Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Antenor, Greek sculptor

(Encyclopedia)Antenor ăntēˈnôr [key], fl. last half of 6th cent. b.c., Greek sculptor who executed the bronze statues of the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogiton. In 480 b.c., Xerxes carried these statues awa...

Antenor, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Antenor, in Greek mythology, wise elder of Troy who urged that Helen be returned to Menelaus. The Greeks spared him and his family when they sacked Troy. A later myth portrays Antenor as a traitorous ...

Greek language

(Encyclopedia)Greek language, member of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-European). It is the language of one of the major civilizations of the world and of one of the greatest literatures of all tim...

Critius

(Encyclopedia)Critius nēshēōˈtēz [key], fl. 5th cent. b.c., Greek sculptors, in the time of the Persian Wars. They made statues of the Tyrannicides, Harmodius and Aristogiton, who slew the tyrant Hipparchus. T...

Greek fire

(Encyclopedia)Greek fire, a flammable composition believed to have consisted of sulfur, naphtha, and quicklime. Although known in antiquity, it was first employed on a large scale by the Byzantines. Bronze tubes th...

Greek religion

(Encyclopedia)Greek religion, religious beliefs and practices of the ancient inhabitants of the region of Greece. The civil strife that followed the classical period (from c.500 b.c.) placed the old gods on trial...

Greek Anthology

(Encyclopedia)Greek Anthology, a collection of short epigrammatic poems representing Greek literature from the 7th cent. b.c. to the 10th cent. a.d. It contains more than 6,000 poems on a variety of subjects by som...

Greek art

(Encyclopedia)Greek art, works of art produced in the Aegean basin, a center of artistic activity from very early times (see Aegean civilization). This article covers the art of ancient Greece from its beginnings t...