DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0450
chap, lvi.] VENERABLE ANTIQUITY OF CORTONA.
433
renown are fresh and green. Thou mayst have wandered
far and wide through Italy—nothing hast thou seen more
venerable than Cortona. Ere the days of Hector and
Achilles, ere Troy itself arose—Cortona was. On that
bare and lofty height, whose towered crest holds com-
munion with the cloud, dwelt the heaven-born Dardanus,
ere he left Italy to found the Trojan race; and on that
mount reigned his father Corythus, and there he was
laid in the tomb.1 Such is the ancient legend, and
1 This is the Italian tradition. It is
because Dardanus the founder of Troy
was believed to haye come from Cortona
that Virgil (jEu. I. 380) makes .Eneas
say—
Italiam qusero patriam, et genus ab
Jove summo.
Servius (in loe.) thus explains it, and
shows that elsewhere (^En. VII. 122)
.(Eneas is made to say of Italy—
Hie domus, haec patria est.
cf. Ma. III. 167; VII. 206, et seq.
The original name of Cortona was Cory-
thus, or Corithus, so called from its
hens eporvymos, Corythus, the reputed
father of Dardanus. The legend states
that Corythus, who ruled also over
other cities of Italy, was buried on this
mount. His wife Electra bore a son
to Jupiter, called Dardanus, who, being
driven out of Italy went to Phrygia and
founded Troy. Another tradition re-
cords that Dardanus, repulsed in an
equestrian combat with the Aborigines,
lost his helmet, and rallying his men to
recover it, gained the victory; to cele-
brate which he built a city on the spot,
and named it from his helmet—ic6pvs.
A third legend refers the origin of the
city to Corythus, son of Paris and
CEnone. Virg. .En. III. 167 ; VII.
206—211 ; IX. 10 ; X. 719 ; Serv. in
loe. and ad .En. I. 380 ; III. IS, 104,
170. All this belongs to the purely
mythical period, and cannot be regarded
as historical, yet may be received as
evidence of the very remote antiquity
of this city.
It is generally believed that Corythus
was really the ancient name of Cortona,
but Miiller (Etrusk. IV. 4, 5) questions
this, and thinks that it is a mere Greek
tradition, arbitrarily referred to that
city. Yet there can be no doubt that
it was so regarded by the Romans.
Besides the evidence of Virgil and his
commentator, the identity is made per-
fectly clear in a passage of Silius Italicus
(V. 122) which Niebuhr (I. p. 33) pro-
nounced decisive—
Poenus nunc occupet altos
Arret! muros, Corythi nunc diruat
arcem?
Hinc Clusina petat ? postremo ad
moenia Romse, &c.
The poet uses the ancient name for the
sake of the verse, as elsewhere (IV.
721)—
sedemque ab origine prisci
Sacratam Corythi.
There is no reason to believe that it
was retained to Annibal's time, to
which the poem refers, much less to
his own.
TOL. II.
F F
433
renown are fresh and green. Thou mayst have wandered
far and wide through Italy—nothing hast thou seen more
venerable than Cortona. Ere the days of Hector and
Achilles, ere Troy itself arose—Cortona was. On that
bare and lofty height, whose towered crest holds com-
munion with the cloud, dwelt the heaven-born Dardanus,
ere he left Italy to found the Trojan race; and on that
mount reigned his father Corythus, and there he was
laid in the tomb.1 Such is the ancient legend, and
1 This is the Italian tradition. It is
because Dardanus the founder of Troy
was believed to haye come from Cortona
that Virgil (jEu. I. 380) makes .Eneas
say—
Italiam qusero patriam, et genus ab
Jove summo.
Servius (in loe.) thus explains it, and
shows that elsewhere (^En. VII. 122)
.(Eneas is made to say of Italy—
Hie domus, haec patria est.
cf. Ma. III. 167; VII. 206, et seq.
The original name of Cortona was Cory-
thus, or Corithus, so called from its
hens eporvymos, Corythus, the reputed
father of Dardanus. The legend states
that Corythus, who ruled also over
other cities of Italy, was buried on this
mount. His wife Electra bore a son
to Jupiter, called Dardanus, who, being
driven out of Italy went to Phrygia and
founded Troy. Another tradition re-
cords that Dardanus, repulsed in an
equestrian combat with the Aborigines,
lost his helmet, and rallying his men to
recover it, gained the victory; to cele-
brate which he built a city on the spot,
and named it from his helmet—ic6pvs.
A third legend refers the origin of the
city to Corythus, son of Paris and
CEnone. Virg. .En. III. 167 ; VII.
206—211 ; IX. 10 ; X. 719 ; Serv. in
loe. and ad .En. I. 380 ; III. IS, 104,
170. All this belongs to the purely
mythical period, and cannot be regarded
as historical, yet may be received as
evidence of the very remote antiquity
of this city.
It is generally believed that Corythus
was really the ancient name of Cortona,
but Miiller (Etrusk. IV. 4, 5) questions
this, and thinks that it is a mere Greek
tradition, arbitrarily referred to that
city. Yet there can be no doubt that
it was so regarded by the Romans.
Besides the evidence of Virgil and his
commentator, the identity is made per-
fectly clear in a passage of Silius Italicus
(V. 122) which Niebuhr (I. p. 33) pro-
nounced decisive—
Poenus nunc occupet altos
Arret! muros, Corythi nunc diruat
arcem?
Hinc Clusina petat ? postremo ad
moenia Romse, &c.
The poet uses the ancient name for the
sake of the verse, as elsewhere (IV.
721)—
sedemque ab origine prisci
Sacratam Corythi.
There is no reason to believe that it
was retained to Annibal's time, to
which the poem refers, much less to
his own.
TOL. II.
F F