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Rimmer, William

(Encyclopedia)Rimmer, William, 1816–79, American sculptor and writer, b. Liverpool, England. He was brought up in the United States and after working as a cobbler in Brockton, Mass., at the age of 30 began the st...

Sagittarius

(Encyclopedia)Sagittarius săjĭtârˈēəs [key] [Lat.,=the archer], constellation lying on the ecliptic (the sun's apparent path through the heavens) between Scorpius and Capricornus; it is one of the constellati...

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...

Botticelli, Sandro

(Encyclopedia)Botticelli, Sandro älĕssänˈdrō dē märēäˈnō fēlēpāˈpē [key]. He was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi, whose delicate coloring can be seen in such early works as the Adoration of the Kin...

Hercules, Greek hero

(Encyclopedia)Hercules both: hĕrˈəklēzˌ [key], most popular of all Greek heroes, famous for extraordinary strength and courage. Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon, made love to both Zeus and her husband on the same n...

Updike, John

(Encyclopedia)Updike, John, 1932–2009, American author, one of the nation's most distinguished 20th-century men of letters, b. Shillington, Pa., grad. Harvard, 1954. In his many novels and stories, written in a w...

Jason, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Jason, in Greek mythology, son of Aeson. When Pelias usurped the throne of Iolcus and killed (or imprisoned) Aeson and most of his descendants, Jason was smuggled off to the centaur Chiron, who reared...

Villa, Francisco

(Encyclopedia)Villa, Francisco fränsēsˈkō vēˈyä [key], c.1877–1923, Mexican revolutionary, nicknamed Pancho Villa. His real name was Doroteo Arango. When Villa came of age, he declared his freedom from the...

rocket, in aeronautics

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Relative positions of the components of the Saturn V rocket, the U.S. space vehicle used in the moon missions rocket, any vehicle propelled by ejection of the gases produced by combustion of s...

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