(literature) A genre of literature that included five elements: prologue, birth and upbringing, acts of the person's life, comparisons used to praise the subject, and an epilogue.
“Among the new poems in his new book is one so good that the publisher has put it on the back of the hardcover edition, instead of blurbs and encomia.”
“Her poetry is replete with such images, as time and again she writes encomia or praise-poems to particular mothers as well as the state of motherhood as an abstract ideal.”
“Lyric poetry included dithyrambs, encomia, paeans, and hymns.”