panegyric

panegyric [ˌpænɪˈdʒɪrɪk] n.

1.) A public speech or writing in praise of some person, thing, or achievement; a laudatory discourse, a formal or elaborate encomium or eulogy. Construed with on, upon, formerly of.
2.) Elaborate praise; eulogy; laudation (O.E.D. 2nd Ed.).

Etymology: Latin panegyricus, from Greek panegurikos (logos), (speech) at a public assembly, panegyric, from paneguris, public assembly: pan-, + aguris, assembly, marketplace.

"'I cannot agree, Phaedrus, with the condition laid down for our speeches, that they should be a simple and unqualified panegyric of Love. If Love had a single nature, it would be all very well, but not as it is, since Love is not single; and that being so the better course would be to declare in advance which Love it is that we have to praise'" (The Symposium by Plato, Walter Hamilton (trans.), 1951).

(Das Gastmahl des Platon, Anselm Feuerbach, 1869)