Editing Encomium (section)

{{short description|Latin word meaning "the praise of a person or thing"}}
{{for|the Led Zeppelin [[tribute album]] released in 1995|Encomium (album)}}
{{refimprove|date=March 2011}}
{{Rhetoric}}
'''''Encomium''''' ({{plural form}}: '''''encomia''''') is a [[Latin language|Latin]] word deriving from the [[Ancient Greek]] ''enkomion'' ({{lang|grc|ἐγκώμιον}}), meaning "the praise of a person or thing."<ref>{{LSJ|e)gkw/mios|ἐγκώμιον|ref}}</ref> Another Latin equivalent is ''[[Laudatio funebris|laudatio]]'', a speech in praise of someone or something. 

Originally was the song sung by the [[Greek chorus|chorus]] at the κῶμος, or festal procession, held at the [[Panhellenic Games]] in honour of the victor, either on the day of his victory or on its anniversary. The word came afterwards to denote any song written in celebration of distinguished persons, and in later times any spoken or written [[panegyric]] whatever.<ref>Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Encomion</ref>

''Encomium'' also refers to several distinct aspects of [[rhetoric]]:

* A general category of [[public speaking|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{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}
:*The ''[[basilikos logos]]'' (imperial encomium), a formal genre in the Byzantine empire