psychomachia

/ ˌsaɪkəʊˈmækɪə, ˈsaɪkəʊməkɪ /

noun

1. conflict of the soul

Word History and Origins

Origin of psychomachia¹

C17: from Late Latin psӯchomachia, title of a poem by Prudentius (about 400), from Greek psukhē spirit + makhē battle

Example Sentences

Miranda’s ravaged inner life is exteriorized as in the medieval genre of psychomachia in which virtue and vice wage a battle for the soul.

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He views his interior life as a psychomachia, a struggle between “the Dictates of my Fancy” and reason, common sense and various premonitions or “secret Hints” from guardian spirits who inhabit an “invisible World.”

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This kind of personification has its origins in the late antique poem the Psychomachia, in which the virtues and the vices battle each other, and it became a popular literary device in medieval and early-modern literature concerned with sin and salvation.

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Performances 8 p.m. today, Teatro de la Psychomachia, 1534 First Ave. S., Seattle, and 8 p.m.

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Filling the voussoirs of the arch of the doorway are fourteen small niches containing subjects from the Psychomachia of Prudentius, the Battle of the Virtues against the Vices.

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