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Hylas

(Encyclopedia)Hylas hīˈləs [key], in Greek mythology, beautiful youth. He was a favorite companion of Hercules. While on the expedition of the Argonauts, Hylas was dragged into a spring by water nymphs enchanted...

Hebe

(Encyclopedia)Hebe hēˈbē [key], in Greek religion and mythology, goddess of youth; daughter of Zeus and Hera and wife of Hercules. She appears only occasionally in legend as a cupbearer and attendant of the gods...

Jonas

(Encyclopedia)Jonas jōˈnəs [key], Greek form of Hebrew Jonah. St. Peter's father is called Jonas and Jona (KJV) and John (RSV). ...

Stesimbrotus

(Encyclopedia)Stesimbrotus stĕsˌĭmbrōˈtəs [key], fl. 5th cent. b.c., Greek biographer, b. Thasos. He wrote biographical studies of Pericles, Themistocles, and Thucydides, son of Melesias. In addition he wrote...

Stymphalian birds

(Encyclopedia)Stymphalian birds stĭmfāˈlēən [key], in Greek mythology, dangerous man-eating birds that infested the woods around Lake Stymphalus in Arcadia. As his fifth labor, Hercules frightened the birds in...

Socrates Scholasticus

(Encyclopedia)Socrates Scholasticus, fl. 5th cent., Byzantine historian. His Ecclesiastical History (in Greek, 7 vol.) continues the work of Eusebius for the period from 305 to 439. The work is unusual for its obje...

Z

(Encyclopedia)Z, 26th and last letter of the alphabet, representing the voiced correspondent of voiceless s, as in the English zebra. Its original is the Greek zeta, which the Romans borrowed and added to their alp...

Vulcan, in Roman religion and mythology

(Encyclopedia)Vulcan, in Roman religion and mythology, fire god. Chiefly a god of destructive fire, Vulcan seems to have originated as a god of volcanoes. His festival, the Volcanalia, was held on Aug. 23. He was l...

Westcott, Brooke Foss

(Encyclopedia)Westcott, Brooke Foss, 1825–1901, English prelate and scholar. From 1870 to 1890 he was regius professor of divinity at Cambridge. With F. J. A. Hort, he published The New Testament in the Original ...

Camenae

(Encyclopedia)Camenae kəmēˈnē [key], in Roman religion and mythology, water nymphs gifted in prophecy. At Rome they had a sacred spring from which the vestals drew water for their rites. In later myth they were...