Corydon (character)

For other meanings, see Corydon (disambiguation).

Corydon (from the Greek κόρυδος korudos "lark") is a stock name for a shepherd in ancient Greek pastoral poems and fables, such as the one in Idyll 4 of the Syracusan poet Theocritus (c.310-250 BCE). The name was also used by the Latin poets Siculus and, more significantly, Virgil. In the second of Virgil's Eclogues, it is used for a shepherd whose love for the boy Alexis is described therein. Virgil's Corydon gives his name to the modern book Corydon.

Corydon is mentioned in Edmund Spenser's The Fairie Queen as a shepherd in Book VI, Canto X. In this section he is portrayed as a coward who fails to come to the aid of Pastorell when she is being pursued by a tiger.

The name is again used for a shepherd boy in an English children's trilogy (Corydon and the Island of Monsters, Corydon and the Fall of Atlantis and Corydon and the Siege of Troy) by Tobias Druitt. [1]

Corydon is also the name of a shepherd in a Christian hymn entitled Pastoral Elegy. The town of Corydon, Indiana is named after the shepherd of that hymn.

Corydon and Thyrsis are a pair of shepherds in Edna St. Vincent Millay's 1920 play, "Aria da Capo". [2]

Other such stock names in poetry include:

• a Rooster = Chaunticleer (from French Chanticler; [chant + clear, in reference to its crow])
• a Fox = Reynard (from French Reignart; reign + -ard, "kingly one")
• a Cat = Felix (from Latin felix, "happy" [influenced by Latin feles, "cat, feline"])
• a Dog = Rufus (from Latin rufus, "red" [influenced by ruff, the bark of a dog])