Genethliacon
The Genethliakon (from Greek γενέθλιος "concerning the birth", to γενεά "birth, origin") is an ancient form of poetry that comes from the Hellenistic period. It celebrates the birth of a child and later also the birthday .
A Genethliakon is written in free verse and uses many rhetorical stylistic devices to refer to ancient mythology . It was adopted from Greek poetry in Roman literature and developed into an independent entity. Are Narrated Tibullus Genethliaka on the birthdays of friends Messala (1.7) and Cornutus (2.2) and pseudo-Tibull (4.2) the birthday of the poet Sulpicia , Propertius (3.10), Ovid's poems on its own birthday (Tristien 3,13) and that of his wife (Tristien 5,5), also Genethliaka of Statius ( Silvae II, 7 and IV, 7 and 8) and Ausonius (epist. 21) from the 4th century. Persius (sat. 2) and Martial (epigrams 7: 21-23) used comparable motifs . "The Roman carmina natalicia have become models for the birthday poems of all European literatures."
The ancient rhetoric also named the speech at the birthday party as logos genethliakos .
Academic commemorative publications (especially for classical scholars ) are sometimes referred to as Genethliakon .
literature
- Vinzenz Buchheit / Ernst Zinn: LAW (1964), 1041 sv 'Genethliakon'.
- Katharina Burkhard: The ancient birthday poem . (Diss. Zurich 1985) Zurich: Juris 1991 (178 pp.). ISBN 3-260-05290-9
- Andreas Sentker: HWRh 3 (1996), 629-632 sv 'birthday speech'.
- Emmet Robbins: Der Neue Pauly 4 (1998), 913f. sv 'Genethliacon'.
Individual evidence
- ^ Vinzenz Buchheit / Ernst Zinn : LAW (1964), 1041 sv 'Genethliakon'.