cothurnus

cŏthurnus, i, m., = κόθορνος, a high Grecian shoe.

• I In gen., Cic. Fin. 3, 14, 46; id. Phil. 3, 6, 16; Vell. 2, 82, 4 al.—
• II Esp.
• • A A high Grecian hunting-boot, laced up in front, and covering the whole foot, Verg. E. 7, 32; id. A. 1, 337; Juv. 6, 506.—
  • B The high shoe or buskin worn by tragic actors (while soccus was the shoe of the comic actor), Hor. A. P. 80; 280; id. S. 1, 5, 64 al.—Hence,
  • • 2 Meton.
    • • a Tragedy, Hor. A. P. 80.—
      • b A subject of tragedy Juv. 15, 29.—
      • c An elevated style, in poetry, Verg. E. 8, 10; Hor. C. 2, 1, 12; Prop. 2 (3), 34, 41; Quint. 10, 1, 68 et saep.; also in painting, Plin. 35, 10, 36, § 111 (with gravitas artis).—
      • d Elevation, majesty (late Lat.): imperatoriae auctoritatis, Amm.21, 16, 1.

cothurnus (coturnus), ī, m. (κόθορνος), eine mit dicken Sohlen versehene griech. Fußbekleidung, die den ganzen Fuß bedeckte, hinten bis in die Mitte des Beins hinaufreichte, vorn mit (gew. roten) Riemen zugeschnürt wurde, der Kothurn, I) als Fußbekleidung der Jäger, der Jagdkothurn, Jagdstiefel, Verg. ecl. 7, 32; Aen. 1, 337. Iuven. 6, 505. – II) als Fußbekleidung der tragischen Schauspieler (in männl. u. weibl. Rollen) und anderer im tragischen Kostüm öffentlich auftretender Personen, der Hochschuh, Kothurn (Ggstz. soccus, die Fußbekleidung der komischen Schauspieler), 1) eig.: c. tragicus, Hor. u. Amm. (s. unten): c. maior, minor, Cic.: Tragoedia pictis innixa cothurnis, Ov.: cothurnus ad pedem apte convenit, Cic.: personam Herculis et cothurnos aptare infantibus, Quint.: nil illi larvā aut tragicis opus esse cothurnis, Hor.: risit Amor pallamque meam pictosque cothurnos sceptraque, Ov.: in cothurnis prodit Aesopus novis, er tritt in neuen K. auf (bildl. = er tritt mit tragischen Versen auf, die an ihm neu sind), Phaedr.: videtur de cothurno strepere tragico, vom trag. K. herabzudonnern (= hochtrabend zu reden), Ggstz. omni humilior est socco, Amm.: redimitus hederis coronāque velatus aureā et thyrsum tenens cothurnisque succinctus (al. subnixus) velut Liber Pater vectus est Alexandriae, Vell.: veste purpureā et cothurnis regum tragicorum et coronā aureā utebatur, Iustin.: Tuditanus ille, qui cum palla et cothurnis nummos populo de rostris spargere solebat, Cic. – 2) übtr.: a) die Tragödie, Hor. de art. poët. 80. – b) das tragische Sujet, Iuven. 15, 29. – c) der tragische, erhabene Stil (Ggstz. soccus, der niedrige Stil der Komödie), α) in der Dichtung: c. facundiae, Apul.: cothurnus et sonus Sophoclis sublimior, Quint.: sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothurno, Verg.: ioca non infra soccum, seria non usque ad cothurnum, Apul.: Aeschyleo desine componere verba cothurno, Prop.: nec comoedia cothurnis assurgit nec contra tragoedia socculo ingreditur, Quint.: a socco ad cothurnum ascendere, Apul. – β) in der Malerei, Plin. 35, 111. – d) erhabene Würde, imperatoriae auctoritatis (kaiserl. Majestät), Ggstz. popularitas, Amm. 21, 16, 1. – ➳ Über die Schreibung coturnus s. Brambach Hilfsbuch S. 32. Fritzsche Hor. sat. 1, 5, 64.

cothurnus (coturn-) [CL < κόθορνος] , buskin, wooden shoe. b (fig., w. ref. to costume of tragic actors) lofty style. c haughtiness. ~us est quo[d]dam genus calciamenti quod poetae habent GlC C 844; ~us, triwen sceo Ælf. Gl.; 1567 j par de ~is de velvet unschorne Ac. LChamb. 59 f. 15 (cf. Misc. LChamb. 34 p. 15: buskins of unschorne velvet).  b accolae Delfici hoc [Pithio] illum [Apollinem] versu et facundiae ~o extulerunt Aldh. Met. 10 p. 94; ~o, wodhae GlC C 840; clams carmine David / insistendo probat pretioso sancta coturno Alcuin Carm. 6. 23; coepta libet solito nunc insanire coturno Frith. 693; nos accingamur sed nobiliore coturno V. Ed. Conf. 38v; habent et nostra tempora forsitan aliquid Sophoclis non indignum ~o [cf. Quint. Inst. X 1. 68] Map NC V 1.  c ~us, ofermod Ælf. Gl.; quem [furiosum], non presumptionis ~o sed obedientie studio, precepit exhiberi Gir. GE I 23; contigit episcopi ministros ‥, ambitionis quodam evectos ~o, objurgare Chr. Battle 63.

cŏthurnus, (11) ī, m. (κόθορνος), ¶ 1 cothurne, chaussure montante : a) à lʼusage des chasseurs : Cic. Fin. 3, 46 ; Virg. B. 7, 32 ; Juv. 6, 105 ; b) à lʼusage des acteurs tragiques : Hor. P. 280 ¶ 2 [fig.] tragédie : Hor. P. 80 || sujet tragique : Juv. 15, 29 || style élevé, sublime : Virg. En. 8, 10 ; Quint. 10, 1, 68 || peinture de grand style : Plin. 35, 111 || majesté, prestige : Amm. 21, 16, 1.

cothurnus , i. m.
貴鞋。苦戲。高文。— artis 巧工。

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cothurnus ī, m

• , κόθορνος, a high Grecian shoe: cum pallā et cothurnis.—A laced huntingboot covering the foot, V. — A buskin, high shoe worn by tragic actors, H.: grandes cothurni, i. e. tragedy, H.: Sophocleus, the muse, V.: Cecropius, i. e. tragedy like that of Athens, H.: cunctis graviora cothurnis, Iu.

COTHURNUS

COTHURNUS(κόθορνος). The word cothurnus is chiefly associated with tragedy, and among the Romans was the name given to the tragic boot. But it is to be carefully borne in mind that among the Greeks the tragic boot was not so called. The Greek term used was occasionally ὀκρίβας (Philostr. Apoll. 6.11; Vit. Soph. 1.9, 1), but more usually ἐμβάτης (Lucian, Jup. Trag. 41; Hist. conscrib. 22; Necyom. 16). A distinction is said to subsist between ἐμβάτης, the tragic boot, and ἐμβάς, the comic one (Ammon. p. 49; Thom. Mag. p. 300); and again the distinction is said to be that ἐμβὰς is the tragic boot and ἐμβάτης the comic one (Poll. 4.115). But the latter distinction certainly cannot be sustained, for ἐμβάδες is often used for the comic boot (e. g. Arist. Eq. 321) and ἐμβάτης for the tragic one (Lucian, Salt. 27); and even the former is very questionable, for in Bekk. Anecd. 746 ἐμβάδων is used of the tragic buskin (cf. Sommerbrodt, Scaenica, p. 106, note). Among the Greeks the κόθορνος was a kind of closed boot (in distinction to sandals) worn by women, which could fit either foot (hence the nickname of Κόθορνος given to Theramenes, Xen. Hell. 2.3, 31, and the proverb εὐμεταβολώτερος κοθόρνου), and had rectangular soles (Etym. M. 524, 40). In Herodotus (Hdt. 6.126) it was the kind of boot put on by Alcmaeon when he was allowed to take as much gold as he could carry out of the treasury of Croesus; and was also the kind of boot which Croesus advised Cyrus to compel the Lydians to wear, in order to make them effeminate (Hdt. 1.155). The cothurnus is called by Ovid Lydian (Am. 3.1, 14), and in this connexion it is to be remembered that τυρρηνικὰ were rectangular wooden shoes [CALCEUS]. In Aristophanes, too, the κόθορνος is a woman's boot (Lys. 657; Eccl. 346, cf. 319; and especially Ran. 47), apparently of such a nature that the foot could be easily slipped into it (Eccl. 346). The generic name for such a boot seems to have been ἐμβάτης or ἐμβάς (ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐμβαίνειν τοὺς πόδας, Etym. M. 333, 54); and this word ἐμβάτης is specially applied by the Greeks to a top-boot reaching up to the calf of the leg and worn by hunters (Xen. Eq. 12, 10; cf. Poll. 5.18). The term κόθορνος in Greek is not used in this sense ; but cothurnus in Latin is often applied to the hunter's boot (Verg. Ecl. 7.32; Aen. 1.341, and Servius ad loc.), the species coming to be used for the genus, both agreeing in the quality of being easily slipped on. The correct Greek term for the hunting boot is ENDROMIS

In Roman times cothurnus also takes the place of ἐμβάτης as applied to the tragic boot (e. g. Ovid. Am. 2.18, 15; Tert. Spect. 23). It was a closed boot, but its special characteristic was the great height of its soles (Ov. Am. 3.1, 63; Senec. Ep. 76, 31), and accordingly the term is applied to the very high-soled boot of a small woman (Juven. 6.506). The actors were perched up on painted (Ov. Am. 2.18, 14; Wieseler, Denkm. des Bühenwesen, plates 7 and 8) wooden (Schol. ad Lucian, Saturn. 19) blocks, which we can well believe were heavy (Lucian, Anach. 23), which were, as may be seen from the accompanying cut, probably six or seven inches high, and from which he had to get down (καταβάς) at the end of the performance. The object was to give the principal characters a grandiose and superhuman stature. The less important actors had lower-soled boots, and we find pictures of actors with soles of different heights to their buskins (Saglio, fig. 2032; cf. Cic. Fin. 3.14, 46). The statue of Melpomene on the sarcophagus of the Muses in the Louvre (Saglio, fig. 2028) wears two cothurni of different heights. The cothurnus being such a salient point of tragic costume, it came to be used for tragedy, or tragic style generally (e. g. Hor. A. P. 80 ; Od. 2.1, 12). In the Satyric drama the heroic characters most probably wore the high-soled boot, as Wieseler (Satyrspiel, p. 80) supposes, though A. Müller (Die griech. Bühn. p. 242) thinks they adopted the hunter's boot. From analogy with the huntsman's boot, we might infer that the tragic boot came considerably up the leg; but we cannot verify this from pictures, and it is at variance with a statement of Lucian's (Gall. 26) that when an actor with ἐμβάδες on fell the naked legs were exposed. The boots most probably did not come above the ankle. The uppers appear to have been made of leather; the huntsman's ἐμβάτης undoubtedly was (Xen. Eq. 12, 10), and the woman's κόθορνος in Aristoph. Lys. 658is ἀψηκτός, which leads us to suppose that they were usually of leather. Cothurni do not appear on some pictures of actors found at Pompeii; so that we may infer that they were not always used. For other theories based on their absence, see A. Müller, op. cit. 240.

The chief works on the subject are Becker-Göll, Charikles, 3.280 ff.; Sommerbrodt, Scaenica, pp. 192-197; A. Müller, Die griechischen Bühnenalterthümer, pp. 238-241; and Pottier in Daremberg and Saglio's Dict. des Antiquités, s. v. Cothurnus.

[L.C.P]

Cothurnus

or more correctly Coturnus (κόθορνος). The Greek name for a high shoe or buskin with several soles. It covered the whole foot, and rose as high as the middle of the leg. It was made so as to fit either foot, and was generally fastened in front with red straps. The cothurnus was properly a hunting-boot, but Aeschylus made it part of the costume of his tragic actors to give them a stature above the average. At the same time the hair was dressed high in order to maintain the proportion of the figure. The cothurnus was also used in the Roman tragedy. (See Soccus.) It must be remembered that though the name κόθορνος is Greek, the Greeks do not use it of the tragic boot, which they call ὀκρίβας, or more usually ἐμβάτης.