KORIUN. – Armenian historian of the 5th century, author of a biography of Mastotz, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet and his teacher.
Although the information he transmits is fragmentary, the book is of considerable importance, since Koriun is perhaps the only contemporary of Mastotz who recounts the invention of the alphabet. The language of the biography, eminently classical, nevertheless has its own characteristics, and together with Agatangelo and Faustus of Byzantium forms a distinct group.
BIBL.: Critical ed. by G. Fendeglian with introductory study, Jerusalem 1930; German trans., Tübingen 1841; French trans., V. Langlois, in Collection historique des anciens et modernes arméniens, II, Paris 1870; N. Adontz, K., in Handes Amsorya, 1927, pp. 273, 395; 1928, p. 76.