The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 329

ODO, bishop of Bayeux, brother of William the Conqueror, fought by his side at Hastings; after blessing the troops, was made Earl of Kent, and appointed governor of kingdom during William's absence in Normandy; had great influence in State affairs all along, and set out for the Holy Land, but died at Palermo (1032-1096).

ODOACER, a Hun, son of one of Attila's officers, who entered the Imperial Guards, dethroned Augustulus, and became emperor himself; Zeno, the emperor of the East, enlisted Theodoric of the Ostrogoths against him, who made a treaty with him to be joint ruler of the kingdom of Italy, and a.s.sa.s.sinated him in 493.

O'DONNELL, LEOPOLD, Spanish soldier and politician, born, of Irish descent, at Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe; entered the army, and attached himself to the cause of Queen Isabella, on whose emergence from her minority in 1843 he was made Governor of Cuba; there he enriched himself by trading in slaves, and returning to Spain threw himself into politics; he joined Espartero's cabinet in 1854, and two years later supplanted him as chief minister; he commanded in the Moorish war of 1858, and was created Duke of Tetuan after the capture of that city; he was again Prime Minister till 1866, and died in exile at Bayonne (1809-1867).

ODYSSEY, an epic poem by Homer relating the ten years' wanderings of Ulysses (Odysseus) after the fall of Troy, and his return at the end of them to his native kingdom of Ithaca. See ULYSSES.

OECOLAMPADIUS, JOANNES, one of the leaders of the Reformation, born at Weinsberg, in Wurtemberg; became preacher at Basel, a.s.sisted Erasmus in his edition of the New Testament, entered a convent at Augsburg, came under Luther's influence and adopted the reformed doctrine, of which he became a preacher and professor, embraced in particular the views of Zwingli (1482-1531).

OEDIPUS, a mythological king of Thebes, son of Laius and Jocasta, and fated to kill his father and marry his mother; unwittingly slew his father in a quarrel; for answering the riddle of the SPHINX (q. v.) was made king in his stead, and wedded his widow, by whom he became the father of four children; on discovery of the incest Jocasta hanged herself, and Oedipus went mad and put out his eyes.

OEHLENSCHLaGER, ADAM GOTTLOB, great Danish poet, born at Copenhagen; his poems first brought him into notice and secured him a travelling pension, which he made use of to form acquaintances.h.i.+p with such men as Goethe and his literary confreres in Germany, during which time he commenced that series of tragedies on northern subjects on which his fame chiefly rests, which include "Hakon Jarl," "Correggio," "Palnatoke," &c.; his fame, which is greatest in the North, has spread, for he ranks among the Danes as Goethe among the Germans, and his death was felt by the whole nation (1779-1850).

OEHLER, GUSTAV, learned German theologian, professor at Tubingen, eminent for his studies and writings on the Old Testament (1812-1872).

OEIL-DE-BOEUF, a large reception-room in the palace of Versailles, lighted by a window so called (ox-eye it means), and is the name given in French history to the French Court, particularly during the Revolution period.

OELAND (37), an island off the SE. coast of Sweden, 55 m. long and about 10 m. broad; has good pasture ground, and yields alum; the fisheries good.

OENONe, a nymph of Mount Ida, near Troy, beloved by and married to Paris, but whom he forsook for Helen; is the subject of one of Tennyson's poems.

OERSTED, HANS CHRISTIAN, a Danish physicist; was professor of Physics in Copenhagen, the discoverer of electro-magnetism, of the compressibility of water, and the metal aluminium; did much to popularise science in a volume ent.i.tled "The Soul in Nature" (1777-1851).

OESEL (51), a marshy, well-wooded island at the mouth of the Gulf of Riga, in the Baltic, 45 m. long and 25 m. of average breadth; has some low hills and precipitous coasts; Arensburg (4), on the SE. sh.o.r.e, is the only town; Danish from 1559, the island pa.s.sed to Sweden in 1645 and to Russia in 1721; the wealthier cla.s.ses are of German descent.

OFFA'S d.y.k.e, an entrenchment and rampart between England and Wales, 100 m. long, extending from Flints.h.i.+re as far as the mouth of the Wye; said to have been thrown up by Offa, king of Mercia, about the year 780, to confine the marauding Welsh within their own territory.

OFFENBACH, JACQUES, a musical composer, born at Cologne, of Jewish parents, creator of the _opera bouffe_; was the author of "La Belle Helene," "Orphee aux Enfers," "La Grande d.u.c.h.esse," "Madame Favart," &c.

(1810-1880)

OFFERTORY, in the Roman Catholic Church a portion of the liturgy chanted at the commencement of the eucharistic service, also in the English the part of the service read during the collection of the alms at communion.

OFTERDINGEN, HEINRICH VON, a famous MINNESINGER (q. v.) of the 15th century.

OGHAM or OGAM, an alphabet of 20 letters in use among the ancient Irish and Celts, found carved on monumental stones in Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, and the North of Scotland.

OGLETHORPE, JAMES EDWARD, English general, born in London; served in the Marlborough wars, sat in Parliament for several years, conceived the founding of a colony for debtors in prison, and founded Georgia; returning to England, fought against the Pretender, and died in Ess.e.x (1696-1785).

OGOWE', a West African river, 500 m. long, rises in the Akukuja plateau, and following a semicircular course northward and westward enters the Atlantic by a delta at Cape Lopez, its course lying wholly within French Congo territory; in the dry season its volume is much diminished, and its many sandbanks prevent its navigation except by small boats.

O'GROAT'S HOUSE, JOHN. See JOHN O' GROAT'S HOUSE.

OGYGES, a Boeotian autochthon, the legendary first king of Thebes, which is called at times Ogygia, in whose reign a flood, called the Ogygian after him, inundated the land, though some accounts make it occur in Attica.

OGYGIA, a mythological island of Homeric legend, situated far off in the sea, and the home of the sorceress CALYPSO (q. v.).

OHIO (3,672), a State of the American Union, a third larger than Scotland, stretches northward from the Ohio River to Lake Erie, between Pennsylvania and Indiana. It consists of level and undulating plains, on which are raised enormous crops of wheat and maize. Sheep-grazing and cattle-rearing are very extensive; its wool-clip is the largest in America. There are valuable deposits of limestone and freestone, and in output of coal Ohio ranks third of the States. The manufactures are very important; it ranks first in farm implements, and produces also wagons, textile fabrics, and liquors. In the N. excellent fruit is grown. The capital is Columbus (88), the largest city is Cincinnati (297). Admitted to the Union in 1803, it boasts among its sons four Presidents--Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Benjamin Harrison.

OHIO RIVER, formed by the confluence of the Alleghany and the Monongahela, pursues a westward course of 1000 m., separating Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois from West Virginia and Kentucky, and after receiving sundry tributaries joins the Mississippi, being the largest and, next to the Missouri, the longest of its affluents; it is navigable for the whole of its course; on its banks stand Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Madison.

OHM, GEORG SIMON, a German physicist, born at Erlangen; discovered the mathematical theory of the electric current, known as Ohm's Law, a law based on experiment, that the strength of the electric current is equal to the electro-motive force divided by the resistance of the wire (1787-1854).

OHNET, GEORGES, French novelist, born in Paris; author of a series of novels in a social interest, ent.i.tled "Les Batailles de la Vie;" _b_.

1848.

OIL CITY (11), on the Alleghany River, Pennsylvania, by rail 130 m.

N. of Pittsburg, is the centre of a great oil-trade and oil-refining industry; there are also engineer and boiler works; it suffered severely from floods in 1892.

OKA, a river of Central Russia, which rises in Orel and flows N., then E., then N. again, joining the Volga at Nijni-Novgorod after a course of over 700 m., navigable nearly all the way; on its banks are Orel, Kaluga, and Riazan, while Moscow stands on an affluent.

OKEN, LORENZ, German naturalist; was professor first at Jena, then at Munich, and finally at Zurich, his settlement in the latter being due to the disfavour with which his political opinions, published in a journal of his called the _Iris_, were received in Germany; much of his scientific doctrine was deduced from a transcendental standpoint or by _a priori_ reasonings; is mentioned in "Sartor" as one with whom Teufelsdrock in his early speculations had some affinity (1779-1851).

OKHOTSK, SEA OF, an immense sheet of water in Eastern Siberia, lying between the peninsula of Kamchatka and the mainland, with the Kurile Islands stretched across its mouth; is scarcely navigable, being infested by fogs.

OKLAHOMA (62), a United States territory, stretching southward from Kansas to the Red River, with Texas on the W. and Indian Territory on the E., is a third larger than Scotland, and presents a prairie surface crossed by the Arkansas, Cimarron, and Canadian Rivers, and rising to the Wichita Mountains in the S. There are many brackish streams; the rainfall is light, hence the soil can be cultivated only in parts. Ceded to the United States under restrictions by the tribes of the Indian Territory in 1866, there were various attempts by immigrants from neighbouring States to effect settlements in Oklahoma, which the Government frustrated by military interference, maintaining the treaty with the Indians till 1889, when it finally purchased from them their claim. At noon on April 22, 1889, the area was opened for settlement, and by twilight 50,000 had entered and taken possession of claims. The territory was organised in 1890; embedded in it lies the Cherokee Outlet, still held by the Indians, but on the extinction of their interests to revert to Oklahoma. The chief town is Oklahoma (5).