The poetic representation of martyrdom in the 17th century (1680–1700) Neo-Latin grief poetry collections of Debrecen

Abstract

In the first part of the study, I will review the concept of martyrdom in the most important Hungarian martyrological publications of the period, looking for answers to the questions of what factors were required for someone to be considered a true martyr, whether execution, i.e. death was an actual condition of martyrdom, and whether the death of community leaders (pastors, teachers) in Debrecen could be interpreted as martyrdom. In the second unit, we will discuss mythicization, which was a common practice in Hungarian literature in the 16th and 17th centuries, and its use can be detected not only in occasional poetry but also in prose genres, mirrors of princes and eulogies. I would like to illustrate how contemporary authors used a variety of biblical and ancient mythological images in martyrological meaning, using examples from some Hungarian works touching on martyrdom as well. In the third part, I will deal with the mythical figures representing the deceased persons appearing in the Neo-Latin collections of funeral poems printed in Debrecen at the end of the 17th century and attempt to interpret them from a martyrological aspect through their implicit meanings. Through my analysis, I would like to point out that such mythological imagery with a martyrological meaning can also be registered in the 17th century Neo-Latin funerary poetry of Debrecen as part of the laudatory apotheosis, i.e. as typical poetic-rhetorical devices of the representation of the deceased as martyrs.