Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

mysteries

(Encyclopedia)mysteries, in Greek and Roman religion, some important secret cults. The conventional religions of both Greeks and Romans were alike in consisting principally of propitiation and prayers for the good ...

La Tène

(Encyclopedia)La Tène lä tĕn [key], ancient Celtic site on Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, that gives its name to the second and final period of the European Iron Age. It is characterized by an art style that drew...

Eudoxus of Cnidus

(Encyclopedia)Eudoxus of Cnidus yo͞odŏkˈsəs, nīˈdəs [key], 408?–355? b.c., Greek astronomer, mathematician, and physician. From the accounts of various ancient writers, he appears to have studied with Plat...

city-state

(Encyclopedia)city-state, in ancient Greece, Italy, and Medieval Europe, an independent political unit consisting of a city and surrounding countryside. The first city-states were in Sumer, but they reached their p...

Jones, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Sir William, 1746–94, English philologist and jurist. Jones was celebrated for his understanding of jurisprudence and of Oriental languages. He published an Essay on the Law of Bailments (178...

Zeuxis

(Encyclopedia)Zeuxis zo͞okˈsĭs [key], fl. 5th cent. b.c., Greek painter. According to tradition he settled in Ephesus, was an intimate (possibly a pupil) of Apollodorus, and aided in developing a technique for p...

Lycophron

(Encyclopedia)Lycophron lĭkˈəfrŏn [key], fl. early 3d cent. b.c., b. Chalcis, Alexandrian Greek poet, one of the Pleiad. His only extant poem Cassandra or Alexandra, is an obscure and difficult work in iambic v...

Cyme

(Encyclopedia)Cyme sīˈmē [key], ancient Greek city of W Asia Minor, on the Ionian Sea and N of the present Smyrna in W Asian Turkey. It was the largest and most important of the 12 cities of Aeolis. In the late ...

Paphlagonia

(Encyclopedia)Paphlagonia păfˌləgōˈnēə [key], ancient country of N Asia Minor, between Bithynia and Pontus on the Black Sea coast, in modern Turkey. A mountainous district with the Halys as its chief river, ...

Hippodamus

(Encyclopedia)Hippodamus hĭpŏdˈəməs [key], fl. 5th cent. b.c., Greek architect, b. Miletus. He was the first to plan cities according to geometric layouts. For Pericles he remodeled Piraeus (the port of Athens...