Sphragis (Latin, from Greek ''σφραγίς'' 'sphragis' a seal or 'signet') is a modern term in

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...

and

classical philology Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

used to describe a literary device employed mainly in the classical world, in which an author names or otherwise identifies himself, most often at the beginning or the end of a poem or collection of poems. In the broader sense, it can refer to any technique when an author tries to hide his name or a reference to his identity in an encrypted manner (e.g.

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

). The meaning of the word in the original literary contexts, however, is still not properly understood and the modern usage of the term may be historically inaccurate. One of the earliest uses of the word can be attested in

Theognis Theognis of Megara ( grc-gre, Θέογνις ὁ Μεγαρεύς, ''Théognis ho Megareús'') was a Greek lyric poet active in approximately the sixth century BC. The work attributed to him consists of gnomic poetry quite typical of the time, f ...

(19ff) in a "highly controversial passage" in which the poet speaks of setting his seal on his verses, to protect them from being plagiarized: Let the ''seal'' phrēgisof the wise man, Cyrnus, be set upon these lines, and they shall never be filched from him, nor shall evil ever be changed with their good, but every man shall say "These are the lines of Theognis of Megara, famous throughout the world"... ( tr.

J. M. Edmonds John Maxwell Edmonds (21 January 1875 – 18 March 1958) was an English classicist, poet and dramatist and the author of several celebrated martial epitaphs. Biography Edmonds was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire on 21 January 1875. His father ...

) The device has been employed by many other writers in the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

and

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

: *

Nicander Nicander of Colophon ( grc-gre, Νίκανδρος ὁ Κολοφώνιος, Níkandros ho Kolophṓnios; fl. 2nd century BC), Greek poet, physician and grammarian, was born at Claros (Ahmetbeyli in modern Turkey), near Colophon, where his famil ...

, '' Theriaca'' 957-8 *

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

, ''

Georgics The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...

'' iv.563-6 *

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

, '' Odes'' iii.30 *

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

, '' Amores'' iii.15 Sphragides became almost "mandatory" in

Classical Arabic Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...

and Turkmen poetry (e.g. in the poems of

Magtymguly Pyragy Magtymguly Pyragy ( fa, ''Makhdumqoli Farāghi''; tk, Magtymguly Pyragy; ; tr, Mahtumkulu Firaki; , born Magtymguly, was a Turkmen spiritual leader, philosophical poet, Sufi and traveller who is considered to be the most famous figure in ...

),{{cite book , isbn=978-966-580-244-0, pages=648–9, edition=2nd, editor-last1=Гром'як, editor-first1=Р. Т., editor-last2=Ковалів, editor-first2=Ю.І., editor-last3=Теремко, editor-first3=В.І., location=Київ, language=Ukrainian, publisher=Академія, title=Літературознавчий словник-довідник, trans-title=A Dictionary/Reference Book of Literary Theory, url=http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_id=1214399 but have been used by many modern poets as well (e.g.

Bohdan Ihor Antonych Bohdan Ihor Antonych ( uk, Богдан-Ігор Антонич; 5 October 1909, in Nowica, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Nowica – 6 July 1937, in Lviv) was a 20th-century Ukrainian poet. In 1934 Antonych received third prize honours from the Ivan ...

Sergey Esenin Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin ( rus, Сергей Александрович Есенин, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ jɪˈsʲenʲɪn; ( 1895 – 28 December 1925), sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one o ...

References

Word games Rhetorical techniques