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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—C

Corinth

Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum (It falls not to every man's lot to go to Corinth). Gellius, in his Noctes Atticæ, i. 8, says that Horace refers to Laïs, a courtesan of Corinth, who sold her favours at so high a price that not everyone could afford to purchase them; but this most certainly is not the meaning that Horace intended. He says, “To please princes is no little praise, for it falls not to every man's lot to go to Corinth.” That is, it is as hard to please princes as it is to enter Corinth, situated between two seas, and hence called Bimaris Corinthus. (1 Odes, vii. line 2.)

Still, without doubt, the proverb was applied as Aulus Gellius says: “The courtesans of Corinth are not every man's money.” Demosthenes tells us that Laïs sold her favours for 10,000 [Attic] drachmae (about 300), and adds tanti non emo poenitere. (Horace: 1 Epistles, xvii. line 36.)

Corinth

There is but one road that leads to Corinth. There is only one right way of doing anything. The Bible tells us that the way of evil is broad, because of its many tracks; but the way of life is narrow, because it has only one single footpath.

“All other ways are wrong, all other guides are false. Hence my difficulty:- the number and variety of the ways. For you know, `There is but one road that leads to Corinth.' ” —Pater: Marius the Epicurean, chap. 24.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Corinth's Pedagogue

Corinnus