Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Peter III, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Peter III, 1717–86, king of Portugal (1777–86), younger brother of Joseph. He married his niece Maria I and was joint ruler with her, though she generally was the dominant figure. ...

Ratcliffe, Sir Peter John

(Encyclopedia)Ratcliffe, Sir Peter John, 1954–, British cellular and molecular biologist, M.D., Cambridge, 1987. He has been a researcher at Oxford since 1987. Ratcliffe, along with William Kaelin and Gregg Semen...

Motion, Sir Andrew Peter

(Encyclopedia)Motion, Sir Andrew Peter, 1952–, English poet and biographer, poet laureate of England (1999–2009), grad. University College, Oxford (B.A., 1974; M.Litt., 1977). He writes poems that are both lyri...

Hall, Sir Peter Reginald Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Hall, Sir Peter Reginald Frederick, 1930–2017, British theatrical director, b. Bury St. Edmonds, grad. Cambridge, 1953. He directed several acclaimed plays at Cambridge, and one production was trans...

Palladium, in Greek religion

(Encyclopedia)Palladium pəlāˈdēəm [key], in Greek religion, sacred image kept in the temple of Athena at Troy. It was either an image of Athena or an image made by Athena of her unfortunate playmate Pallas (se...

Athena

(Encyclopedia)Athena pălˈəs [key], in Greek religion and mythology, one of the most important Olympian deities. According to myth, after Zeus seduced Metis he learned that any son she bore would overthrow him, s...

Peter III, king of Aragón and king of Sicily

(Encyclopedia)Peter III (Peter the Great), 1239?–1285, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (1276–85) and king of Sicily (1282–85); son and successor of James I. In 1280 he established Aragonese influence o...

Rubens, Peter Paul

(Encyclopedia)Rubens, Peter Paul, 1577–1640, foremost Flemish painter of the 17th cent., b. Siegen, Westphalia, where his family had gone into exile because of his father's Calvinist beliefs. Almost every princ...

Peter I, king of Aragón and Navarre

(Encyclopedia)Peter I, d. 1104, king of Aragón and Navarre (1094–1104), son and successor of Sancho I. He continued the fight against the Moors, taking (1096) Huesca and recapturing (1100) Barbastro. His brother...

O'Neill, Peter Charles Paire

(Encyclopedia)O'Neill, Peter Charles Paire, 1965–, Papua New Guinea political leader, grad. Univ. of Papua New Guinea, 1986. A businessman before he was first elected to parliament in 2002, he became leader of th...

Browse by Subject