Benet Encyclopedia / A
Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia
Entries through letter A
Entries through letter A
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- Aaron's Rod
- The name given to the rod of the tribe of Levi, used by Aaron during the Ten Plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea. When Aaron left his rod in front of the Ark, in the Tabernacle, it miraculously blossomed and bore almonds. This was interpreted as evidence of Jehovah's choice of Aaron as high priest.
- (Edward) Abbey
- American novelist and essayist. He is best known for his celebration of south-west Utah's slickrock country. One of the more overtly political modern American nature writers, he advocated the preservation of the wilderness and was a tireless critic of the forces which, in his view, desecrated it. In Desert Solitaire, he portrays a beautiful desert landscape that is threatened by so-called "industrial tourism."
- Academy
- The name of Plato's school near Athens. It was named after a legendary hero, Hecademus or Academus. The school had a long history, continuing until Justinian suppressed the philosophic schools in AD 529.
- Aaron
- In the Bible, the brother of Moses, the founder of the priesthood and the first high priest. He helped Moses in calling down the Ten Plagues and leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt. He directed the construction of the golden calf, which was idolatrously worshiped by the Israelites as the god of their deliverance, while moses was receiving the Ten Commandments. He did not receive an inheritance in Canaan, as punishment for doubting God's ability to bring water out of a rock.
- (Pierre) Abelard
- French scholastic philosopher and theologian. He studied under Roscellinus, exponent of extreme nominalism, then under William of Champeaux, supporter of realism. He angered the clergy, who emphasized faith rather than dialectic argument and proof, with his rationalistic approach to church dogma. His influence and his writings, such as Sic et Non, increased the popularity of Aristotelian logic over that of Platonic theory.
- Absalom, Absalom!
- Novel by William Faulkner. It centers on Thomas Sutpen, the son of a West Virginia poor white, and his attempts to fulfill his "grand design" to be accepted as a Southern aristocrat and founder of a wealthy family. He establishes himself in Jefferson, Mississippi, and, at the climax of his career, he is elected colonel of Jefferson's regiment in the Civil War. Returning to his estate after the war, he finds the plantation in ruins. His daughter Judith's half brother and part-black lover, Charles Bon, has been killed by his son, who has disappeared, and Judish has become a confirmed spinster, raising Charles's son. The protagonists attempt to have another son by a poor-white girl ends in his murder by her grandfather. When the families saga ends in 1910, all that is left of his dream is his last descendant, Jim Bond, howling in the ashes of the burned house.
- Abbey Theater
- The famous Dublin playhouse, which opened in 1904 with performances of W.B. Yeats's On Baile's Strand. It was founded for the production of plays by and about the Irish. It burned in 1951 and was reopened in 1966. Among the many dramatists associated with the early days of the theater were J. M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, A.E., Padraic Colum, and G. B. Shaw.
- Abaddon
- The angel of the bottomless pit in The Revelation of St. John the Divine. Milton uses the name for the bottomless pit itself.
- Abbassids
- The second long dynasty of the Muslim Empire. They claimed descent from Abbas, eldest uncle of Muhammed. Their reign was most firmly established and the court at Baghdad most splendid under Haroun-al-Raschid, the Caliph described in the Arabian Nights, and his son Mamun.
- Absalom and Achitophel
- A political satire in verse by John Dryden. Written in heroic couplets, the poem attacks Puritan attempts to exclude the duke of York, the legitimate heir, from the throne of England because of his Catholicism. Using Biblical terminology, Dryden describes the efforts of the earl of Shaftesbury to incite the duke of Monmouth to rebellion against his father.
- Absalom
- In the Old Testament, the handsome and rebellious third sno of David, king of Israel, who "stole the hearts of the men of Israel" and plotted ot become king in his father's stead. Riding on a mule in the decisive battle at Ephraim, he was caught by his hair in an oak tree; finding him suspended, one of David's soldiers killed him despite previous commands of the kind.
- (George) Abbott
- American playwright, producer, and director. He became well-known on Broadway as the coauthor and director of popular plays including Broadway and Coquette. His productions of Three Men on a Horse and The Boys from Syracuse, based on A Comedy of Errors, established him as New York's high priest of farce. Other hits include Call Me Madam, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, and Fiorello!
- Abdera
- A maritime city of Thrace whose inhabitants were proverbial in ancient times for their stupidity. It was the birthplace of Democritus, the laughing philosopher, who is regarded as the greatest among the Greek physical philosophers.