When an educated viewer sees the game of a good actor, for example, Al Pacino, he can say: “This is a performance! Al Pacino is a true expert in his field and a luminous person. What kind of word is this, we will analyze in this article.
Origin
From the sound you can understand that the word is not Russian. It came to us from the Greek language. Coryphaus is the leader of the choir in ancient Greek tragedy. The main function of luminaries is communication, communication between actors and the choir. We apologize in advance to opera lovers, but not all people love this type of art precisely because of its incomprehensibility. When actors sing on stage, especially if the action takes place in a foreign language, an uninformed spectator does not understand too much what is happening. It was almost the same in ancient Greece. The coryphaeus is the person who explained to the audience exactly what the choir sings about, he could summarize the monologue uttered by the artist, proclaim the appearance of a new character on the stage, he could give parting words to the hero who leaves the action.
Modern interpretation. Art and science
Do not forget about the origin and continue thinking. The coryphaeus is, on the one hand, a person belonging to the choir and associated with it, and on the other, a completely separate element that stands out from the rest. At the same time, he performs a connecting role and does it well. In addition, this is a person who perfectly understands what is happening at the moment on the stage, can give this an interpretation.
Gradually, the luminary (meaning of the word) began to be defined in a new way, now it is a person who has achieved significant success in any field, as a rule, in art or science. So you can call a professor who made an outstanding discovery, a man who is very respected in society, an old and very good artist.
Ballet Area
The connection with tradition persists even when it comes to the meaning of the word “luminaries” in ballet. In this field of art, this is the name of the artist who is the leader of the corps de ballet, who performs in the performance a solo, but not the main part.
If we talk about the word “coryphaeus” (its meaning is currently being analyzed) in the general sense, then it in itself does not bear a negative or ironic connotation. And to characterize the figures of art, culture and science, even respected professors use it in their lectures. Naturally, respectable teachers do not pursue any unseemly goals when they say so. But as we understand, the emotional coloring of an expression or a word can vary depending on who exactly speaks it and in what context it uses. Even the most serious, bookish, lofty word can be reduced and applied in a completely different sense than the one awarded by history and language. However, we move on to the examples.
Notable movie figures
After it became known what meaning the word “luminary” is endowed with, one can talk about people who could be described with such a word. Let's start with the movie. Of course, each viewer has his own pantheon of film gods. There can be no claim to the ultimate truth. Nevertheless, it seems that Al Pacino, mentioned at the beginning of the article, quite deserved the title of luminaries. The same can be said about his partner in the film "The Godfather" Robert de Niro.
It has been more difficult with Russian cinema of recent times, but it can be said for sure that the Soviet era gave us many prominent figures. First of all, Sergey Bondarchuk and his masterpiece “They Fought for the Homeland” are recalled.
Luminaries in the literature
Of course, in any field of art, including literature, everyone can determine who is considered luminaries and who is not. However, there are generally recognized figures. For example, well-known Russian classics - L.N. Tolstoy and F.M. Dostoevsky. Someone will attribute to the luminaries the modern English writer Joan Rowling.
The figure of Tolstoy is important not only because he wrote brilliant novels, he had a strong influence on the development of literature, both domestic and world, thanks to his views, a new religious and moral movement called “Tolstoyism” arose.
From the works of Dostoevsky came Russian religious philosophy. ON THE. Berdyaev wrote: “We are the spiritual children of Dostoevsky.” The author of “Demons”, using a detective story, wrote religious and philosophical treatises, which without fail contained moral and moral lessons for the reader.
No one will argue that the two classics, who both in the history of literature and in the mass consciousness left a bright mark, are real luminaries. Although "luminaries" are too small a definition for them, they are geniuses.
However, let’s leave our wonderful classics, turn to today and talk a little about foreign literature, about “Harry Potter”. This landmark series of books about the boy who survived has fallen in love with millions of readers. Of course, the writer is a master of her craft, which means that she, too, can be called a coryphaeus.