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Corybant

American  
[kawr-uh-bant, kor-] / ˈkɔr əˌbænt, ˈkɒr- /

noun

  • Corybantes,
    plural
  • Corybants
    plural
  1. Classical Mythology. any of the spirits or secondary divinities attending Cybele with wild music and dancing.

  2. an ancient Phrygian priest of Cybele.


Corybant British  
/ ˈkɒrɪˌbænt /

noun

  1. classical myth a wild attendant of the goddess Cybele

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns


Etymology

Origin of Corybant

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin Corybant- (stem of Corybās ) < Greek Korybant- (stem of Korýbās )


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

That's not sane, you know—it's the intoxication of the Corybant!

From Father Payne by Arthur Christopher Benson

The gold figure of a Cybele in a gold chariot raced with eight reproductions of herself in an octagonal mirror-lined foyer, and a steady stream of Corybantes bought admission tickets at twenty-five cents a Corybant.

From Just Around the Corner Romance en casserole by Fannie Hurst

Corybant, kor′i-bant, n. a priest of Cybele, whose rites were accompanied with noisy music and wild dances:—Eng. pl.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

Treat me as a Corybant, a fanatic: and do you go forward on this road of yours.

From Marius the Epicurean — Volume 2 by Walter Pater

The Corybantes, the Bacchantes, the rude primitive tragedians with their procession and goat-song, and the whole paraphernalia of the Panathenaea, which appear so antiquated and peculiar, have their parallel now.

From A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau

The Phrygian Corybantes had been forced out of the hill-side like trees by Rhea, the great mother, and hence were called δενδροϕυεῖς.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" by Various

The Corybantes promised eternal life to the Initiates of the Mysteries of Cybele and Atys.

From Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by Albert Pike

The Corybantes were called so from their disorderly dancing as they went along.

From A Treatise on the Art of Dancing by Giovanni-Andrea Gallini

Cybele, moved with sorrow and regret, instituted a yearly mourning for his loss, when her priests, the Corybantes, with their usual noisy accompaniments, marched into the mountains to seek the lost youth.

From Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E.M. Berens

These are Corybants who might have flocked in the pagan train of Cybele.

From Time Magazine Archive

Her statue, carried in a splendid litter, robed with precious stuffs, curled and farded, passed through the streets of the city, with its guard of mummers and Corybants.

From Saint Augustin by Vincent O'Sullivan

Hermes received me, and gave me my place next to a group of Gods whose alien origin left them in a rather doubtful position—Pan, the Corybants, Attis, and Sabazius.

From Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03 by F. G. (Francis George) Fowler

Lys. Now in the market you see them like Corybants, jangling about with their armour of mail.

From Pot-Boilers by Clive Bell

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