The sources of Orations

1. Homer 32 authority · 7 neutral · 2 refuted · 4 extended · 4 endorsed 49 citations · 64 passages

   oration 1 6 passages anchored here · oration 3 3 passages anchored here · oration 4 8 passages anchored here · oration 6 2 passages anchored here · oration 9 · oration 12 8 passages anchored here · oration 7 2 passages anchored here · oration 32 4 passages anchored here

   and 20 more chapters

   oration 33 7 passages anchored here · oration 40 · oration 44 · oration 47 · oration 49 · oration 53 · oration 61 · oration 64 · oration 74 · oration 79 · oration 79 · oration 80 2 passages anchored here · oration 84 · oration 88 · oration 20 · oration 21 2 passages anchored here · oration 23 2 passages anchored here · oration 27 · oration 29 2 passages anchored here · oration 30

   The speaker relies on Homer's depiction of Odysseus in paragraph 6 of Oration 47 as authoritative evidence about Homer's own state of mind.

   For Achilles said that he would rather, living, be a serf to a landless man with no great means of livelihood, than rule over all the perished dead;

2. Iliad Homer 7 authority · 1 neutral · 2 refuted · 3 extended 13 citations · 67 passages

   oration 2 9 passages anchored here · oration 8 2 passages anchored here · oration 11 35 passages anchored here · oration 12 4 passages anchored here · oration 7 · oration 32 5 passages anchored here · oration 35 2 passages anchored here · oration 36 4 passages anchored here

   and 5 more chapters

   oration 55 · oration 56 · oration 57 · oration 71 · oration appendix1

   Homer's epic (largely Iliad material, e.g. the reaper simile, Nestor, Agamemnon's prayer, the bull simile) is invoked throughout as the supreme poetic and moral authority on kingship.

   Here he says he will tell only of the wrath of Achilles and the calamities and destruction of the Achaeans—that they suffered many and terrible things and many perished and remained unburied, as though these were the greatest of what happened and worthy of the poem;

3. Odyssey Homer 5 authority · 2 neutral · 1 refuted · 3 extended 11 citations · 28 passages

   oration 2 3 passages anchored here · oration 8 · oration 9 · oration 11 3 passages anchored here · oration 13 2 passages anchored here · oration 7 12 passages anchored here · oration 32 · oration 33 2 passages anchored here

   and 3 more chapters

   oration 55 · oration 66 · oration 84

   Several episodes cited (Calypso, Odysseus's house, the suitors) are drawn from the Odyssey and used as authoritative illustrations.

   And after this Menelaus for a long time wasted away all over Greece, bewailing his misfortunes, begging each of the kings to aid him.

4. Euripides 2 authority · 2 neutral · 2 refuted · 2 extended · 2 endorsed 10 citations · 12 passages

   oration 2 · oration 7 · oration 32 2 passages anchored here · oration 37 · oration 52 · oration 64 · oration 87 4 passages anchored here · oration 88

   A specific chorus of Euripides is cited to corroborate the point about Menelaus's luxury and lineage.

   And indeed Euripides, no less famous than any of the poets, brings Jocasta in, speaking to Eteocles, urging him to desist from overreaching his brother, somewhat thus:

5. Hesiod 3 authority · 1 neutral · 1 extended · 1 endorsed 6 citations · 7 passages

   oration 2 · oration 12 2 passages anchored here · oration 37 · oration 80 · oration 84 · oration 87

   The Catalogue of Women is named directly as a specific work of Hesiod's, contrasted with Homer's subject matter.

   Muses of Pieria, who glorify with songs, come, tell of Zeus, your own father, hymning him, through whom mortal men are alike unspoken and spoken of, named and unnamed, by the will of great Zeus.

6. History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides 2 authority · 1 neutral 3 citations

   oration 11 · oration 53 · oration 88

   Thucydides is named explicitly as the authority for the claim that the Sciritan company never existed.

   when they name the Sciritan company of the Lacedaemonians, which never existed, as Thucydides says, and the Athenians honor Harmodius and Aristogeiton most of all, as having freed the city and killed the tyrant.

7. Sophocles 2 refuted · 1 endorsed 3 citations

   oration 7 · oration 52 · oration 60

   Sophocles's verses on wealth are explicitly said to have been spoken against by a philosopher, indicating a refuting stance

   since even against these very verses one of the very philosophers has spoken in opposition — one whom no one, it seems to me, would ever say spoke against these out of contentiousness, and against what was said by Sophocles about wealth — against the former a little, against those of Sophocles more — yet not, as we now, at length, since he was not expounding offhand with great licence, but writing in books.

8. Aristotle 2 neutral 2 citations

   oration 47 · oration 53

   Named and quoted in paragraphs 9-11 and referenced again in paragraph 13 of Oration 47.

   For I, seeing other cities ambitious about such things, supposed — I mean not only those in Asia and Syria and Cilicia, but these neighbouring ones close at hand, the city of the Nicomedians, that of the Nicaeans, these Caesareans, men noble and thoroughly Greek, but inhabiting a city far smaller than ours, and the men engaged in public affairs in each, even if they are at variance about other mat …

9. Lycurgus 1 authority · 1 endorsed 2 citations

   oration 88 · oration 22

   Lycurgus's orations are explicitly recommended as further reading.

   But Lycurgus too I would counsel you to read, who is lighter than these and shows in his discourses a certain simplicity and nobility of character.

10. Pindar 1 neutral · 1 endorsed 2 citations

    oration 2 · oration 33

    Pindar's ode is directly invoked as the reason Alexander spared his house, an explicit endorsement.

    and Pindar both for the brilliance of his nature and because he praised Alexander's own ancestor and namesake, the one surnamed the Philhellene, having composed for him the line, 'O you who bear the name of the blessed sons of Dardanus.

11. Plato 1 refuted · 1 endorsed 2 citations

    oration 2 · oration 53

    Plato's observation is explicitly endorsed as correct ('very rightly noted') regarding Homeric practice.

    "He never represented them as tasting fish, and that though they were encamped beside the sea—calling the Hellespont, as it is, 'rich in fish' on each occasion;

12. Works and Days Hesiod 1 authority · 1 refuted 2 citations · 5 passages

    oration 2 2 passages anchored here · oration 7 3 passages anchored here

    Hesiod's agricultural precepts are directly quoted-in-substance and explicitly judged not useful for kings, a refutation of their applicability.

    those, then, to which any of these harms whatever attaches, let none of the free and decent men take up, nor know how, neither himself nor to teach his own children, as one who will be a worker neither according to Hesiod nor according to us, if he handle any such thing, but will have the illiberal reproach at once of idleness and of base gain, being called vulgar and useless and simply wicked.

13. fable of the owl and the birds Aesop 1 authority · 1 extended 2 citations · 4 passages

    oration 12 3 passages anchored here · oration 72

    The fable is explicitly attributed to Aesop and narrated as an authoritative explanation of the owl's symbolic status.

    Whence, I suppose, Aesop also composed the fable that, being wise, the owl advised the birds, when the oak was first springing up, not to allow it but to destroy it by every means;

14. Aeschines 1 endorsed 1 citation

    oration 88

    Aeschines's orations are explicitly recommended as preferred reading.

    Of the orators, who does not know the best—that Demosthenes surpassed all the orators in power of delivery and cleverness of thought and abundance of words, and Lysias in brevity and simplicity and continuity of thought and in concealing his cleverness?

15. Aeschylus 1 neutral 1 citation

    oration 52

    The speaker discusses and evaluates Aeschylus's version of the Philoctetes play in detail.

    But Euripides at once made them making a defence concerning their former neglect, that in so many years they had neither approached Philoctetes nor given him any help.

16. Anabasis Xenophon 1 authority 1 citation · 3 passages

    oration 88 3 passages anchored here

    The Anabasis is named explicitly and treated as an authoritative, comprehensive model text through sustained discussion.

    For inasmuch, I think, as he mingled the discourses with the actions, having neither received them by hearsay nor imitated them, but himself acting and speaking at the same time, he made them most plausible in all his works, and in this one most of all, which I happened to mention.

17. Aristophanes 1 authority 1 citation

    oration 52

    The speaker invokes Aristophanes' remark as confirming testimony for Sophocles' sweetness of style.

    "But he, in turn, licked round the mouth of Sophocles, the honey-anointed, as of a little jar.

18. Demosthenes 1 neutral 1 citation

    oration 88

    Demosthenes's oratory is cited and ranked highest but the passage explicitly advises against reading him extensively, a neutral/qualified stance.

    Of the orators, who does not know the best—that Demosthenes surpassed all the orators in power of delivery and cleverness of thought and abundance of words, and Lysias in brevity and simplicity and continuity of thought and in concealing his cleverness?

19. Histories Herodotus 1 refuted 1 citation · 2 passages

    oration 37 2 passages anchored here

    Herodotus's account is explicitly named and explicitly rejected as untrustworthy in favor of alternative evidence.

    For I do not heed Herodotus, but the tomb and Simonides, who inscribed upon the dead of the Corinthians buried in Salamis:

20. Hyperides 1 endorsed 1 citation

    oration 88

    Hyperides's orations are explicitly recommended as preferred reading.

    For the powers of these are simpler and their structures easier to grasp, and the beauty of their words in no way falls short of those others.

21. Lysias 1 neutral 1 citation

    oration 88

    Lysias is cited and characterized but grouped with Demosthenes as not to be read for the most part.

    Of the orators, who does not know the best—that Demosthenes surpassed all the orators in power of delivery and cleverness of thought and abundance of words, and Lysias in brevity and simplicity and continuity of thought and in concealing his cleverness?

22. Theogony Hesiod 1 extended 1 citation

    oration 2

    The passage about Calliope attending kings is from Hesiod's Theogony and is used to extend/support the argument about kingly rhetoric.

    "And it appears that not Homer only, but Hesiod too, was of this mind, that both philosophy and true rhetoric befit the king;

23. Xenophon 1 authority 1 citation

    oration 88

    Xenophon's works are cited as singularly sufficient authority for a statesman, the strongest endorsement in the reading list.

    But Xenophon I, for my part, think alone of the ancients able to suffice a statesman:

24. the Histories Herodotus 1 endorsed 1 citation

    oration 88

    Herodotus's history is explicitly recommended and characterized for the addressee's reading.

    With Herodotus, then, if ever you have need of cheerfulness, you will consort with much repose.

Each stands at a single passage. The chapter carries the anchors.

oration 1 2 sources

oral tale of the woman of Elis or Arcadia · unnamed poetic saying

oration 2 11 sources

Attic drinking-songs (skolia) · Laconian marching-songs · Phocylides · Theognis · philosophy in its most exact form · unspecified drinking-songs and prayer · unspecified epic tradition · unspecified epigram tradition · unspecified love-songs · unspecified lyric poetry · unspecified martial verses

oration 3 3 sources

proverbial saying on the goods of friends · the teachings of Socrates on rule and kingship · the words of Apollo to the tyrant of Sicyon

oration 4 8 sources

Delphic maxim (know thyself) · Elegy of Sardanapalus · Libyan myth · Myth of Ixion · oracle concerning Archelaus · physiognomy (the art of the physiognomists) · saying of Olympias · unspecified gnomic poetry

oration 5 1 source

Libyan myth of the beast-woman

oration 6 1 source

Myth of Prometheus's punishment

oration 9 1 source

myth of transformation into birds (nightingale/hoopoe)

oration 10 5 sources

Delphic inscription 'Know thyself' · myth/riddle of the Sphinx · oracle to Laius · oracle/legend of Croesus · tragedies concerning Orestes

oration 11 5 sources

Egyptian temple and stele records · Later poem on Helen · Persian account of the Persian Wars · Tragic poetry on Oedipus and Thebes · Tragic poetry on Thyestes, Atreus, and Orestes

oration 12 1 source

poem addressing Zeus as Dodonaean craftsman

oration 13 4 sources

Delphic oracle to Croesus · a tragedy (unnamed, on Electra and her exiled brother) · oracle given to the narrator · the Socratic argument/teaching

oration 7 1 source

Theban flute-playing epigram tradition

oration 31 10 sources

Athenian law of erasing a condemned citizen's name · Delphic oracle concerning Theagenes · Iliad (implied Homeric poetry) · Law of Leptines · Laws concerning impiety toward the dead · Popular belief about divine identity · epigram on the statue of Nicanor · law on inanimate objects that cause death · precedent of Solon's debt cancellation · unspecified law on abolition of debts and land redistribution

oration 32 8 sources

Delphic oracle to the Athenians · oracular utterances of Apis · report on Greek gymnasium customs · sayings on the Athenian assembly · tale of Orpheus and the Macedonians · unnamed comic poet · unspecified parody poem on the chariot race · unspecified verses on the fickle multitude

oration 33 4 sources

Fable of the eyes and the honey · Iambic poetry (fragment on the ideal general) · Oracles concerning Archilochus · Poem/report on Hecuba's transformation

oration 34 2 sources

Law on term limits for public office · Oracles and omens of birds

oration 36 6 sources

Greek myth of Deucalion's flood · Greek myth of Phaethon · Laconian legislation · definition of the city / political philosophy · gnomic verses (maxims) · sacred discourse of the Magi (chariot of Zeus)

oration 37 8 sources

epigram on Adeimantus · epigram on the Argo · epigram on the Corinthian dead at Salamis · epigram on the tomb of Midas · oracle regarding Cypselus · saying upon the death of a son · unspecified prophetic song attributed to the Sibyl · unspecified verses on Report/Fame

oration 38 2 sources

the Athenian-Spartan war for primacy · unnamed poems and philosophical treatises on concord

oration 40 1 source

unspecified epic or gnomic poem

oration 43 2 sources

Indictment of Socrates (charge of Meletus) · Mock indictment against Dion

oration 44 1 source

Letter to the emperor and the emperor's reply

oration 47 1 source

letter of the emperor

oration 48 2 sources

a proverbial saying about drones and honey · the proverb 'One man is no man'

oration 49 1 source

Pythagorean teaching/wisdom tradition

oration 50 1 source

unspecified saying of an ancient orator

oration 53 4 sources

argument on opinion versus truth in Homer · unspecified saying on Homer's nature · writings on the Iliad, Odyssey, and Margites · writings on the same Homeric thesis

oration 55 1 source

oracular pronouncement on Socrates' wisdom

oration 56 1 source

unspecified verse (herdsmen of men)

oration 59 1 source

prophecy concerning the bow of Heracles and the fall of Troy

oration 60 2 sources

poem on the affair of Nessus and Deianeira · practice of philosophizing in all company

oration 64 2 sources

Cynic teaching/boast against Fortune · unspecified saying on Fortune as a turning of the scale

oration 65 1 source

popular opinion on Fortune's instability and faithlessness

oration 66 3 sources

Unnamed saying about being struck by a woman or senseless child · Unspecified saying/doctrine on pleasing the multitude · Unspecified tragedies (on the house of Pelops)

oration 67 1 source

The Delphic oracle's injunction (Know Thyself)

oration 72 1 source

maxims of the Seven Sages

oration 74 10 sources

Electra · fable of the fox · poem on his broken marriage agreement · unspecified description of a storm-tossed sea · unspecified lament on women as a counterfeit evil · unspecified saying to the Athenians about Samos · unspecified verse calling Zeus father of men and gods · unspecified verse on Eurytus's death · unspecified verse on distrust · unspecified verse on perjury and fate

oration 80 4 sources

Laws of Draco · Laws of Numa · Laws of Solon · Laws of Zaleucus

oration 85 2 sources

Athenian law on citizenship and slander · Tragic poetry (unspecified plays)

oration 87 2 sources

Delphic oracle to the Athenians on Sicilia · Delphic oracle to the Lacedaemonians

oration 88 5 sources

Ephorus · Menander · Theopompus · unspecified Socratic dialogues · unspecified recent rhetorical works

oration 21 1 source

Sayings/doctrine attributed to Critias

oration 22 2 sources

Oracle counsel to the Lacedaemonians on remaining unwalled · Unnamed orator's saying about the balance and gain

oration 23 1 source

Unspecified tragedy on mourning birth and death

The harvest records where a citation is made: the paragraph in the citing book, and the oration that paragraph stands in. It does not record which page of this book is meant. Where the citing text names a locus, you will find it in the quotation.

1. The Rights of War and Peace Hugo Grotius 5 authority · 2 neutral 7 citations · 9 passages

   book i, chapter i. · ch. 12 · chapter xi.: on promises. · ch. 24 4 passages anchored here · ch. 33 2 passages anchored here

   Dion Chrysostom is explicitly cited twice, once by variant spelling Dio Chrysostom, on burial's moral status.

   Next to the right of ambassadors Dion Chrysostom places that of burying the dead, and calls it a moral act, sanctioned by the unwritten law of nature:

2. Letters Basil of Caesarea 1 neutral 1 citation

   letter 352

   Demosthenes named explicitly as a standard of oratorical force.

   For how could I not be, sending a speech to a man of such a kind, one capable of showing, by his own facility in oratory, that the wisdom of Plato and the force of Demosthenes are babbled about for nothing — while what is mine is such as a gnat set beside an elephant?