Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Erebus ĕrˈĭbəs [key], in Greek religion and mythology, personification of darkness. According to Hesiod, Erebus sprang from Chaos and was the father of Day. His name was sometimes used for Hades. ...

(Encyclopedia) Good Thief or Penitent Thief, in the New Testament, the malefactor crucified with Jesus who did not revile Him; Jesus promised him Paradise that day. In the Roman martyrology his feast is Mar. 25. His...

(Encyclopedia) civil time, local time based on universal time. Civil time may be formally defined as mean solar time plus 12 hr; the civil day begins at midnight, while the mean solar day begins at noon. Civil time ...

(Encyclopedia) woodchuck or groundhog, common name of a North American species of marmot, Marmota monax. This large rodent is found in open woods and ravines throughout most of Canada and the NE United States. Its h...

(Encyclopedia) Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, 1952–, emir of Qatar (1995–2013). The son of Emir Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, Hamad is credited with having turned a country of desert nomads into a modern, industriali...

(Encyclopedia) tournament or tourney, in the Middle Ages, public contest between armed horsemen in simulation of real battle. In this military game, which flourished from the 12th to the 16th cent., combatants were ...

(Encyclopedia) variable star, star that varies, either periodically or irregularly, in the intensity of the light it emits. Other physical changes are usually correlated with the fluctuations in brightness, such as ...

(Encyclopedia) Lafayette, or La Fayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, marquis de märēˈ zhôzĕfˈ pôl ēv rôk zhēlbĕrˈ dü môtyāˈ märkēˈ də läfāĕtˈ [key], 1757–1834, French gen...

(Encyclopedia) Auerstedt ouˈərshtĕt [key], village, Thuringia, S central Germany. At Auerstedt on Oct. 14, 1806 (the same day Napoleon I triumphed at Jena), French Marshal Louis Nicholas Davout defeated the Pruss...

(Encyclopedia) Censorinus sĕnsōrīˈnəs [key], fl. c.238, Roman grammarian. He wrote De die natali [on the day of birth], an essay partly astrological, partly chronological, which affords much information on anci...