Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/870

Rome and the people of lUily after the Social wai-. 1 (Eckhel, V. pp. 220, 2.56.)

CORE (K(Jp7j), the maiden, a name by which Persephone is often called. [Perskphone.] [L. S.]

CORE, of Corinth, mentioned among the mythic stories of the invention of sculpture. (Plin. H. N. XXXV. 43; Athenag. Legal, pro Chrht. c. 17.) [L.U.]

L. CORFI'DIUS, a Roman knight, whom Cicero mentioned in his oration for Ligarius, B. c. 46, as one of the distinguished men who were in- terceding with Caesar on behalf of Ligarius ; but after the oration was published, Cicero was re- minded that he had made a mistake in mentioning the name of Corfidius, as the latter had died before the speech was delivered. (Cic. pro Lijar. 11, ad Alt. xiii. 44.) It is probably this Corfidius of Avhose return to life an amusing tale is related by Pliny on the authority of Varro. {H. N. vii. 52.)

CORINNA (Κόριννα), a Greek poetess, a native of Tanagra in Boeotia. According to some accounts (Eudocia, p. 270; Welcker, in Creuzer's Meletem, ii. pp. 10–17), she was the daughter of Achelodorus and Procratia. On account of her long residence in Thebes, she was sometimes called a Theban. She flourished about the beginning of the fifth century B. C., and was a contemporary of Pindar, whom she is said to have instructed (Plut. de Glor. Athen. iv. p. 348, a.), and with whom she strove for a prize at the public games at Thebes. According to Aelian (V. H. xiii. 25), she gained the victory over him five times. Pausanias (ix. 22. § 3) does not speak of more than one victory, and mentions a picture which he saw at Tanagra, in which she was represented binding her hair with a fillet in token of her victory, which he attributes as much to her beauty and to the circumstance that she wrote in the Aeolic dialect, as to her poetical talents. At a later period, when Pindar's fame was more securely established, she blamed her contemporary, Myrtis, for entering into a similar contest with him. (Apollon. Dyscol. in Wolf, Corinnae Carm. p. 56, &c.) The Aeolic dialect employed by Corinna had many Boeotian peculiarities. (Eustath. ad Od. vol. i. p. 376. 10, ad Il. vol. ii. p. 364. 22, ed. Lips.; Wolf, l. c.) She appears to have intended her poems chiefly for Boeotian ears; hence the numerous local references connected with Boeotia to be found in them. (Paus. ix. 20. § 1; Steph. Byz. s. v. Θέσπεια; Eustath. ad Il. vol. i. p. 215. 2. ed. Lips.; Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1177.) They were collected in five books, and were chiefly of a lyrical kind, comprising choral songs, lyrical nomes, parthenia, epigrams, and erotic and heroic poems. The last, however, seem to have been written in a lyrical form. Among them we find mentioned one entitled Iolaus, and one the Seven against Thebes. Only a few unimportant fragments have been preserved.

Statues were erected to Corinna in different parts of Greece, and she was ranked as the first and most distinguished of the nine lyrical Muses. She was surnamed Μύσα (the Fly). We have mention of a younger Corinna of Thebes, also surnamed Myia, who is probably the same with the contemporary of Pindar. And so also is probably a Myia or Corinna of Thespiae who is mentioned (Suidas, s.v. Κόριννα). The fragments that are left may be found in Ch. Wolf's Poët. octo Fragm. et Elog. Hamburg, 1734, and in A. Schneider's Poët. Graec Fragm. Giessen, 1802. [C.P. M.]

CORINNUS (Koptj/j'os), was, according to Sui- das (s. r.), an epic poet, a native of Ilium, who lived before Homer, in the time of the Trojan war, and wrote an Iliad, from which Homer borrowed the argument of his poem. He also, according to the same authority, sang the war of Dardanus with the Paphlagonians. He is likewise said to have been a pupil of Palamedes, and to have writ- ten in the Doric characters invented by the latter. (Suidas, s. v.; Eudocisi, p. 271 ; Fabric. BiU. Graec. i. 16.) [C. P. M.]

CORINTH US (Kopivdos), according to the local tradition of Corinth, a son of Zeus and the founder of the town of Corinth. (Paus. ii. 1. § 1 ; SchoL ad Find. Nem. vii. 155.) There are two other mvthical beings of this name. (Paus. ii. 3. $ 8; Apollod. iii. 16. §2.) [L. S.]

CORIOLA'NUS, C, or more properly, Cn. MA'RCIUS, the hero of one of the most beautiful of the early Roman legends, was said to have been the son of a descendant of king Ancus Marcius. His mother's name, according to the best authori- ties, was Veturia (Plutarch calls her Volumnia). He lost his father while yet a child, and under the training of his mother, whom he loved exceedingly, grew up to be a brave and valiant man ; but he was likewise noted for his imperious and proud temper. He was said to have fought in the battle by the lake Regillus, and to have won a civic crown in it. To explain his surname, Coriolanus, the legend told how in a war with the Volscians their capital, Corioli, was attacked by the Romans. When the enemy made a sally, Marcius at the head of a few brave men drove them back, and then, single-handed (for his followers could not support him), drove the Volscians before him to the other side of the town. So in memory of his prowess the surname Coriolanus was given him. But his haughty bearing towards the commons excited their fear and dislike, and when he was a candidate for the consulship, they refused to elect him. After this, when there was a famine in the city, and a Greek prince sent corn from Sicily, Coriolanus advised that it should not be distributed to the commons, unless they gave up their tribunes. For this he was impeached and condemned to exile. He now took refuge among the Volscians, and promised to assist them in war against the Romans. Attius Tullius, the king of the Vols- cians, found a pretext for a quarrel, and war was declared. Coriolanus was appointed general of the Volscian army. He took many towns, and ad- vanced plundering and burning the property of the commons, but sparing that of the patricians, till he came to the fossa Cluilia, or Cluilian dyke. Here he encamped, and the Romans in alarm (for they could not raise an army) sent as deputies to him five consulars, offering to restore him to his rights. But he refused to make peace unless the Romans would restore to the Volscians all the lands they had taken from them, and receive all the people as citizens. To these terms the deputies could not