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corypheus - What does it mean?

Definition of 'corypheus'

English

Alternative forms

* * coryphaeus * koryphaios

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (drama|historical) The conductor or leader of the dramatic chorus in Ancient Greece.
  • * 1953 , Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages , 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.
    • That noted corypheus of the Independent faction. — South.
  • * 1800 , Prosper Guéranger, Laurence Shepherd (translator), 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 , page 27,
    • Then Corypheus Marat, author of the Friend of the People'', constantly denounced him as the ''traitor Lafayette .
  • * 1940 , , Philosophical Writings of Peirce , 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 , 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

    * (leader of a dramatic chorus in Ancient Greece) * (chief or leader of a party or interest) coryphe

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