Classics Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collection

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

Open Access
Undying Glory: Preservation of Memory in Greek Athletics, War Memorials, and Funeral Orations
(University of Oregon, 2010-06) Hainy, Joshua D.
Ancient Greek acts of commemoration aimed to preserve the memory of an event or an individual. By examining the commemoration of athletic victory, military success, and death in battle, with reliance upon theories ofmemory, this study examines how each form of commemoration offered immortality. A vital aspect was the way they joined word and material reminder. Athletes could maintain their glory by erecting statues or commissioning epinician odes, which often relied on image and words. The physical and ideological reconfiguration of the plain of Marathon linked the battle's memory to a location. Pericles' oration offered eternal praise to both the war dead and Athens, an Athens crafted as a monument by Pericles to remain for future generations. In different and complimentary ways, all of these forms of commemoration preserved the glory of a deed or an individual for posterity.