English

Alternative forms

• coryphæus
• coryphaeus
• koryphaios

Noun

corypheus ‎(plural corypheuses or coryphei)

1. (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.

2. (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, Charles Sanders Peirce, 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.

Translations

Synonyms

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