Inclassical Greekrhetoric,topos,pl.topoi, (fromAncient Greek:τόπος "place", elliptical forAncient Greek:τόπος κοινόςtópos koinós,^[1] 'common place'), inLatinlocus (fromlocus communis), refers to a method for developing arguments (seetopoi in classical rhetoric).

Topos is translated variously as "topic", "themes", "line of argument", or "commonplace".Ernst Robert Curtius studied topoi as "commonplaces", themes common to orators and writers who re-worked them according to occasion, e.g., in classical antiquity the observation that "all must die" was a topos in consolatory oratory, for in facing death the knowledge that death comes even to great men brings comfort.^[2] Curtius also discussed the topoi in the invocation of nature (sky, seas, animals, etc.) for various rhetorical purposes, such as witnessing to an oath, rejoicing or praising God, or mourning with the speaker.^[3]

Some examples of topoi are the following:

• thelocus amoenus (for example, the imaginary world of Arcadia) and the locus horridus (for example, Dante'sInferno);
• theidyll
• cemetery poetry (see theSpoon River Anthology);
• love and death (in Greek, eros and thanatos), love as disease and love as death, (see the character ofDido in Virgil'sAeneid);
• warlike love (see the workStanze per la giostra [it] by Angelo Poliziano), love as homage (see the courtly lyric poem), painful love;
• the world upside down;
• the dangerous night;
• the infernal hunt (see Boccaccio'sDecameron, day 5, novel 8);
• aphasia, for example in the presence of the beloved woman (see the works belonging to theDolce stil novo current, for exampleAl cor gentil rempaira sempre amore [it] by Guido Guinizelli);
• the descensus ad inferos, orcatàbasis in Greek (see Dante's entire Inferno, or the Aeneid, in his sixth book);
• the desperate search for something, or quête in French;
• thegolden age;
• Thenostos: the return trip to the homeland (e.g. theOdyssey)
• the paraclausithyron, lament before the closed door of the lover;
• the commutatio loci;
• elixir of eternal youth;
• theFountain of Youth;
• the topos modestiæ;
• pretending that the work is inspired or translated by apseudobiblion (e.g.The Betrothed orThe Lord of the Rings).
• Hybris

• Argumentation scheme
• Trope (literature)

• Branham, R. Bracht; Kinney, Daniel (1997).Introduction to Petronius Satyrica.

• The dictionary definition oftopos at Wiktionary

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