In
Attic drama, the coryphaeus, corypheus, or koryphaios (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
κορυφαῖος ''koryphaîos'', from κορυφή ''koryphḗ́'', the top of the head) was the leader of the
chorus. Hence the term (sometimes in an Anglicized form "coryphe") is used for the chief or leader of any company or movement. The coryphaeus spoke for all the rest, whenever the chorus took part in the action, in quality of a person of the drama, during the course of the acts.
The term is sometimes used for the chief or principal of any company, corporation, sect, opinion, etc. Thus,
Eustathius of Antioch is called the coryphaeus of the
First Council of Nicaea
The First Council of Nicaea (; grc, Νίκαια ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325.
This ecumenical council was the first effort ...
, and
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
calls
Zeno
Zeno ( grc, Ζήνων) may refer to:
People
* Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
Philosophers
* Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes
* Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 BC), ...
the coryphaeus of the
Stoics.
Paul the Apostle is often entitled Coryphaeus in Christian
iconography.
In 1856 at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, the office of Coryphaeus or Praecentor was founded, whose duty it was to lead the musical performances directed by the
Choragus
In the theatre of ancient Greece, the ''choregos'' (pl. ''choregoi; el, χορηγός, Greek etymology: χορός "chorus" + ἡγεῖσθαι "to lead") was a wealthy Athenian citizen who assumed the public duty, or ''choregiai'', of financi ...
. The office ceased to exist in 1899.
In Solzhenitsyn’s ''
In the First Circle
''In the First Circle'' (russian: link=no, italics=yes, В круге первом, V kruge pervom; also published as ''The First Circle'') is a novel by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, released in 1968. A more complete version of the boo ...
'' Stalin is often referred to as Coryphaeus, meaning that he speaks for all in the Soviet Union.
In video games
Corypheus is an antagonist introduced in the Legacy DLC for ''
Dragon Age II
''Dragon Age II'' is a 2011 action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts (EA). It is the second major game in the ''Dragon Age'' series and the successor to '' Dragon Age: Origins'' (2009). Set in the wor ...
''. The same Corypheus returns as the central antagonist and the catalyst to the events of ''
Dragon Age: Inquisition''.
See also
*
USS Corypheus
USS ''Corypheus'' was a schooner captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
''Corypheus'' was used by the Union Navy primarily as a gunboat to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy in order to prevent the South from trad ...
*
Theatre of Coryphaei
References
*
*
{{Wiktionary
Ancient Greek theatre