Coryphaeus

In Attic drama, the coryphaeus, corypheus, or koryphaios (Greek κορυφαῖος koryphaîos, from κορυφή koryphḗ́, the top of the head) was the leader of the chorus. Hence the term (sometimes in an Anglicized form "coryphe") is used for the chief or leader of any company or movement.^[1] The original Greek coryphaeus spoke for all the chorus, whenever the chorus took part in the action, in quality of a person of the drama, during the course of the acts.

The term is sometimes used for the chief or principal of any company, corporation, sect, opinion, etc. Thus, Eustathius of Antioch is called the coryphaeus of the First Council of Nicaea of 325 CE, and Cicero calls Zeno (c. 334 – c. 262 BCE) the coryphaeus of the Stoics.^{[citation needed]}

Paul the Apostle is often entitled "Coryphaeus" in Christian iconography.^{[citation needed]}

In 1856 the University of Oxford established the office of Coryphaeus or Praecentor with the duty of leading the musical performances directed by the Choragus. The office ceased to exist in 1899.^[1]

Solzhenitsyn's In the First Circle (1968), often refers to Stalin as a "Coryphaeus" ("the Coryphaeus of all the Sciences", for example), meaning that he speaks for all in the Soviet Union.