Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) hockey, ice, team sport in which players use sticks to propel a hard, round disk into a net-backed goal. The NHL long regarded itself as the world's elite, but the overwhelming superiority of the ...

(Encyclopedia) Balkan Peninsula, southeasternmost peninsula of Europe, c.200,000 sq mi (518,000 sq km), bounded by the Black Sea, Sea of Marmara, Aegean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Ionian Sea, and Adriatic Sea. Although...

(Encyclopedia) martial arts, various forms of self-defense, usually weaponless, based on techniques developed in ancient China, India, and Tibet. In modern times they have come into wide use for self-protection, as ...

(Encyclopedia) Plataea plətēˈə [key], ancient city of Greece, in S Boeotia (now Voiotía), on the slope of Mt. Cithaeron (Kithairón). Plataea had voluntarily passed from Theban to Athenian protection before the...

(Encyclopedia) Miller, Bode (Samuel Bode Miller) bōˈdē [key], 1977–, American skier, b. Easton. N.H. A superb athlete, he joined the U.S. ski team in 1998 and competed in the Olympics for the first time that ye...

(Encyclopedia) phalanx, ancient Greek formation of infantry. The soldiers were arrayed in rows (8 or 16), with arms at the ready, making a solid block that could sweep bristling through the more dispersed ranks of t...

(Encyclopedia) Aegean Sea, Gr. Aigaion Pelagos, Turkish Ege Denizi, arm of the Mediterranean Sea, c.400 mi (640 km) long and 200 mi (320 km) wide, off SE Europe between Greece and Turkey; Crete and Rhodes mark its s...

(Encyclopedia) Potidaea pŏtĭdēˈə [key], ancient city, NE Greece, at the narrowest point of the Pallene (now Kassándra) peninsula in Chalcidice (now Khalkidhikí). It was a Corinthian colony (c.600 b.c.) but jo...

(Encyclopedia) Pylos pīˈlŏs [key], ancient harbor, Messenia, SW Greece, on a bay of the Ionian Sea. Excavations have revealed a great Mycenaean palace of the 13th cent. b.c., perhaps the dwelling of King Nestor. ...

(Encyclopedia) Lake, Kirsopp kûrˈsəp [key], 1872–1946, noted English biblical scholar. He was curate of St. Mary the Virgin (Oxford) until 1904, when he became a professor at the Univ. of Leiden (until 1913). A...