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Byzantine music

(Encyclopedia)Byzantine music, the music of the Byzantine Empire composed to Greek texts as ceremonial, festival, or church music. Long thought to be only a further development of ancient Greek music, Byzantine mus...

Mitsotakis, Kyriakos

(Encyclopedia)Mitsotakis, Kyriakos, 1968–, Greek political leader. Son of Constantine Mitsotakis, he studied in the United States, worked as an economist in London (1990–91, 1995–97), then returned to Greece ...

X

(Encyclopedia)X, 24th letter of the alphabet. In English it has no peculiar sound, but stands for the combination ks as in fox, or gz as in exempt, or, initially, for the sound of z as in xenia. In words from Greek...

Thersites

(Encyclopedia)Thersites thərsīˈtēz [key], in Greek legend, member of the Greek army in the Trojan War. He was famous for his ugliness, his unpleasant temper, and his love of argument. When he mocked Achilles fo...

Apollonius of Perga

(Encyclopedia)Apollonius of Perga, fl. 247–205 b.c., Greek mathematician of the Alexandrian school. He produced a treatise on conic sections that included, as well as his own work, much of the work of his predece...

Kook, Abraham Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Kook, Abraham Isaac ko͞ok [key], 1864–1935, Jewish scholar and philosopher, b. Latvia. He settled (1904) in Palestine, where he became the chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in 1921. He attempt...

Matthiessen, F. O.

(Encyclopedia)Matthiessen, F. O. (Francis Otto Matthiessen) măthˈĭsĕn [key], 1902–50, American critic, b. Pasadena, Calif., grad. Yale Univ., 1923, B.Litt., Oxford, 1925, Ph.D., Harvard, 1927. A Rhodes schola...

Natsume Soseki

(Encyclopedia)Natsume Soseki näˈtso͞oˈmĕ sōˈsĕˈkē [key], 1867–1916, Japanese writer. Soseki ranks along with Mori Ogai as one of two giants of early modern Japanese letters. Although Soseki began his ca...

Toy, Crawford Howell

(Encyclopedia)Toy, Crawford Howell, 1836–1919, American biblical scholar, b. Norfolk, Va., M.A. Univ. of Virginia, 1856. He also studied (1859–60) at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Greenville, S.C.,...

scribe

(Encyclopedia)scribe skrīb [key], Jewish scholar and teacher (called in Hebrew, Soferim) of law as based upon the Old Testament and accumulated traditions. The work of the scribes laid the basis for the Oral Law, ...