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Sisters of Charity

(Encyclopedia)Sisters of Charity, in the Roman Catholic Church, name of many independent communities of women. Most of them owe their origin to the institute of St. Vincent de Paul, founded (1634) for works of merc...

Alexander I, king of Scotland

(Encyclopedia)Alexander I, 1078?–1124, king of Scotland (1107–24), son of Malcolm III and St. Margaret of Scotland. He succeeded his brother Edgar, who had divided the kingdom so that Alexander ruled only N of ...

Farnese Bull

(Encyclopedia)Farnese Bull, sculptured group representing Zethus and Amphion, sons of Antiope, tying Dirce (who had ill-treated their mother) to an enraged bull. The sculpture is generally considered to have been e...

iridescence

(Encyclopedia)iridescence ĭrˌədĕsˈəns [key], exhibition of rainbowlike colors on a surface. It usually results from interference when light composed of different wavelengths is reflected from the superficial ...

Neith

(Encyclopedia)Neith nēt [key], in Egyptian religion, goddess of hunting and war. Her cult was very popular during the XXVI dynasty, particularly at Saïs. She also assumed the attributes of a mother goddess and wa...

Leucothea

(Encyclopedia)Leucothea lo͞okŏthˈēə [key], in Greek mythology, sea deity. In some legends she was the deification of Ino, the wife of Athamas; in others she was the deification of the sea nymph Halia, mother o...

Carreño de Miranda, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Carreño de Miranda, Juan hwän kärāˈnyō dā mēränˈdä [key], 1614–85, Spanish baroque painter. A protégé of Velázquez, Carreño eventually succeeded his master as painter to the Spanish c...

Styx

(Encyclopedia)Styx stĭks [key], in Greek mythology, river of Hades that the souls of the dead had to cross on their journey from the realm of the living. It was a sacred river, and by its name even the gods took t...

Ptolemy X

(Encyclopedia)Ptolemy X (Ptolemy Alexander), d. 88 b.c., king of ancient Egypt (107 b.c.–88 b.c.), of the Macedonian dynasty, brother of Ptolemy IX. He was governor in Cyprus when called (110 b.c.) by his mother ...

Bickerdyke, Mary Ann

(Encyclopedia)Bickerdyke, Mary Ann, 1817–1901, Union nurse in the American Civil War, b. Mary Ann Ball in Knox co., Ohio. Generally called Mother Bickerdyke, she served throughout the war in the West and was belo...