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monsters and imaginary beasts

(Encyclopedia)monsters and imaginary beasts. The mythologies and legends of ancient and modern cultures teem with an enormous variety of monsters and imaginary beasts. A great number of these are composites of diff...

Hel

(Encyclopedia)Hel hĕl [key], in Norse mythology, the underworld (sometimes called Niflheim) and the goddess who ruled there. In early Germanic mythology, Hel was the goddess who ruled the majestic abode for the de...

Orpheus

(Encyclopedia)Orpheus ôrˈfēəs, ôrˈfyo͞os [key], in Greek mythology, celebrated Thracian musician. He was the son of Calliope by Apollo or, according to another legend, by Oeagrus, a king of Thrace. Supposedl...

Aphrodite

(Encyclopedia)Aphrodite ăfrədīˈtē [key], in Greek religion and mythology, goddess of fertility, love, and beauty. Homer designated her the child of Zeus and Dione. Hesiod's account of her birth is more popular...

Ajax

(Encyclopedia)Ajax āˈjăks [key], Gr. Aias, in Greek mythology. 1 Hero of the Trojan War, son of Telamon, thus called the Telamonian Ajax, also called Ajax the Greater. In the Iliad he is represented as a giganti...

sphinx

(Encyclopedia)sphinx sfĭngks [key], mythical beast of ancient Egypt, frequently symbolizing the pharaoh as an incarnation of the sun god Ra. The sphinx was represented in sculpture usually in a recumbent position ...

Papandreou, George, 1952–, Greek political leader

(Encyclopedia)Papandreou, George (Georgios Andreou Papandreou) päˌpəndrāˈo͞o [key], 1952–, Greek political leader, b. Minnesota. The son of Andreas Papandreou and grandson of George Papandreou (1888–1968)...

Walhalla

(Encyclopedia)Walhalla, in Germanic mythology: see Valhalla. ...

Apollo

(Encyclopedia)Apollo əpŏlˈō [key], in Greek religion and mythology, one of the most important Olympian gods, concerned especially with prophecy, medicine, music and poetry, archery, and various bucolic arts, pa...

Magnusson, Finnur

(Encyclopedia)Magnusson, Finnur mägˈno͞osôn [key], 1781–1847, Icelandic archaeologist and scholar. Educated at the Univ. of Copenhagen, he was appointed (1815) professor of Northern literature and mythology ...