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Furies
Furies or Erinyes , in Greek and Roman religion and mythology, three daughters of Mother Earth, conceived from the blood of Uranus, when Kronos castrated him. They were powerful divinities that personified conscience and punished crimes against kindred blood, especially matricide. They were usua...
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Ate
Ate , in Greek mythology, personification of the rash temper that leads men to folly and misfortune. She was the daughter of Zeus, who, angered by her mischief, cast her from Olympus. In Greek tragedy she was an avenger of evil deeds and thus was similar to Nemesis and the Furies.
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Paul Heyse
Paul Heyse , 1830-1914, German realistic writer. Besides the 120 novellas on which his reputation rests, he wrote some 50 plays, 6 novels, and many fine translations, especially of Italian poets. He was the first German to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature (1910). His most famous story is L'Arr...
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Orestes
Orestes in Greek mythology, the only son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon and brother of Electra and Iphigenia. After the slaying of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, Orestes, still a boy, was sent to live in exile. Since it was the duty of the senior male in the house to punish the murderers, ...
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Uranus
Uranus in Greek religion and mythology, the heaven, first ruler of the universe, son of Gaea (the earth). He was the father of Gaea's children, the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hundred-handed Ones (the Hecatoncheires). Fearing that his children would rebel against him, he imprisoned them, but Kron...
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Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang , 1890-1976, German-American film director, b. Vienna. His silent and early sound films, such as Metropolis (1926), are marked by brilliant expressionist technique. He gained worldwide acclaim with M (1933), a study of a child molester and murderer. After directing 15 films, Lang fled...
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Sir William Edward Parry
Sir William Edward Parry , 1790-1855, British arctic explorer and rear admiral. He entered the navy at 13 and made his first voyage to the Arctic under Sir John Ross in 1818 in search of the Northwest Passage . He was then put in command of the Hecla and the Griper in an expedition (1819-20) ...
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Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello , c.1396-1475, Florentine painter. Uccello was little appreciated in his own time, and much of his work has been destroyed or is in poor condition. Although first apprenticed to Ghiberti, he later shows the influence of Masaccio. In 1425 he went to Venice and worked on mosaics for St. ...
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William Faulkner
William Faulkner 1897-1962, American novelist, b. New Albany, Miss., one of the great American writers of the 20th cent. Born into an old Southern family named Falkner, he changed the spelling of his last name to Faulkner when he published his first book, a collection of poems entitled The Marble ...
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Sir Salman Rushdie
Sir Salman Rushdie , 1947-, British novelist, b. Bombay (now Mumbai, India). He is known for the allusive richness of his language and the wide variety of Eastern and Western characters and cultures he explores. His first novels, including Midnight's Children (1981; Booker Prize; adapted for the s...
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