Occasional poetry

thumb|150px|In addition to epinikia, a victorious athlete might be honored with a statue, as with this charioteer found at Delphi, probably a champion driver at the [[Pythian Games]] The epinikion or epinicion (: epinikia or epinicia, Greek , from epi-, "on" and nikê, "victory") is a genre of occasional poetry also known in English as a victory ode. In ancient Greece, the epinikion most often took the form of a choral lyric, commissioned for and performed at the celebration of an athletic victory in the Panhellenic Games and sometimes in honor of a victory in war. Major poets in the genre are

hymn by Horace

poetry composed for a particular occasion

thumb|right|390px|A Roman Art Lover (1868) by Lawrence Alma-Tadema showing the types of Roman art patrons who could have commissioned Statius' poetry