Corinna - Modern Scholarship

Modern Scholarship

Many modern scholars have challenged the traditional assertion that Corinna was a contemporary of Pindar, and claim a much later date for her. Citing the Boeotian orthography of her surviving fragments, David Campbell, who edited a modern version of her fragments, argues that she lived about 200 BC, and that her traditional biography, replete with contradictory accounts of her character, emerged as legend at a much later date.

Other classicists, including Peter Levi, also claim a later date for her, based on her mythological references, which are from a later date, and the absence of any contemporary accounts corroborating her victory over Pindar. Furthermore, the earliest known fragments of her work date from the 2nd century BC, in keeping with other evidence about when she actually lived.