Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

choir

(Encyclopedia)choir [O.Fr.] 1 A group of singers; traditionally the chorus organized to sing in a church. Usually, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran choirs are composed of men and boys, but occasionally in the...

Vesta, in Roman religion and mythology

(Encyclopedia)Vesta, in Roman religion and mythology, hearth goddess. She was highly honored in every household from early times to the beginning of Christianity. Her public cult maintained a sacred building in whi...

iris, in botany

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Red iris, Iris fulva iris, common name for members of the genus Iris of the Iridaceae, a family of perennial herbs that includes the crocuses, freesias, and gladioli. The family is characteriz...

Aeschylus

(Encyclopedia)Aeschylus ĕsˈkĭləs, ēsˈ– [key], 525–456 b.c., Athenian tragic dramatist, b. Eleusis. The first of the three great Greek writers of tragedy, Aeschylus was the predecessor of Sophocles and Eur...

Wyspiański, Stanisław

(Encyclopedia)Wyspiański, Stanisław stänēsˈläf vĭspyäˈnyəskē [key], 1869–1907, Polish poet, dramatist, and painter. As a painter Wyspiański created numerous murals, stained-glass windows, and theatric...

Juno, in Roman religion and mythology

(Encyclopedia)Juno, in Roman religion and mythology, wife and sister of Jupiter. In early Roman times she, like the Greek Hera (with whom she was later identified), was goddess and protector of women, concerned esp...

Neptune, in Roman religion and mythology

(Encyclopedia)Neptune, in Roman religion and mythology, god of water. He was presumably an indigenous god of fertility, but in later times he was identified with the Greek Poseidon, god of the sea. At his festival,...

Vulcan, in Roman religion and mythology

(Encyclopedia)Vulcan, in Roman religion and mythology, fire god. Chiefly a god of destructive fire, Vulcan seems to have originated as a god of volcanoes. His festival, the Volcanalia, was held on Aug. 23. He was l...

Neptune, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Neptune, in astronomy, 8th planet from the sun at a mean distance of about 2.8 billion mi (4.5 billion km) with an orbit lying between those of Uranus and the dwarf planet Pluto; its period of revolut...

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...