Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Diodorus Siculus

(Encyclopedia)Diodorus Siculus dīədôrˈəs sĭkˈyo͞oləs [key], d. after 21 b.c., Sicilian historian. He wrote, in Greek, a world history in 40 books, ending with Caesar's Gallic Wars. Fully preserved are Book...

Elytis, Odysseus

(Encyclopedia)Elytis, Odysseus älˌāpo͞oˈdĕlēs [key], 1911–96, Greek poet, b. Iraklion, Crete. Strongly influenced by surrealism, especially the works of Paul Éluard, in the 1930s he began publishing indiv...

Lysias

(Encyclopedia)Lysias lĭsˈēəs [key], c.459–c.380 b.c., Attic orator; son of Cephalus, a Syracusan. After the capture (404 b.c.) of Athens by the Spartans, the Thirty Tyrants caused the arrest of Lysias and his...

Didache

(Encyclopedia)Didache dĭdˈəkē [key] [Gr.,=teaching], early Christian work written in Greek, called also The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. Dates for its composition suggested by scholars have ranged from a.d....

Alcaeus

(Encyclopedia)Alcaeus ălsēˈəs [key], c.620–c.580 b.c., Greek lyric poet of Lesbos. An aristocrat, he was often embroiled in political battles with the ruling tyrants. He wrote drinking songs, hymns, love song...

Polyglot Bible

(Encyclopedia)Polyglot Bible pŏlˈēglŏt [key], Bible in which different texts, often in different languages, are laid out in parallel columns. Polyglot Bibles serve as tools for textual criticism. Origen's Hexap...

R

(Encyclopedia)R, 18th letter of the alphabet, corresponding to Greek rho. When in Latin alphabets the letters for p and r became similar in appearance, the rho form (P; which at first was used for the r sound) was ...

Pytheas

(Encyclopedia)Pytheas pĭthˈēəs [key], Greek mariner and geographer, fl. late 4th cent. b.c. A native of the Greek colony of Massilia (modern Marseilles), he explored the Atlantic coasts of Spain and France, cir...

Gela

(Encyclopedia)Gela jāˈlä [key], city, S Sicily, Italy, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is a port, industria...

Mende

(Encyclopedia)Mende mäNd [key], city (1990 pop. 12,667), capital of Lozère dept., S France, on the Lot River. Mende is a tourist resort. It was originally a small Gallo-Roman city that became an episcopal see in ...