Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

364 CORWCBANTICA. COSMIETAE.
of which there are various editions, one of the best of the Cretan Apollo who disputed the sovereignty
by Sim.Van Leenwen, Amst. 1 663, folio; G. Chr. of the island with Zeus. But to which of these
Gebaueri, cura G. Aug. Spangenberg, Goetting. 1776 traditions the festival of the Corybantica owed its
-1 797, 2 vols. 4to; Schrader, 1 vol. 4to, Berlin, origin is uncertain, although the first, which was
1832, of whichonly the Institutes are yet published. current in Crete itself, seems to be best entitled
For further information on the editions of the to the honour. All we know of the Corybantica
Corpus Juris and its several portions, see Bbcking, is, that the person to be initiated was seated
Institutionen, p. 78, &c., and Mackeldey, LeAbuch, on a throne, and that those who initiated him
&c. ~ 97, a, 12th ed. [G. L] formed a circle and danced around him. This
CO'RREUS. [OBLIGATIONES.] part of the solemnity was called rpolvc-ts or apoCORTI'NA. 1. In its primary sense, a large vietuos. (Plato, Eullqydem. p. 277, d.; Dion Chrycircular vessel for containing liquids, and used in sost. Orat. xii. p. 387; Proclus, Theol. Flat.
dyeing wool (Plin. HI. N. ix. 62), and receiving vi. 13.) [L. S.]
oil when it first flows from the press. (Cat. De CORYMBUS. CORY'MBIUM. [COMA.]
Re Rust. 66.) 2. A vase in which water was CORVUS, a sort of crane, used by C. Duilius
carried round the circus during the games (Plant. against the Carthaginian fleet in the battle fought
Poen. v. 6. 12), for the use of the horses, drivers, off Mylae, in Sicilyv (n.C. 260). The Romans, we
or attendants. See the cut on p. 284, in which two are told, being unused to the sea, saw that their
of the children thrown down by the horses are only chance of victory was by bringing a sea-fight
furnished with a vessel of this kind. 3. The table to resemble one on land. For this purpose they
or hollow slab, supported by a tripod, upon which invented a machine, of which Polybius (i. 22) has
the priestess at Delphi sat to deliver her responses; left a minute, although not very perspicuous, deand hence the word is used for the oracle itself. scription. In the fore part of the ship a round
(Virg. Aeon. vi. 347.) The Romans made tables of pole was fixed perpendicularly, twenty-four feet in
marble or bronze after the pattern of the Delphian height and about nine inches in diameter; at the
tripod, which they used as we do our sideboards, top of this was a pivot, upon which a ladder was
for the purpose of displaying their plate at an set, thirty-six feet in length and four in breadth.
entertainment, or the valuables contained in their The ladder was guarded by cross-beams, fastened
temples, as is still done in Catholic countries upon to the upright pole by a ring of wood, which turned
the altars. These were termed costinaeDelphicae, with the pivot above. Along the ladder a rope
or Delpiicae simply. (Plin.H. N. xxxiv. 8; Schol. was passed, one end of which took hold of the
ad Ieor. Sat. i. 6. 116; Mart. xii. 66. 7; Suet. corvs by means of a ring. The corvus itself was
Auzg. 52.) 4. From the conical form of the vessel a strong piece of iron, with a spike at the end,
which contains the first notion of the word, it which was raised or lowered by drawing in or
came also to signify the vaulted part of a theatre letting out the rope. When an enemy's ship
over the stage (sagni cortina tlMeatsi, Sever. in drew near, the machine was turned outwards, by
Aetn. 294), such as is in the Odeium of Pericles, means of the pivot, in the direction of the assailthe shape of which we are expressly told was ant. Another part of the machine which Polybius
made to imitate the tent of Xerxes (Paus. i. 20. has not clearly described is abreastwork, let down
~ 3; Plut. Pericl. 13); and thence metaphorically (as it would seem) from the ladder, and serving
for anything which bore the appearance of a dome, as a bridge, on which to board the enemy's vessel.
as the vault of heaven (Ennius, ao. Vat. De Ling. (Compare Curtius, iv. 2. 4.) By means of these
Lat. viii. 48, ed. MUller); or of a circle, as a cranes the Carthaginian ships were either broken
group of listeners surrounding any object of at- or closely locked with the Roman, and Duilius
traction. (Tacit. De Orat. 19.) [A. R.] gained a complete victory.
CORYBANTES (KcopeuaVrEs). The history The word co'rvus is also applied to various kinds
and explanation of the deities bearing this name, of grappling-hooks, such as the corvus demnolitor,
in the early mythology of Greece, cannot be given mentioned by Vitruvius (x. 19) for pulling down
in this place, as it would lead us to enter into his- w alls, or the terrible engine spoken of by Tacitus
torical and mythological questions beyond the (l-ist. iv. 30), which being fixed on the walls of a
limits of this Dictionary. The Coryhantes, of whom fortified place, and suddenly let down, carried off
we have to speak here, were the ministers or priests one of the besieging party, and then by a turn of
of Rhea or Cybele, the great mother of the gods, the machine put him down within the walls. The
who was worshipped in Phrygia. In their solemn word is used by Celsus for a scalpel. It is hardly
festivals they displayed the most extravagant fury necessary to remark that all these meanings have
in their dances in armour, as well as in the ac- their origin in the supposed resemblance of the
companying music of flutes, cymbals and drums. various instruments to the beak of a raven. [B.J.]
(Strab. x. p. 470.) Hence Copv rraeyl4s was the CORY'TOS. [AncUS, p. 126, a.],
name given to an imaginary disease, in which per- COSME'TAE, a class of slaves among the Rosons felt as if some great noise was rattling in their mans, whose duty it was to dress and adorn ladies.
ears. (Plato, Crito, p. 54. d., with Stallbauns's (Juv. Sat. vi. 476.) Some writers on antiquities,
note.) [L. S.] and among them Bbttiger in his Sabina (i. 22)
CORYBA'NTICA (tcopegavrlrc), a festival have supposed that the cosmetae were female
and mysteries celebrated at Cnossus in Crete, in slaves, but the passage of Juvenal is alone sufficonmemoration of one Corybas (Strab. x. p. 470.), cient to refute this opinion; for it wvas not cuswvso, in common with the Ciretes, brought up Zeus tomary for female slaves to take off their tunics
and concealed him from his father Crones in that vhen a punishment was to be inflicted upon them.
island. Other accounts say that the Corybantes, There was, indeed, a class of female slaves who
nine in number, independent of the Curetes, saved were employed for the same purposes as the cosIand educated Zeus; a third legend (Cic. De Nat. metae; but they were called cosmetriae, a name
Deor. iii. 23) states that Corybas was the father I which Naevius chose as the title for one of Iis