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maenads

(Encyclopedia)maenads mēˈnădz [key], in Greek and Roman religion and mythology, female devotees of Dionysus. They roamed mountains and forests, adorned with ivy and skins of animals, waving the thyrsus. When the...

Ringwood

(Encyclopedia)Ringwood, borough (1990 pop. 12,623), Passaic co., N N.J., in the Ramapo Mts. and on the Wanaque River near the N.Y. line. Iron was found nearby in 1730; mines and works were developed from 1764 by Pe...

Golden Dawn, Hermetic Order of the

(Encyclopedia)Golden Dawn, Hermetic Order of the, occult-oriented fraternal organization established by the Freemasons in England (1888), led by S. L. MacGregor Mathers (1854–1917). The order's rituals were deriv...

English, William Hayden

(Encyclopedia)English, William Hayden, 1822–96, U.S. Congressman (1853–61), b. Scott co., Ind. A lawyer, he entered politics and served in the House of Representatives (1853–1861). In 1858, when the terms und...

Erlanger, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Erlanger, Joseph ûrˈlăng-ər [key], 1874–1965, American scientist, b. San Francisco, grad. Univ. of California (B.S., 1895), M.D. Johns Hopkins, 1899. For his contributions to physiology, especia...

Grätz, Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Grätz or Graetz, Heinrich both: hīnˈrĭkh grĕts [key], 1817–91, German Jewish historian. He was the first modern historian to write, from a Jewish perspective, a comprehensive history of the Jew...

Pratt, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Pratt, Daniel, 1799–1873, American industrialist, b. Temple, N.H. He moved to Georgia at the age of 20, and after he had become a partner in a cotton gin he went (1833) to Alabama, where he founded ...

Propertius, Sextus

(Encyclopedia)Propertius, Sextus sĕkˈstəs prōpûrˈshəs [key], c.50 b.c.–c.16 b.c., Roman elegiac poet, b. Umbria. He was a member of the circle of Maecenas. A master of the Latin elegy, he wrote with vigor,...

Pryor, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Pryor, Richard, 1940–2005, American comedian, b. Peoria, Ill. His iconoclastic, wildly inventive, and racially explosive comic style was expressed in language that was often crude and frequently bri...

Hoel, Sigurd

(Encyclopedia)Hoel, Sigurd sēˈgo͝or hōˈəl [key], 1890–1960, Norwegian novelist. Hoel's sophisticated novels of urban life include the witty satire Sinners in Summertime (1927, tr. 1930) and the more serious...