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

fable Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...

s, and in much later European literature.

Ancient

Corydon features in the fourth Idyll of the Syracusan poet

Theocritus Theocritus (; , ''Theokritos''; ; born 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily, Magna Graecia, and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry. Life Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings ...

(c. 300 – c. 250 BC), where he is found herding some cows belonging to a certain Aegon. The name was used by the Latin poets Siculus and, more significantly,

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

. In the

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

of Virgil's ''

Eclogues The ''Eclogues'' (; , ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. Background Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by o ...

'', Corydon is a goatherd who loves a boy called Alexis. Corydon is the name of a character that features heavily in the

of Calpurnius Siculus. Some scholars believe that this Corydon represents Calpurnius himself, or at least his "poetic voice".

Early-modern

Corydon is mentioned in

Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; – 13 January 1599 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the House of Tudor, Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is re ...

'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'' (1598 or 1599) is an anthology of 21 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 ...

'', an anthology of poetry first published in 1599 and attributed on the title page of the collection to

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

. This poem appeared the following year in another collection, ''England's Helicon'', where it was attributed to "Ignoto" (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "Unknown"). Circumstantial evidence points to a possible authorship by

Richard Barnfield Richard Barnfield (baptized 29 June 1574 – 1620) was an English poet. His relationship with William Shakespeare has long made him interesting to scholars. It has been suggested that he was the " rival poet" mentioned in Shakespeare's sonnet ...

, whose first published work, ''The Affectionate Shepherd'', though dealing with the unrequited love of

Daphnis In Greek mythology, Daphnis (; , from , ''daphne'', "Bay Laurel") was a legendary Sicilian cowherd who was said to be the inventor of pastoral poetry. According to Diodorus the Sicilian (1st century BC), Daphnis was born in the Heraean Mountai ...

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. Nicholas Breton's pastoral poem ''Phyllis and Corydon'' is written from the point of view of Corydon and was also printed in ''England's Helicon.'' John Wilbye's ''The Second Set of Madrigales for 3-6 Voices'', 1598, contains the song ''Stay, Corydon, thou swain'' about Corydon's unrequited love for a nymph. Corydon and Thyrsis appear in Henry Needler's poem, "A Pastoral", first published in 1724.

Modern

Corydon is the name of a shepherd in a song titled "

Pastoral Elegy The pastoral elegy is a poem about both death and idyllic rural life. Often, the pastoral elegy features shepherds. The genre is actually a subgroup of pastoral poetry, as the elegy takes the pastoral elements and relates them to expressing grie ...

". The town of

Corydon, Indiana Corydon is a town in Harrison Township, Harrison County, Indiana, Harrison Township and the county seat of Harrison County, Indiana, located north of the Ohio River in the extreme southern part of the state. Corydon was founded in 1808 and serve ...

is named after the shepherd of that song. Corydon and Thyrsis are a pair of shepherds in

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyric poetry, lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted Feminism, feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. ...

's 1920 play ''Aria da Capo''

'' Corydon (book), Corydon'' is the title of a 1924 book by

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...

in the form of

Socratic dialogues Socratic dialogue () is a genre of literary prose developed in Ancient Greece, Greece at the turn of the fourth century BC. The earliest ones are preserved in the works of Plato and Xenophon and all involve Socrates as the protagonist. These dial ...

arguing for the naturalness and morality of homosexuality. Corydon Throsp owned a maisonette where Captain Pirate Prentice lives in the beginning of

Gravity's Rainbow ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is a 1973 novel by the American writer Thomas Pynchon. The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military. In partic ...

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...

. The name is again used for a shepherd boy in an English children's fantasy trilogy 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 and the Island of Monsters'' (2005) * ''Corydon and the Fall of Atlantis'' (2006) * ''Corydon and the Siege of Troy'' (2007)

References

Virgil Ancient Greek poetry Fictional LGBTQ characters in literature LGBTQ themes in Greek mythology Fables {{LGBTQ-stub