Enkōmion (Praise of a Subject)
The formal speech of praise that celebrates a person, city, or thing by parading its virtues.
The enkomion is the praise-speech of epideictic (ceremonial) oratory, marshalling a subject's noble birth, upbringing, deeds, and qualities to win admiration — the bright mirror of invective (psogos). Isocrates' Evagoras (early 4th c. BCE) is often called the first prose encomium of a real person, while Gorgias' playful Encomium of Helen (late 5th c. BCE) is an earlier showpiece. The form later became a fixed exercise in the rhetorical curriculum and shaped praise-writing for centuries.
How it traveled
- On OratoryFormiae · -55explains
- Partitiones OratoriaeFormiae · -43explains
- Adversus MathematicosAlexandria · 190explains
- Περὶ ἐπιδεικτικῶνLaodicea on the Lycusexplains
- Ars Rhetorica—explains
- Demosthenis encomium—explains
- OrationesPrusaexplains
- Διαίρεσις τῶν ἐπιδεικτικῶνLaodicea on the Lycusexplains
- Scholia in Pindarum Isthmian Odes—explains
- Panegyric on the Empress EusebiaConstantinople (Istanbul)explains
- Panegyric in Honor of the Emperor ConstantinusConstantinople (Istanbul)explains
- Scholia in Pindarum Nemean Odes—explains
- De Demosthenis dictioneRomeexplains
- Antiquitates RomanaeRomeexplains
- Scholia in Pindarum Pythian Odes—explains
- In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium—explains
- Charidemus—explains
- Scholia in Isocratem (scholia vetera)—explains
- Περὶ ἰδεῶν λόγου—explains
- Lives of the SophistsAthensexplains
- Oratio 59Antiochexplains
- Orationes 13Smyrnaexplains
- Suidae lexicon—explains
- ΕἰδύλλιαSyracuse (Sicily)explains
- Catena In Epistulam Ad Romanos (Typus Monacensis) (E Cod. Monac. gr. 412)—explains
- DeclamationesSmyrnaexplains
- Progymnasmata [Dub.]—explains
- Symposium Sive Convivium Decem Virginum—explains
- Ars rhetorica [attributed]—explains
- Orationes 46Smyrnaexplains
- Orationes 7Smyrnaexplains
- Quis dives salvetur—challenges
Key passages(20)
In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam
Ars Rhetorica [attributed] · Aelius Aristides
Ars Rhetorica · Pseudo-Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Ars Rhetorica · Pseudo-Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Ars Rhetorica · Pseudo-Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Encomium of Helen · Gorgias of Leontini
Panegyric in Honor of the Emperor Constantinus · Julian, Emperor of Rome
Panegyric in Honor of the Emperor Constantinus · Julian, Emperor of Rome
Panegyric on the Empress Eusebia · Julian, Emperor of Rome
Panegyric on the Empress Eusebia · Julian, Emperor of Rome
Διαίρεσις τῶν ἐπιδεικτικῶν · Menander Rhetor
Διαίρεσις τῶν ἐπιδεικτικῶν · Menander Rhetor
Διαίρεσις τῶν ἐπιδεικτικῶν · Menander Rhetor
Διαίρεσις τῶν ἐπιδεικτικῶν · Menander Rhetor
Διαίρεσις τῶν ἐπιδεικτικῶν · Menander Rhetor
Διαίρεσις τῶν ἐπιδεικτικῶν · Menander Rhetor