Lucius Annaeus Cornutus facts for kids

Lucius Annaeus Cornutus was a smart Stoic philosopher who lived around 60 AD, during the time of the Roman Emperor Nero. He had a school in Rome where he taught philosophy to many students.

Life of Cornutus

Cornutus was born in a place called Leptis Magna in Libya, but he mostly lived in Rome. He is best known as the teacher and friend of a poet named Persius. Persius even wrote one of his poems to Cornutus. Other important students, like Claudius Agathemerus, also learned from him.

Cornutus introduced Persius to another famous writer, Lucan, who was about the same age as Persius. When Persius died, he left some money to Cornutus. However, Cornutus gave the money back to Persius's sisters. Instead, he accepted Persius's large library of about 700 scrolls.

Cornutus helped prepare Persius's poems for publishing. He then gave them to another editor, Caesius Bassus, to finish the work.

There's a famous story about Cornutus and Emperor Nero. Persius had written some lines in his poems that seemed to make fun of Nero. The original line was:

Auriculas asini Mida rex habet

(King Midas has an ass's ears)

Cornutus changed it to:

Auriculas asini quis non habet?

Who has not an ass's ears?

He did this so that people wouldn't think the poem was talking about Emperor Nero.

Even with this change, Cornutus was later sent away from Rome by Emperor Nero. This happened around 66 or 68 AD. It was because Cornutus had said something that Nero thought was disrespectful about a history book Nero was planning to write. After this, we don't know what happened to Cornutus.

Cornutus's Writings

Cornutus wrote many books and essays in both Greek and Latin. Some of his works were about rhetoric, which is the art of speaking or writing effectively. For example, he wrote a book called De figuris sententiarum. Parts of another book, De enuntiatione vel orthographia, have been saved in the writings of Cassiodorus.

He also wrote a commentary on the works of Virgil, a famous Roman poet. This commentary is often mentioned by Servius, another ancient writer. Cornutus also wrote about the ideas of Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher.

Compendium of Greek Theology

Cornutus's most important book that we still have today is called Theologiae Graecae compendium (which means "Compendium of Greek Theology"). This book is like a guide to "popular mythology as explained by the Stoics."

In this book, Cornutus tried to understand the oldest beliefs people had about the world. He did this by looking at the different names and titles of the Greek gods. He believed that the names of the gods could tell us about their true meaning. Sometimes, his explanations might seem a bit strange to us today because he tried very hard to find meanings in the words.

For example, when he talks about Heaven (called Ouranos in Greek), he writes:

The Heaven [ouranos], my boy, surrounds the earth and the sea and everything on them. It got its name because it is an "upper limit" [ouros anô] of all things and "marks the bounds" [horizôn] of nature. Some say it is called Heaven [ouranos] from its "looking after" [ôrein] or "tending to" [ôreuein] things, meaning it guards them. Others say its name comes from "being seen above" [horasthai anô]. Everything it surrounds is called the "world" [kosmos] because it is "so beautifully ordered" [diakekosmêsthai].

The book continues by explaining other gods like Zeus, Hera, Cronus, and Poseidon. It also talks about the Furies, Fates, Muses, and Graces. Throughout the book, Cornutus explains these myths using the ideas of Stoic physics, which is how the Stoics understood the natural world.

For example, he explains that the world has a soul that keeps it going, and this soul is called Zeus. Zeus lives in Heaven and is made of fire. Zeus is the power that is everywhere and decides what happens to each person. Cornutus believed that the gods gave us Reason, which is part of the divine Reason of the universe.

He also explains that Ocean is like the "Reason" that changes quickly and constantly. Tethys represents the stability of things. He believed that everything that exists comes from a mix of these two ideas.

See also

In Spanish: Lucio Anneo Cornuto para niños