Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Daedalus

(Encyclopedia)Daedalus dĕdˈələs [key], in Greek mythology, craftsman and inventor. After killing his apprentice Talos in envy, he fled from Greece to Crete. There, he arranged the liaison between Pasiphaë and ...

Olympiad

(Encyclopedia)Olympiad, unit of a chronological era of ancient Greece, a four-year period, each one beginning with the Olympic games. Timaeus (c.356–c.260 b.c.) of Sicily was the first to use, as a check on chron...

Parrhasius

(Encyclopedia)Parrhasius pərāˈshēəs [key], fl. c.400 b.c., Greek painter. He was born in Ephesus but settled in Athens and is classed with the Attic painters. One of the greatest painters of Greece, a contempo...

Doxiades, Constantinos

(Encyclopedia)Doxiades, Constantinos kônstäntēˈnôs dôksyäˈᵺēs [key], 1913–75, Greek urban planner, designer, and consultant on ekistics, the science of human settlements. In Athens, Doxiades held offic...

Sporades

(Encyclopedia)Sporades spôrˈədēz, spŏrˈ– [key], islands, E and SE Greece, in the Aegean Sea. They have been grouped variously at different times. The Northern Sporades are generally understood to include Sk...

Callas, Maria Meneghini

(Encyclopedia)Callas, Maria Meneghini märēˈä mĕnĕgēˈnē käˈläs [key], 1923–77, Greek-American soprano, b. New York City. At 13, Callas moved to Greece, where she studied at the Royal Conservatory in At...

Phigalia

(Encyclopedia)Phigalia fĭgāˈlēə [key], ancient city of Greece, in SW Arcadia (now Arkadhía). It gives its name to the Phigalian Marbles, a frieze c.100 ft (30 m) long and 2 ft (61 cm) high, in high relief, re...

Mahmud II

(Encyclopedia)Mahmud II, 1784–1839, Ottoman sultan (1808–39), younger son of Abd al-Hamid I. He was raised to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) upon the deposition of his brother, Mustafa IV, and contin...

Mycenae

(Encyclopedia)Mycenae mīsēˈnē [key], ancient city of Greece, in Argolis. In historical times it had little importance and was usually dependent on Argos. Its significance is in its remote past as a center of My...

Lávrion

(Encyclopedia)Lávrion lôrˈēəm [key], town (1991 pop. 8,846), E central Greece, in Attica; a port on the Aegean Sea. It is a mining, smelting, and shipping center for lead, manganese, and cadmium ores. Silver w...

Browse by Subject