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psychomachia

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psychomachia [ˌsaɪkəʊˈmækɪə], psychomachy [ˈsaɪkəʊməkɪ]
n
(Psychology) conflict of the soul
[from Late Latin psȳchomachia, title of a poem by Prudentius (about 400), from Greek psukhē spirit + makhē battle]


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A more positive spin on the list, called the "Seven Holy Virtues," was developed by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius in his epic poem Psychomachia around 410 AD.
Mastrangelo uses the Psychomachia as an example of the use of classical forms to tell a Christian story at a time when Christianity was still a minority religion that needed to find a way to reach pagan Romans.
Vices are found disguising their true identities as early as Prudentius's Psychomachia, where Avarice disguises herself as Thrift; and the practice appears in medieval literature too: for example in the fourteenth-century allegorical poem, Winner and Waster, where Coveteousness adopts the same disguise.
 
 
 
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