 Whereas the "epitaphios" originated itself as a public speech composed for a specific occasion, a number of specimens of this genre were not composed for delivery at the public burial.They would have been read to small audiences at the intellectual gatherings that met at so many venues.Gorgias' funeral oration, maybe that of Lysias and clearly Plato's parodic "epitaphios" in "Menexenus" were not designed to be delivered before the Athenian people.