Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bias, Greek sage

(Encyclopedia)Bias bīˈəs [key], fl. 6th cent. b.c., Greek sage, b. Priene. He is at best semilegendary but was called one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. Many epigrams were attributed to him by ancient writers....

Porphyry, Greek scholar

(Encyclopedia)Porphyry pôrˈfĭrē [key], c.232–c.304, Greek scholar and Neoplatonic philosopher. He studied rhetoric under Cassius Longinus and philosophy under Plotinus. He later lectured in Rome on the philos...

Tammuz

(Encyclopedia)Tammuz täˈməz [key], ancient nature deity worshiped in Babylonia. A god of agriculture and flocks, he personified the creative powers of spring. He was loved by the fertility goddess Ishtar, who, a...

Hipparchus, Greek astronomer

(Encyclopedia)Hipparchus, fl. 2d cent. b.c., Greek astronomer, b. Nicaea, Bithynia. He is the first systematic astronomer of whom there are records. He made his observations chiefly on the island of Rhodes. Ptolemy...

Bion

(Encyclopedia)Bion bīˈən [key], fl. 2d cent.? b.c., Greek bucolic poet, an imitator of Theocritus, b. Phlossa, near Smyrna. Only fragments of his work survive. The Lament for Adonis, attributed to him, was the m...

Philemon, ancient Greek poet

(Encyclopedia)Philemon fīlēˈmən [key], c.360–c.265 b.c., Greek poet of the New Comedy. He was in ancient times considered second only to Menander. Fragments of his plays, originally numbering 97, survive. ...

Euclid, Greek mathematician

(Encyclopedia)Euclid yo͞oˈklĭd [key], fl. 300 b.c., Greek mathematician. Little is known of his life other than the fact that he taught at Alexandria, being associated with the school that grew up there in the l...

Selene

(Encyclopedia)Selene səlēˈnē [key], in Greek mythology and mythology, moon goddess; daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia and sister of the sun god Helios. There was no known moon cult among the Greeks, but...

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...

Eurynome

(Encyclopedia)Eurynome yo͞orĭnˈəmē [key], in Greek mythology, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and mother, by Zeus, of the Graces. In the mythology of the Pelasgians, an aboriginal non-Greek people living in Gre...