Typography class project that required us to choose a speech to turn into a typographic poster. I chose Pericles’ Funeral Oration. It’s one of history’s most famous speeches which took place during the first events of the Peloponnesian War with Sparta.

In it Pericles praises the first dead of the war as heroes who fought for the values of Athens, for freedom, and democracy. Athens, he argued, is a city like no other and an example to all Greeks. In other words “The School of Hellas”.

This speech to me is an ultimate praise of democracy and an early example of fervent nationalism which I believe Pericles wanted to instill in the Athenians. For that I chose a painting that portrays Athens in it’s highest glory during The Battle of Marathon by Georgese Rochegrosse. I paired this in the poster with Athens in Greek characters and some quotes pulled from the speech to highlight the main ideas of Pericles.