Question

They gave her their lives, to her [Athens] and to all of us, and for their own selves they won praises that never grow old, the most splendid of sepulchres—not the sepulchre in which their bodies are laid, but where their glory remains eternal in men’s minds, always there on the right occasion to stir others to speech or to action. For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial: it is not only the inscriptions on their graves in their own country that mark them out; no, in foreign lands also, not in any visible form but in people’s hearts, their memory abides and grows. It is for you to try to be like them.

–Pericles’s funeral oration,
Thucydides

Which detail in the excerpt best supports the speaker’s purpose in giving the speech?

The dead “gave her their lives, to her [Athens] and to all of us.”
The dead “won praises that never grow old.”
Famous people “have the whole earth as their memorial.”
The people of Athens should “try to be like them.”

Answer 1

"The people of Athens should 'try to be like them.'"

Explanation: This line is a direct exhortation to the living and most clearly supports Pericles’s purpose of inspiring his audience to emulate the fallen.