Enkōmion (Praise of a Subject)

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.

Where to read it

• Divisiones Aristoteleae322 BCE

  Pseudo-Aristotle· Chalcis
• On Oratory55 BCE

  Cicero· Formiae
• Orator46 BCE

  Cicero· Formiae
• Partitiones Oratoriae43 BCE

  Cicero· Formiae
• On the Sublime50 CE

  Pseudo-Longinus
• Adversus Mathematicos190 CE

  Sextus Empiricus· Alexandria