Corydon (Greek Κορύδων ''Korúdōn'', probably related to κόρυδος ''kórudos'' "lark") is a stock name for a shepherd in ancient Greek

pastoral poem A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music ( pastorale) that de ...

s and fables, such as the one in Idyll 4 of the Syracusan poet Theocritus (c. 300 – c. 250 BC). The name was used by the Latin poets Siculus and, more significantly, Virgil. In the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

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 the name of a character that features heavily in the Eclogues of

Calpurnius Siculus Titus Calpurnius Siculus was a Roman bucolic poet. Eleven eclogues have been handed down to us under his name, of which the last four, from metrical considerations and express manuscript testimony, are now generally attributed to Nemesianus, who li ...

. Some scholars believe that Calpurnius represents himself, or at least his "poetic voice"Hubbard, T.K. The Pipes of Pan (1996) pp 152 through Corydon, Corydon is mentioned in

Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...

's '' The Faerie 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 appears in poem number 17 ("My flocks feed not, my ewes breed not") of ''

The Passionate Pilgrim ''The Passionate Pilgrim'' (1599) is an anthology of 20 poems collected and published by William Jaggard that were attributed to "W. Shakespeare" on the title page, only five of which are considered authentically Shakespearean. These are two ...

'', an anthology of poetry first published in 1599 and attributed on the title page of the collection to Shakespeare. This poem appeared the following year in another collection, ''England's Helicon'', where it was attributed to "Ignoto" ( Latin for "Unknown"). Circumstantial evidence points to a possible authorship by Richard Barnfield, whose first published work, ''The Affectionate Shepherd'', though dealing with the unrequited love of Daphnis for Ganymede, was in fact, as Barnfield stated later, an expansion of Virgil's second ''Eclogue'' which dealt with the love of Corydon for Alexis. Corydon and Thyrsis appear in Henry Needler's poem, "A Pastoral", first published in 1724. 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 Tobias Druitt is an author of fantasy novels. Tobias Druitt is the pseudonym of two authors who write together, Diane Purkiss and Michael Dowling. Diane Purkiss is a tutor in English at Keble College, Oxford University, and she is the first Oxfo ...

Corydon is the name of a shepherd in a Christianity, 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"

'' Corydon (book), Corydon'' is the name of a 1924 Dialogue by André Gide, in which the discussion of the naturalness and morality of homosexuality and pederasty are linked to the character Corydon, inspired by Virgil.

References

Virgil Ancient Greek literature Fictional LGBT characters in literature LGBT themes in Greek mythology {{LGBT-stub