Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Pan, in Greek religion and mythology

(Encyclopedia)Pan păn [key], in Greek religion and mythology, pastoral god of fertility. He was worshiped principally in Arcadia, and one legend states that he was the son of Hermes, another Arcadian god. Pan was ...

Horus

(Encyclopedia)Horus hôrˈəs [key], in Egyptian religion, sky god, god of light and goodness. One of the most important of the Egyptian deities, Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis. In a famous myth he avenged th...

Religion, Wars of

(Encyclopedia)Religion, Wars of, 1562–98, series of civil wars in France, also known as the Huguenot Wars. The immediate issue was the French Protestants' struggle for freedom of worship and the right of establis...

Canopus, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Canopus, in astronomy, 2d brightest star in the sky, located in the constellation Carina, which is part of the ancient constellation Argo Navis; Bayer designation α Carinae; 1992 position R.A. 6h23.8...

sun worship

(Encyclopedia)sun worship. Deification and adoration of the sun occurred primarily in agrarian societies. When man became a farmer, and thus dependent upon daily and seasonal changes of weather, he often turned to ...

field, in algebra

(Encyclopedia)field, in algebra, set of elements (usually numbers) that may be combined under the operations of addition and multiplication so that it constitutes an additive group, the nonzero elements form a mult...

Browse by Subject