Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

46 results found

Hathor

(Encyclopedia)Hathor hăthˈôr [key], in Egyptian religion, celestial goddess of love and festivity. The personification of the sky, she was represented as a star-studded cow or as a woman with the head of a cow. ...

Hermaphroditus

(Encyclopedia)Hermaphroditus hərmăfrədīˈtəs [key], in Greek mythology, beautiful son of Hermes and Aphrodite. He scorned the nymph Salmacis, who prayed that they might never be separated. When Hermaphroditus ...

Astarte

(Encyclopedia)Astarte ăstärˈtē [key], Semitic goddess of fertility and love. She was the most important goddess of the Phoenicians and corresponds to the Babylonian Ishtar and the Greek Aphrodite. She took a do...

Dione, in Greek religion and mythology

(Encyclopedia)Dione, in Greek religion and mythology, earth goddess. In some legends she is the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys; in others she is a Titaness, born to Uranus and Gaea. In yet another version she is th...

Anchises

(Encyclopedia)Anchises ănkīˈsēz [key], in Greek mythology, member of the ruling family of Troy; father of Aeneas by Aphrodite. When Anchises boasted of the goddess's love, Zeus crippled or, in some versions of ...

Louÿs, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Louÿs, Pierre pyĕr lo͞oēˈ [key], 1870–1925, French writer of the Parnassian school, whose real name was Pierre Louis. His early poems, collected as Astarté (1891), first appeared in the Conque...

Hippolytus

(Encyclopedia)Hippolytus, in Greek mythology, son of Theseus and Antiope (or Hippolyte). After the death of Antiope, Theseus married Phaedra, daughter of Minos. Because Hippolytus worshiped only Artemis, the jealou...

Uranus , in Greek religion and mythology

(Encyclopedia)Uranus, in Greek religion and mythology, the heaven, first ruler of the universe, son of Gaea (the earth). He was the father of Gaea's children, the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hundred-handed Ones (...

Acrocorinthus

(Encyclopedia)Acrocorinthus ăkˌrōkərĭnˈthəs [key], acropolis, or citadel, of Corinth, overlooking the ancient city. Some ruins of the acropolis remain. The Acrocorinthus was the site of a temple of Aphrodite...

Aeneas, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Aeneas ĭnēˈəs [key], in Greek mythology, a Trojan, son of Anchises and Aphrodite. After the fall of Troy he escaped, bearing his aged father on his back. He stayed at Carthage with Queen Dido, the...

Browse by Subject