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Olympus

(Encyclopedia)Olympus ōlĭmˈpəs [key], Gr. Ólimbos, mountain range, c.25 mi (40 km) long, N Greece, on the border of Thessaly and Macedonia, near the Aegean coast. It rises to c.9,570 ft (2,920 m) at Mt. Olympu...

flood, in hydrology

(Encyclopedia)flood, inundation of land by the rise and overflow of a body of water. Floods occur most commonly when water from heavy rainfall, from melting ice and snow, or from a combination of these exceeds the ...

genius

(Encyclopedia)genius, in Roman religion, guardian spirit of a man, a family, or a state. In some instances, a place, a city, or an institution had its genius. As the guardian spirit of an individual, the genius (co...

Aeacus

(Encyclopedia)Aeacus ēˈəkəs [key], in Greek mythology, son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina. He was the father of Peleus and Telamon. After a plague had nearly wiped out the inhabitants of his land, Zeus rewarded t...

Longinus, fl. 1st cent.? a.d., Greek literary critic

(Encyclopedia)Longinus lŏnjīˈnəs [key], fl. 1st cent.? a.d., Greek literary critic; writer of the famous treatise On the Sublime. Nothing is known of his life, and for a long time his work was attributed to Cas...

Ixion

(Encyclopedia)Ixion ĭkˈsēən [key], in Greek mythology, king of the Lapithes. Ixion murdered his father-in-law to avoid paying a price for his bride. When no one on earth would purify him, Zeus took Ixion to Oly...

Antigone

(Encyclopedia)Antigone ăntĭgˈənē [key], in Greek mythology, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta. In Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, she and her sister Ismene follow their father into exile at Colonus. When her brot...

Family Compact, in French and Spanish history

(Encyclopedia)Family Compact, several alliances between France and Spain in the form of agreements between the French and Spanish branches of the Bourbon family. The first of the three compacts, the Treaty of the E...

Cyclops

(Encyclopedia)Cyclops sīklōˈpēz [key], in Greek mythology, immense one-eyed beings. They appear in at least two distinct traditions. According to Hesiod the Cyclopes were smiths, the sons of Uranus and Gaea. Th...

Cyril and Methodius, Saints

(Encyclopedia)Cyril and Methodius, Saints məthōˈdēəs [key], d. 869 and 884, respectively, Greek missionaries, brothers, called Apostles to the Slavs and fathers of Slavonic literature. Their history and influe...