Corinna or Korinna was an Ancient Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, traditionally attributed to the 6th century BC. According to ancient sources such as Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

 and Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

, she came from Tanagra

Tanagra

Tanagra is a town and a municipality north of Athens in Boeotia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Schimatari. It is not far from Thebes, and it was noted in antiquity for the figurines named after it...

 in Boeotia

Boeotia

Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...

, where she was a teacher and rival to the better-known Theban poet Pindar

Pindar

Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...

. Although two of her poems survive in epitome

Epitome

An epitome is a summary or miniature form; an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment....

, most of her work is preserved in 2nd century BC papyrus fragments.

Traditional biography

It is suspected that Corinna was born in the month of May. If Pindar was indeed her pupil, it may be assumed that she was born some years earlier than his birthdate of 522 BC. Some writers, however, place her in the 5th or 4th century BC. Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

 says she won a poetry competition against Pindar in honour of which she had a monument erected to her. According to his opinion, her success was probably chiefly due to her beauty and her use of the local Boeotian dialect, as opposed to the Doric of Pindar's poems. Aelian

Aelian

Aelian or Aelianus may refer to:* Aelianus Tacticus, Greek military writer of the 2nd century, who lived in Rome* Casperius Aelianus, Praetorian Prefect, executed by Trajan...

 said she defeated Pindar five times, and in response to these defeats, Pindar called her a sow. Antipater of Thessalonica

Antipater of Thessalonica

Antipater of Thessalonica was the author of over a hundred epigrams in the Greek Anthology. He is the most copious and perhaps the most interesting of the Augustan epigrammatists...

 lists her in his catalogue of nine mortal muse

Muse

The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...

s.

Corinna wrote choral lyric poetry

Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...

 for celebrations in the Boeotian dialect of Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

. It is said that she criticised Pindar for introducing Atticism

Atticism

Atticism was a rhetorical movement that began in the first quarter of the 1st century BC; it may also refer to the wordings and phrasings typical of this movement, in contrast with spoken Greek, which continued to evolve in directions guided by the common usages of Hellenistic Greek.Atticism was...

s into his poems. Unlike Pindar, she focused on local myths, and drew parallels between the world of mythology and ordinary human behaviour. The outlines of two of her poems survive. Minouaie (The Daughters of Minyas), tells of the three adult daughters of King Minyas

Minyas (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Minyas was the founder of Orchomenus, Boetia. As the ancestor of the Minyans, a number of Boeotian genealogies lead back to him, according to the classicist H.J. Rose...

 of Orchomenus: Leukippe, Arsippe, and Alkathoe. Koronaie (The Shuttle Maidens), tells of Orion

Orion (mythology)

Orion was a giant huntsman in Greek mythology whom Zeus placed among the stars as the constellation of Orion....

's two daughters Menippe and Metioche

Menippe and Metioche

In Greek mythology, Menippe and Metioche were daughters of Orion. After Orion was killed they were brought up by their mother, and Athena taught them the art of weaving and Aphrodite gave them beauty. Once their homeland Aonia at the base of Mt...

, who cut their throats with their shuttle, "accepting death for their neighbours' sake".

Modern scholarship

Many modern scholars have challenged the traditional assertion that Corinna was a contemporary of Pindar, and claim a much later date for her. Citing the Boeotian orthography of her surviving fragments, David Campbell, who edited a modern version of her fragments, argues that she lived about 200 BC, and that her traditional biography, replete with contradictory accounts of her character, emerged as legend at a much later date.

Other classicists, including Peter Levi

Peter Levi

Peter Chad Tigar Levi, FSA, FRSL, , Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford was a poet, archaeologist, sometime Jesuit priest, travel writer, biographer, academic and prolific reviewer and critic.-Early life and education:Levi was born in Ruislip, Middlesex of parents with Mediterranean...

, also claim a later date for her, based on her mythological references, which are from a later date, and the absence of any contemporary accounts corroborating her victory over Pindar. Furthermore, the earliest known fragments of her work date from the 2nd century BC, in keeping with other evidence about when she actually lived.

A fragment of Corinna's poetry

ἐπί με Τερψιχόρα [ καλὰ Ϝεροῖ’ ἀισομ[έναν Ταναγρίδεσσι λε[υκοπέπλυς μέγα δ’ ἐμῆς γέγ[αθε πόλις λιγουροκω[τί]λυ[ς ἐνοπῆς. (fr. 2)

Terpsichore Terpsichore In Greek mythology, Terpsichore "delight of dancing" was one of the nine Muses, ruling over dance and the dramatic chorus. She lends her name to the word "terpsichorean" which means "of or relating to dance". She is usually depicted sitting down, holding a lyre, accompanying the dancers' choirs...  [told] me lovely old tales to sing to the white-robed women of Tanagra and the city delighted greatly in my voice, clear as the swallow's.

Editions

• T. Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci, Leipzig 1882, III 543 ff.
• W. Crönert, Corinnae quae supersunt, Rheinisches Museum 63 (1908), 161 ff.
• D.L. Page
  Denys Page
  Sir Denys Lionel Page was a British classical scholar at Oxford and Cambridge.-Early life:Born at Reading, Page was the son of Frederick Harold Dunn Page, a chartered civil engineer of the Great Western Railway, and his wife Elsie Daniels. He was educated at St...
  
  , Poetae melici Graeci. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962 (repr. 1967).