Gryphius

Gryphius commonly refers to Andreas Gryphius (1616–1664), a German Baroque poet and dramatist. He is regarded as one of the most important early figures of German Baroque literature, helping shape both lyric poetry and tragedy during the Thirty Years’ War era.

Born in Glogau, Silesia (now Głogów, Poland), Gryphius lived through a period of political and religious upheaval. His body of work includes sonnets, odes, and theater plays that address themes of time, mortality, and faith, often employing the ornate imagery and rhetorical intensity characteristic of Baroque writing. His poetry and drama contributed to defining the stylistic and thematic concerns of 17th‑century German literature.

Gryphius’s influence extended to later generations of German writers, who drew on his blending of form, religious reflection, and meditative mood. The name Gryphius is a Latinized form of the author’s surname; in modern references the family name is more commonly rendered as Greif or Greiff.