Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Boğazköy or Boghazkeui bōäzˈköy [key], village, N central Turkey. Boğazköy (or Hattusas as it was called) was the chief center of the Hittite empire (1400–1200 b.c.), which was consolidated ...

(Encyclopedia) Grabbe, Christian Dietrich krĭsˈtēän dēˈtrĭkh gräbˈə [key], 1801–36, German dramatist and journalist. Critical of “Shakespearomania,” Grabbe strove for a national German drama and wrot...

(Encyclopedia) Chaldaea or Chaldea both: kăldēˈə [key], properly the southernmost portion of the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. Sometimes it is extended to include Babylonia and thus comprises al...

(Encyclopedia) Ecbatana ĕkbătˈənə, ĕkbətäˈnə [key], capital of ancient Media, later the summer residence of Achaemenid and Parthian kings, beautifully situated at the foot of Mt. Elvend and NE of Behistun....

(Encyclopedia) Smerdis smûrˈdĭs [key], d. c.528 b.c., second son of Cyrus the Great, king of Persia. He is also called Bardiya. He was assassinated by his brother Cambyses II, who kept the murder a secret. Patizi...

(Encyclopedia) Scudéry, Madeleine de zhôrzh [key], 1601–67, who was probably only a secondary collaborator. Georges wrote plays and other works and actively attacked Corneille's Cid. ...

(Encyclopedia) Tracy, Spencer, 1900–1967, American film actor, b. Milwaukee, Wis. He began his career as an actor in summer stock and went into film work in 1930. His fine character portrayals won him Academy Awar...

(Encyclopedia) Barber, Samuel, 1910–81, American composer, b. West Chester, Pa. Barber studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia. His music is lyrical and generally tonal; his later works are more chr...

(Encyclopedia) Serkin, Rudolf, 1903–91, Austrian-American pianist, b. Bohemia. Serkin gave joint recitals with Adolf Busch (his father-in-law from 1935) and made his U.S. debut (1933) with the Busch chamber player...

(Encyclopedia) idealism, the attitude that places special value on ideas and ideals as products of the mind, in comparison with the world as perceived through the senses. In art idealism is the tendency to represent...