Koriun #

Introduction #

by Beyon Miloyan

Կորիւն (Koriun), vardapet.

Koriun (fl. early 5th century) was the youngest disciple of Saint Mesrop Mashtots. A key figure of the “Golden Age” of Armenian literature—when the Bible was translated and a number of original works were composed in Mashtots’s new script—he is best known as the author of the Life of Mashtots, a hagiography of his teacher. While Saint Mashtots is remembered today primarily as the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, Koriun does not portray him as a scholarly figure, but as an ascetic and pastoral one. According to Koriun, the creation of the Armenian letters was neither a purely secular nor an isolated national effort: the initial prototypes came from a Syriac bishop named Daniel, and the final, calligraphic refinement was the work of a Greek scribe named Rufinus. King Vramshapuh and Saint Sahak Catholicos played key roles as well, with Saint Sahak conducting the first translation of the Scriptures into Armenian. Finally, Mashtots’s concern was never limited to Armenia alone; Koriun describes his work in neighboring regions such as Aghuank (modern Azerbaijan) and Iberia (modern Georgia), where he helped develop their alphabets, establish their ministries and proclaim the good tidings.

The present edition #

This edition presents Koriun’s Life of Mashtots in parallel Classical Armenian and English texts. Each Classical Armenian word is interactively annotated with mouseover grammatical tags, including word roots, definitions, and links to a dictionary. Sourced from the 2023 Sophene edition (Classical Armenian and English, translated by Beyon Miloyan).

References #

1. Miloyan, B. (2023). Koriun’s Life of Mashtots. Sophene.