Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Clytemnestra

(Encyclopedia)Clytemnestra klīˌtəmnĕsˈtrə [key], in Greek mythology, the daughter of Leda and Tyndareus. Homer described her as the noble-minded wife of Agamemnon, persuaded to infidelity by the tyrant Aegist...

Badius, Jodocus

(Encyclopedia)Badius, Jodocus jōdōˈkəs bāˈdēəs [key], 1462–1535, French printer, b. Asche, near Brussels. His original name was Josse Bade, and he is sometimes called for his birthplace Jodocus Badius Asc...

Bourbaki, Charles Denis Sauter

(Encyclopedia)Bourbaki, Charles Denis Sauter shärl dənēˈ sōtāˈ bo͞orbäkēˈ [key], 1816–97, French general of Greek ancestry. In the Algerian campaigns and the Crimean War he gained one of the highest mi...

Ventris, Michael George Francis

(Encyclopedia)Ventris, Michael George Francis, 1922–56, English linguist. Ventris was a student of architecture, but he became interested in the untranslated Mycenaean scripts, particularly Linear B, which was fo...

Hieron

(Encyclopedia)Hieron. For Greek rulers of Syracuse named thus, use Hiero.

lares

(Encyclopedia)lares lârˈēz [key], in Roman religion, guardian spirits. According to some they were ghosts of the dead, destructive spirits who frequented crossroads and had to be propitiated. Others say that the...

Mansel, Henry Longueville

(Encyclopedia)Mansel, Henry Longueville mănˈsəl [key], 1820–71, English philosopher and theologian. A disciple of Sir William Hamilton, he systematized his teacher's conception of the relativity of knowledge, ...

Key, Francis Scott

(Encyclopedia)Key, Francis Scott kē [key], 1779–1843, American poet, author of the Star-Spangled Banner, b. present Carroll co., Md. A lawyer, he was U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia (1833–41). His w...

Hedge, Frederic Henry

(Encyclopedia)Hedge, Frederic Henry, 1805–90, American Unitarian clergyman and author, b. Cambridge, Mass., educated in Germany and at Harvard. He held several New England pastorates. In 1836 he joined Emerson an...

Gezelle, Guido

(Encyclopedia)Gezelle, Guido gēˈdō khĕzĕlˈə [key], 1830–99, Flemish poet, b. Bruges, a Roman Catholic priest. A forerunner of the Flemish literary revival, he was the leading poet of the Flemings. In six v...