Corydon

Corydon (Greek Κορύδων Korúdōn, probably related to κόρυδος kórudos "lark") is a stock name for a herdsman in ancient Greek pastoral poems and fables, and in much later European literature. Ancient Corydon features in the fourth Idyll of the Syracusan poet Theocritus (c. 300 – c. 250 BC), where he is found herding some cows belonging to a certain Aegon. The name was used by the Latin poets Siculus and, more significantly, Virgil. In the second of Virgil's Eclogues, Corydon is a goatherd who loves a boy called Alexis. Corydon is the name of a character that features heavily in the Eclogues of Calpurnius Siculus. Some scholars believe that this Corydon represents Calpurnius himself, or at least his "poetic voice". Early-modern Corydon is mentioned in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen as a shepherd in Book VI, Canto X. In this section he is portrayed as a coward who fails to come to the aid of Pastorell when she is being pursued by a tiger.