Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Chinguetti

(Encyclopedia)Chinguetti, town, central Mauritania, on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar. Founded in the 8th cent., it was a center on several trans-Saharan trade routes...

Hedge, Frederic Henry

(Encyclopedia)Hedge, Frederic Henry, 1805–90, American Unitarian clergyman and author, b. Cambridge, Mass., educated in Germany and at Harvard. He held several New England pastorates. In 1836 he joined Emerson an...

Hestia

(Encyclopedia)Hestia hĕsˈtēə [key], in Greek religion and mythology, goddess of the hearth; daughter of Kronos and Rhea. Both public and private worship of Hestia were widespread; she represented personal and c...

Gezelle, Guido

(Encyclopedia)Gezelle, Guido gēˈdō khĕzĕlˈə [key], 1830–99, Flemish poet, b. Bruges, a Roman Catholic priest. A forerunner of the Flemish literary revival, he was the leading poet of the Flemings. In six v...

Fortes, Meyer

(Encyclopedia)Fortes, Meyer, 1906–83, British anthropologist, b. Britstown, South Africa, grad. Univ. of Cape Town (M.A., 1926) and the Univ. of London (Ph.D., 1930). From 1946 to 1950 he was a reader in social a...

Nike

(Encyclopedia)Nike nīˈkē [key], in Greek religion and mythology, goddess of victory, daughter of Pallas and Styx. Often an attendant of Zeus or Athena, she also presided over all contests, athletic as well as mi...

Avranches

(Encyclopedia)Avranches ävräNshˈ [key], town, Manche dept., NW France, in Normandy, on the English Channel. Because of its proximity to the rocky island of Mont-Saint-Michel, Avranch...

Ops

(Encyclopedia)Ops ŏps [key], in Roman religion, goddess of harvests. She was the wife of Saturn, by whom she bore Jupiter and Juno. At her festivals, the Opiconsivia and the Opalia, held in August and December, re...

maenads

(Encyclopedia)maenads mēˈnădz [key], in Greek and Roman religion and mythology, female devotees of Dionysus. They roamed mountains and forests, adorned with ivy and skins of animals, waving the thyrsus. When the...

lares

(Encyclopedia)lares lârˈēz [key], in Roman religion, guardian spirits. According to some they were ghosts of the dead, destructive spirits who frequented crossroads and had to be propitiated. Others say that the...

Browse by Subject