corypheus
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Latin coryphaeus, from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, “leader”), from κορυφή (koruphḗ, “head”).
Noun
editcorypheus (plural corypheuses or coryphei)
- (drama, historical) The conductor or leader of the dramatic chorus in Ancient Greece.
- 1953, Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages[1], page 443:
- In this work Homer and Virgil already appear beside Cicero and Plato as doctrinal authorities. The four corypheuses are infallible; any contradiction between them is wholly out of the question.
- (by extension) The chief or leader of a party or interest.
- a. 1716, Robert South, Discourse:
- That noted corypheus of the Independent faction.
- 1800, Prosper Guéranger, translated by Laurence Shepherd, The Liturgical Year: The Time after Pentecost, volume 3, page 443:
- Let us blithely hail, throughout the whole universe, these disciples of Christ, these two Coryphei, Peter and Paul : O Peter, the Foundation-stone and Rock ; and thou also, O Paul, Vessel of Election.
- 1824, John Foster, A Sketch of the Tour of General Lafayette, on His Late Visit to the United States, 1824[2], page 27:
- Then Corypheus Marat, author of the Friend of the People, constantly denounced him as the traitor Lafayette.
- 1940, Charles Sanders Peirce, Philosophical Writings of Peirce[3], page 270:
- Chauncey Wright, something of a philosophical celebrity in those days, was never absent from our meetings. I was about to call him our corypheus; but he will better be described as our boxing-master whom we—I particularly—used to face to be severely pummelled.
- 1992, Demetres P. Tryphonopoulos, The Celestial Tradition: A Study of Ezra Pound's The Cantos[4], page 36:
- The Gnostic depreciation of the cosmos and its creator aroused the ire of the founder and corypheus of the Neoplatonic School, Plotinus (205-70), who presided over an academia in Rome and possibly had a private mystical practice.
Synonyms
edit- (leader of a dramatic chorus in Ancient Greece):
- (chief or leader of a party or interest): coryphe
Translations
editconductor of the dramatic chorus