Corydon

literary character

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Article History

Corydon, stock character, a rustic or lovesick youth. The name appears notably in Virgil’s Eclogues, a collection of 10 unconnected pastoral poems composed between 42 and 37 bce. In the second eclogue, the shepherd Corydon bewails his unrequited love for the boy Alexis. In the seventh, Corydon and Thyrsis, two Arcadian herdsmen, engage in a singing match. The name Corydon was also used by French writer André Gide as the title of a Socratic dialogue that he wrote in defense of homosexuality.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.