Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Rockies, the

(Encyclopedia)Rockies, the: see Rocky Mountains. ...

Savoy, the

(Encyclopedia)Savoy, the, chapel in London, between the Strand and the Thames River. Its name is derived from the palace of Peter of Savoy, uncle of Eleanor of Provence, wife of Henry III. Destroyed (1381) in the P...

pill, the

(Encyclopedia)pill, the: see birth control.

Skaw, the

(Encyclopedia)Skaw, the, Denmark: see Skagen.

Battery, the

(Encyclopedia)Battery, the, park, 21 acres (8.5 hectares), southern tip of Manhattan island, New York City; site of former Dutch and English fortifications. Castle Clinton, a fort built in 1808 for the defense of N...

Balance, The

(Encyclopedia)Balance, The, English name for Libra, a constellation; also called The Scales. ...

Owl and the Nightingale, The

(Encyclopedia)Owl and the Nightingale, The, Middle English poem written probably by Nicholas de Guildford of Dorsetshire about the beginning of the 13th cent. Written in 2,000 lines of octosyllabic couplets, it des...

Shamash

(Encyclopedia)Shamash shäˈmäsh [key], sun god of Semitic origin, worshiped in Babylonia and Assyria. He was one of the great deities of ancient Middle Eastern religions, god of law, order, and justice. The chief...

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...

Assyrian language

(Encyclopedia)Assyrian language, East Semitic dialect that evolved from Akkadian after 1950 b.c. The term Assyrian is sometimes incorrectly used for the Akkadian language as a whole because the first inscriptions i...