Literary topos

In classical Greek rhetoric, topos, "pl." topoi, (from "place", elliptical for "tópos koinós", 'common place'), in Latin locus (from "locus communis"), refers to a method for developing arguments. (See "topoi" in classical rhetoric.)
Meaning and history.
Topos is translated variously as "topic", "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. 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.