Encomium
Encomium is a Latin word deriving from the Ancient Greek enkomion (ἐγκώμιον), meaning "the praise of a person or thing."[1] Another Latin equivalent is laudatio, a speech in praise of someone or something. Encomium also refers to several distinct aspects of rhetoric:
- A general category of oratory
- A method within rhetorical pedagogy
- A figure of speech praising a person or thing, but occurring on a smaller scale than an entire speech
- The eighth exercise in the progymnasmata series
- A literary genre that included five elements: prologue, birth and upbringing, acts of the person's life, comparisons used to praise the subject, and an epilogue
- The basilikos logos (imperial encomium), a formal genre in the Byzantine empire
Examples
- Gorgias' famous Encomium of Helen offers several justifications for excusing Helen of Troy's adultery
- In Erasmus' In Praise of Folly, Folly composes an encomium to herself
- De Pippini regis Victoria Avarica is a medieval encomium of the victory of Pepin of Italy over the Avars
- Encomium Emmae Reginae is a medieval encomium of Queen Emma of Normandy
- Laudes Mediolanensis civitatis or Versum de Mediolano civitate is a medieval encomium of Milan
- Versus de Verona is a medieval encomium of Verona
- Polychronion is chanted in the liturgy of Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite
- Paul the Apostle uses a kind of encomium in his praise of love, in 1 Corinthians 13; the prologue is verses 1–3, acts are v. 4–7, comparison is v. 8–12, and epilogue is 13:13–14:1.[2]
References
- ἐγκώμιον. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
- David E. Garland, Baker Exegetical Commentary, 1 Corinthians, 606, based on the work of Sigountos.
External links
The dictionary definition of encomium at Wiktionary
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