British Library, Add MS 24199, part 1, 10th centuryPsychomachia, as the "battle between good and evil", on a Romanesque capital, Monastery of Sant Cugat, Catalonia, Spain
The Psychomachia (Battle of Spirits or Soul War) is a poem by the Late Antique Latin poet Prudentius, from the early fifth century AD.[1] It has been considered to be the first and most influential "pure" medieval allegory, the first in a long tradition of works as diverse as the Romance of the Rose, Everyman and Piers Plowman; however, a manuscript discovered in 1931 of a speech by the second-century academic skeptic philosopher Favorinus employs psychomachia, suggesting that he may have invented the technique.[2]
In slightly less than a thousand lines, the poem describes the conflict of vices and virtues as a battle in the style of Virgil's Aeneid. Christian faith is attacked by and defeats pagan idolatry to be cheered by a thousand Christian martyrs. The work was extremely popular, and survives in many medieval manuscripts, 20 of them illustrated.[3] It may be the subject of wall paintings in the churches at Claverley, Shropshire, and at Pyrford, Surrey, both in England. In the early twelfth century it was a common theme for sculptural programmes on façades of churches in western France, such as Aulnay, Charente-Maritime.[4]
The word may be used more generally for the common theme of the "battle between good and evil", for example in sculpture. The duality portrayed in the book was the first of its kind to depict the different moral realms humans are battling within themselves. It was the first time one got to read how all are participating in the war of the soul, because Vice and Virtue both live within them and their decisions and actions determine the outcome of the conflict.
^Holcomb
^Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, "Later Greek Voices on the Predicament of Exile: from Teles to Plutarch and Favorinus", in: J. F. Gaertner (Ed.), Writing Exile: The Discourse of Displacement in Greco-Roman Antiquity and Beyond, Leiden 2007 ISBN 9004155155 p 104
^Holcomb, 69–71
^Anat Tcherikover: High Romanesque Sculpture in the Duchy of Aquitaine c.1090-1140, 148-151. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1997 ISBN 0-19-817410-1.
The Psychomachia (Battle of Spirits or Soul War) is a poem by the Late Antique Latin poet Prudentius, from the early fifth century AD. It has been considered...
morality as a struggle between seven sins and seven virtues. His poem Psychomachia depicts a battle between female personifications of virtues and vices...
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2010: The Tempest by William Shakespeare (The Bridge Project) 2010: Psychomachia by Jennifer Lane – as Lydia (Theatre 54 @ Shelter Studios) 2011: The...
allegory. The series has been viewed as a Christian moral fable in the psychomachia tradition, in which stand-ins for good and evil fight for supremacy over...
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens listed seven "heavenly virtues" in his book Psychomachia (Battle of Souls) which is an allegorical story of conflict between vices...
both from the Cathemerinon, are still in use today. The allegorical Psychomachia, however, is his most influential work, incorporating as it did elements...
Eudaemon (mythology) Id, ego and super-ego Guardian angel Jiminy Cricket Psychomachia Qareen Two wolves "The Shepherd of Hermas (Roberts-Donaldson translation)"...
personification and were especially influential in the Middle Ages included the Psychomachia of Prudentius (early 5th century), with an elaborate plot centered around...
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It is directed by Shinji Ishihira at Bridge. The opening theme is "Psychomachia" by Yousei Teikoku. The series ran for 10 episodes and has 2 OVAs. Sentai...
(1988-1990), or R.L. Gibson's use of large scale xerography such as in Psychomachia (2010). In 1991, independent filmmaker Chel White completed a 4-minute...
this time. Probably the earliest and most influential allegory is the Psychomachia (Battle of Souls) by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius. Other important examples...
Seven Books of History Against the Pagans Jerome: Vulgate Prudentius: Psychomachia Consentius's grammar Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite: De Coelesti Hierarchia...
the first surviving Christian purely allegorical freestanding work, Psychomachia ("Soul-War"), about AD 400. The plot consists of the personified "good"...
Baroque and Neoclassical culture. It became a part of the broader motif of psychomachia: the battle of spirits or soul war. Petrarch used it in De vita solitaria...
Knights OP "Geki" (from Shadow Corps[e]) - TV anime Big Order OVA ED "Psychomachia" - TV anime The Seven Heavenly Virtues ED "Last Moment" (from Gothic...
Palestine and Egypt (10th century) Illustrated copy of Prudentius's Psychomachia or "Battle of the Soul", the first allegorical work in European literature...
has been suggested that this portrays scenes from the 5th-century poem Psychomachia, a battle between virtues and vices, by Prudentius. A recent theory is...
themselves as Spiritual But Not Religious. Seven Virtues: Derived from the Psychomachia, an epic poem written by Prudentius (c. 410). Practicing these virtues...
nineteenth-century attacks on theater frequently have the air of a psychomachia, that is, a dramatic expression of the battle of good versus evil.: 328–349 ...
Latin (c. 391) - St. Jerome Liber Peristephanon (c. 406) - Prudentius Psychomachia (c. 406) - Prudentius The Confessions of St. Augustine (397-398 AD) -...
in the Stuttgart Psalter, Utrecht Psalter, Lothar Gospels and Bern Psychomachia manuscripts, as well as in the wall frescoes in the church in Mals, South...
of Shrove Tuesday and Lent dates as far back as the year 400 with the Psychomachia. The 13th Century French poem La Bataille de Caresme et de Charnage describes...
Psalter, the Easter Tables (British Library MS Caligula.A.XV) or the Psychomachia of Prudentius (British Library MS Add. 24199). (D. Talbot Rice, English...
epistemology. One of the speeches of Favorinus contains the oldest example of psychomachia, suggesting that he may have invented the allegorical technique, which...
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