Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cothurnus

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

COTHURNUS (κόθορνος). A high boot of Greek original, usually worn by huntsmen, and persons addicted to the sports of the field. It was a leather boot, enveloping the entire foot (whence cothurno calceatus, Plin. H. N. vii. 19.) and leg as far as the calf (Serv. ad Virg. Aen. i. 337. Herod. vi. 125.), was laced up the front, and turned over with a fall down at the top, besides possessing the characteristic peculiarity of not being made right and left, as the foot coverings of the ancients usually were, but with a straight sole (solo perpetuo, Sidon. Apoll. Carm. ii. 400.), so that each boot could be worn indifferently on either foot (utroque aptus pedi, Serv. ad Virg. Bucol. vii. 32.); hence the frequent application of the word in the singular, whilst the calcei and other coverings made in pairs mostly occur in the plural. All these peculiarities are distinctly apparent in the illustration (Cothurnus/1.1), representing on a larger scale the boots worn by the fowler exhibited at p. 67. s. AUCEPS.

2. A boot of the same description, but more elaborately ornamented, and commonly translated buskin, is occasionally assigned by the Greek artists to some of their divinities, especially to Diana, Bacchus, and Mercury; and by the Romans, in like manner, to the goddess Roma, and to their emperors, as a sign of divinity. Thus they were assumed by M. Antony, when he affected the character and attributes of Bacchus (Vell. Pat. ii. 82.); but they were not worn by the Roman as a part of his ordinary costume; for Cicero (Phil. iii. 6.) reproaches the insolence of one Tuditanus who appeared in public cum palla et cothurnis. The illustration (Cothurnus/2.1) affords a specimen of a cothurnus of this nature, from a marble figure of the goddess Roma.

3. The Roman poets also make use of the word cothurnus, as a translation of the Greek ἐνδρομίς (see ENDROMIS, 3.). In this manner it is applied by Virgil (Aen. i. 341.), Nemesian (Cyneg. 90.), and Sidonius Apollinaris (Carm. ii. 400.), which last passage minutely describes the ἐνδρομίς, but not the cothurnus.

4. A boot worn by tragic actors on the stage (Virg. Ecl. viii. 10. Servius ad l.), having a cork sole several inches thick, for the purpose of increasing their stature (compare Juv. Sat. vi. 633.), and giving them a more imposing appearance; whence the word also came to signify a grand and dignified style. It was in order to conceal the unsightly appearance of such a chaussure, that the tragic actors always wore long robes reaching to the ground, as seen in the illustration (Cothurnus/4.1) annexed, from a marble bas-relief of the Villa Albani, representing a company of stage-players, though here the artist has left the cothurni uncovered, in order to identify the character of the actor.

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  Cothurnus/1.1
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  Cothurnus/2.1
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  Cothurnus/4.1