Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

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...

imaginary number

(Encyclopedia)imaginary number: see number.

folklore

(Encyclopedia)folklore, the body of customs, legends, beliefs, and superstitions passed on by oral tradition. It includes folk dances, folk songs, folk medicine (the use of magical charms and herbs), and folktales ...

folktale

(Encyclopedia)folktale, general term for any of numerous varieties of traditional narrative. The telling of stories appears to be a cultural universal, common to pre-industrial, ancient, and more modern and develop...

Phorcus

(Encyclopedia)Phorcus fôrˈkəs [key], in Greek mythology, sea god, son of Pontus and Gaea. He married his sister Ceto, who bore him a brood of monsters, including the Gorgons, the Graeae, Scylla, and the Sirens. ...

bestiary

(Encyclopedia)bestiary bĕsˈchēĕrˌē [key], a type of medieval book that was widely popular, particularly from the 12th to 14th cent. The bestiary presumed to describe the animals of the world and to show what ...

Munro, H. H.

(Encyclopedia)Munro, H. H. (Hector Hugh Munro), pseud. Saki säˈkē [key], 1870–1916, English author, b. Burma (now Myanmar). He began his career writing political satires for the Westminster Gazette, and from 1...

Condo, George

(Encyclopedia)Condo, George, 1957–, American artist, b. Concord, N.H., studied Lowell Univ. Condo emerged as a painter in the early 1980s, and his work has influened a younger generation of figurative painters. H...

Circe

(Encyclopedia)Circe sûrˈsē [key], in Greek mythology, enchantress; daughter of Helios. She lived on an island, where she decoyed sailors and treacherously changed them into beasts. According to the Odyssey, she ...

Danby, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Danby, Francis, 1793–1861, British historical and landscape painter. He painted many romantic and imaginary scenes and excelled in depicting sunrise and sunset. A good example of his work is Conway ...