The epitaphios logos is regarded as an almost exclusive Athenian creation, although some early elements of such speeches exist in the epos of Homer and in the lyric poems of Pindar.
[3][4] More plausible, but not beyond doubt,[4] is the statement by Dionysius of Halicarnassus that the Athenians instituted the funeral oration "in honour or those who fought at Artemisium, Salamis, and Plataea, and died for their country, or to the glory of their exploits at Marathon.
"[5] Thucydides describes in detail the funeral rituals and points out that "the dead are laid in the public sepulchre in the most beautiful suburb of the city, in which those who fall in war are always buried".
[7] Historians now believe that the demosion sema (a collective burial site for the war dead) and the epitaphios logos were first established around 470 BC, customs that continued during the Periclean period.
[13] He actually describes the scheme of the traditional Athenian funeral oration with the following succinct phrase: And the speech required is one which will adequately eulogize the dead and give kindly exhortation to the living, appealing to their children and their brethren to copy the virtues of these heroes, and to their fathers and mothers and any still surviving ancestors offering consolation.