For those interested, here is the passage from Vitruvius (IV.1):

After explaining that the Doric and Ionic are in turn masculine and feminine (“one manlike in appearance, bare, unadorned; the other feminine” Vitruvius says the Corinthian “imitates the slight figure of a maiden.”

“Now the first invention of that capital is related to have happened thus. A girl, a native of Corinth, already of age to be married, was attacked by disease and died. After her funeral, the goblets which delighted her when living, were put together in a basket by her nurse, carried to the monument, and placed on the top. That they might remain longer, exposed as they were to the weather, she covered the basket with a tile. As it happened the basket was placed upon the root of an acanthus. Meanwhile about spring time, the root of the acanthus, being pressed down in the middle by the weight, put forth leaves and shoots. The shoots grew up the sides of the basket, and, being pressed down at the angles by the force of the weight of the tile, were compelled to form the curves of volutes at the extreme parts.”

[Eius autem capituli prima inventio sic memoratur esse facta. Virgo civis Corinthia iam matura nuptiis inplicata morbo decessit. Post sepulturam eius, quibus ea virgo viva poculis delectabatur, nutrix collecta et conposita in calatho pertulit ad monumentum et in summo conlocavit et, uti ea permanerent diutius subdiu, tegula texit. Is calathus fortuito supra acanthi radicem fuerit conlocatus. Interim ponderre pressa radix acanthi media folia et cauliculos circum vernum tempus profudit, cuius cauliculi secundum calathi latera crescentes et ab angulis tegulae ponderis necessitate expressi flexuras in extremas partes volutarum facere sunt coacti.]

IV.1.9

Lee