A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Corinna
CORINNA.
There were three of that name, all skilled in letters. The last lived at the time, and is supposed to have been the favourite of Ovid; but the most famous was of Tanagra, in Bœotia, who, in no less than five trials, conquered the great poet, Pindar. Her glory seems to have been fully established by the public memorial of her picture, exhibited in her native city, and adorned with a symbol of her victory. Pausanius, who saw it, supposes her to have been one of the handsomest women of her age. Time has left us only a few scraps of Corinna's poetry. She did justice to the superiority of Pindar's genius; but advised him not to suffer his poetical ornaments to intrude so often, as they smothered the principal subject; comparing it to pouring a vase of flowers, all at once, upon the ground; when their beauty and excellence could only be observed in proportion to their rarity and situation.