Sarmacki Odyseusz. Postać Jana Łaskiego w epicedium Andrzeja Trzecieskiego
A Sarmatian Odysseus: Jan Łaski in Andrzej Trzecieski’s Epicedium

Summary/Abstract: This paper offers an interpretation of selected motives from the epicedium commemorating the personage and activity of the humanist and prominent religious reformer Jan Łaski the Younger who died in Pinczów on 8th January 1560 (Ioannis a Lasco viri clarissimi epicedion). Andrzej Trzecieski (Tricesius, ca. 1525 – post 1584) was the author of many Latin epigrams, elegies, epitaphs, epicedia and laudatory poems.In the funeral elegy for Łaski, he creatively reshaped the structure of the ancient epicedium, including the traditional elements of comploratio (mourning), laudatio (praise of the deceased) and consolatio (consolation). He did his utmost to present Łaski as a man well-known for his piety, a venerable old man renowned for his many virtues, and, most of all, a new prophet announcing the rebirth of the Church. In this context, Trzecieski evokes three examples of illustrious orators: St. John Chrysostom (‘the golden-mouthed’), the gallic Hercules and Odysseus “of the many twists and turns” (polytropos).

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