cowardice, to cherish hopes like these, to give way to evil counsels, to refuse to do anything that you should do, to listen to the advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that you dwell in so great a city that, whatever happens, you will not suffer any harm.
MORE here.
Socrates 469–399 B.C.E.
After fighting in punic wars Socrates returned to Athens to devote himself to philosophy. His radical thinking caused him to be accused of corrupting the youth. His "apology" speech during his trail illustrates how the Greeks invented the rule of law and reasoning as an alternative to organized violence and war.
Socrates biography 1 minute video
Socrates biography and outline of Apology
Socrates' Apology 10 minute dramatic performance
Text of Socrates' Apology
Key Quote
Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night. But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead abide, what good, O my friends and judges, can be greater than this? If in deed when the pilgrim arrives in the world below, he is delivered from the professors of justice in this world, and finds the true judges who are said to give judgement there . . . that pilgrimage will be worth taking.
What would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer? Nay, if this be true, let me die again and again! . . . Above all, I shall then be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in the next; and I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not. . . . In another world they do not put a man to death for asking questions: assuredly not. For besides being happier than we are, they will also be immortal, if what is said is true.
Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere chance. But I see clearly that the time had arrived when it was better for me to die and be released from trouble. . . . MORE
Key Quote
Nor are these the only points in which our city is worthy of admiration. We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it. Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and, instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all. Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours. Yet, of course, the doer of the favour is the firmer friend of the two, in order by continued kindness to keep the recipient in his debt; while the debtor feels less keenly from the very consciousness that the return he makes will be a payment, not a free gift. And it is only the Athenians, who, fearless of consequences, confer their benefits not from calculations of expediency, but in the confidence of liberality. More
Spartan King Leonidas at Battle of Thermopylae, 480 B.C.
About the Battle
Leonidas (c. 530-480 B.C.)
About the Battle
Leonidas (c. 530-480 B.C.)
King Leonidas to the Spartans: "No retreat. No Surrender. That is Spartan law"
From 300 a film retelling the story of the Battle of Thermopylae.
300 Ending Scene and Motivational Speech
300 Film Trailer 2.30 minutes
Hydaspes River Speech of Alexander the Great
326 B.C.; Hydaspes River, India
Key Quote
LAST SPEECH OF ALEXANDER THE MACEDONIAN
Ancient Rome
Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106 B.C.–43 B.C.)
Philippics 14. Cicero speaks to the Senate April 21, 43 AD
Cicero proposes a thanksgiving festival and praises for military victories of the allied armies of Octavian and Hirtius and Pansa over dictator Antony. The Senate later agrees the proposals.
Philippics 14. Cicero speaks to the Senate April 21, 43 AD
Cicero proposes a thanksgiving festival and praises for military victories of the allied armies of Octavian and Hirtius and Pansa over dictator Antony. The Senate later agrees the proposals.
Key Quote
“On these accounts the senate thinks and declares that the Roman people has been released from the most disgraceful and cruel slavery by the valour, and military skill, and prudence, and firmness, and perseverance, and greatness of mind and good fortune of these their generals. And decrees that, as they have preserved the republic, the city, the temples of the immortal gods, the property and fortunes and families of all the citizens, by their own exertions in battle, and at the risk of their own lives; on account of these virtuous and gallant and successful achievements, Caius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, the consuls, imperators, one or both of them, or, in their absence, Marcus Cornutus, the city prætor, shall appoint a supplication at all the altars for fifty days. 38And as the valour of the legions has shown itself worthy of their most illustrious generals, the senate will with great eagerness, now that the republic is recovered, bestow on our legions and armies all the rewards which it formerly promised them.
"And as the martial legion was the first to engage with the enemy, and fought in such a manner against superior numbers as to slay many and take some prisoners; and as they shed their blood for their country without any shrinking; and as the soldiers of the other legions encountered death with similar valour in defence of the safety and freedom of the Roman people;—the senate does decree that Caius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, the consuls, imperators, one or both of them if it seems good to them, shall see to the issuing of a contract for, and to the erecting, the most honourable possible monument to those men who shed their blood for the lives and liberties and fortunes of the Roman people, and for the city and temples of the immortal gods; that for that purpose they shall order the city quæstors to furnish and pay money, in order that it may be a witness for the everlasting recollection of posterity of the wickedness of our most cruel enemies, and the god-like valour of our soldiers.
"And that the rewards which the senate previously appointed for the soldiers, be paid to the parents or children, or wives or brothers of those men who in this war have fallen in defence of their country; and that all honours be bestowed on them which should have been bestowed on the soldiers themselves if those men had lived who gained the victory by their death.”
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears Speech by Mark Antony in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2
Key Quote
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interrèd with their bones.
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
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Analysis of Central Figure in Ancient Greek War
The Story of Achilles
Scene: When and Where
Actor: What was Achilles like?
Purpose: What did Achilles want?
Obstacles: What kept Achilles from his purpose?
Action: What did Achilles do? What did he say in his famous speech?
Result: How did it turn out? What universal truth for humanity does Achilles give us?
Speeches of War main menu
Ancient Greek and Roman War Speeches
War Speeches in Literature and film
Making of American Speeches
Civil War Speeches
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Civil War continued: Speeches of Civil Rights Movement
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The Story of Achilles
Scene: When and Where
Actor: What was Achilles like?
Purpose: What did Achilles want?
Obstacles: What kept Achilles from his purpose?
Action: What did Achilles do? What did he say in his famous speech?
Result: How did it turn out? What universal truth for humanity does Achilles give us?
Speeches of War main menu
Ancient Greek and Roman War Speeches
War Speeches in Literature and film
Making of American Speeches
Civil War Speeches
World War Two Speeches
Civil War continued: Speeches of Civil Rights Movement
Cold War Against Communism Speeches
War on Terror Speeches
War speeches of Barack Obama
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