Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/22

OEDENBITBG 6 sufficiently decisive to determine their nature. OEDENBURG, a town of Hungary, on an extensive plain, 3 miles W. of the Neusiedler See and 48 miles S. by E. of Vienna. It is one of the most beautiful tovsTis in Hungary, and has manufactures of candied fruits, sugar, soap, etc., and a inrge trade in wine, corn, and cattle, the neighborhood being rich and well culti- vated. The Roman town of Scarabantia here was one of considerable importance. Pop. about 35,000. CEDIPUS, in Greek legend the son of Laius, King of Thebes, who, after being married to Jocasta, consulted the oracle, which informed him that he was doomed to die by the hand of his own son. To prevent so fearful an accident, he ordered his wife, as soon as CEdipus, the child was born to destroy him. She secretly sent the child away, by a confidential servant, with a command to expose it in some place where it would meet with a protector — instead he bored the feet of the child and hung him on a tree on Mount Cithaeron. He was discovered by a shepherd, who carried him home and adopted him as bis own son. As he grew up, the talent he displayed enabled him to outstrip all his companions who taunt- ed him with the baseness of his birth. Doubting the truth of the information as to his being illegitimate, CEdipus, so called on account of the deformity of his feet, resolved to proceed to Delphi to con- sult the oracle, and was told that if he returned to his home he would become his father's murderer. Knowing no father but the man who had adopted him, he turned from Corinth and, in a narrow pathway, he met his father Laius in his chariot. Being insolently ordered to make way, and refusing, a contest en- sued, in which the decree of the oracle was verified by CEdipus slaying both Laius and his attendant. Proceeding to Thebes, he was attracted by the enigma proposed by the Sphinx, and which he determined to solve — as Creon, who had succeeded Laius, promised any one who should succeed in doing so the crown of Thebes as a reward. The enigma was this : "What animal in the morning walks on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening on three?" — which CEdipus ex- plained by saying it was man, who, in his infancy, or^ in the morning of his life, crawls on his hands and feet; in his man- hood, or the noon of his age, he stands erect and goes on two feet; and in old age, or the evening of his days, he sup- ports his trembling limbs with a staff. This being the true explanation resulted in the death of the Sphinx, and the ac- OFFA cession of (Edipus to the throne of Thebes, he marrying Jocasta, his own mother. In his endeavors to find the murderer of Laius, he first became aware that the stranger he had encountered and killed was his father. His remorse was so great that he voluntarily deprived himself of sight and banished himself from his kingdom. OELAND, a long and narrow island in the Baltic, 4 to 17 miles from the B. coast of Sweden. It is 55 miles long and 5 to 12 broad. Scarcely more than a limestone cliff, scantily covered with soil, but in some parts well wooded, and has good pasture ground; there are large alum works; and the fishing is excellent. OEHEBBO, a town of Sweden, at the entrance of the Svarta into the Hjelmar Lake, 170 miles W. of Stockholm. It has an ancient castle, in which many diets have been held ; and there is a trade in minerals and matches. Pop. (1917) 34,667. OESEL, an island in the Baltic be- longing to the Republic of Esthonia, and lying across the mouth of the Gulf of Riga; length about 45 miles; area, 1,000 square miles; pop. about 60,000. The surface is undulating, broken by low hills, marshy, watered by numerous small streams, and well wooded. The coast is generally formed by high cliffs. The climate is milder than that of the neighboring continental districts. The only town is Arensburg, on the S. E. coast. Many of the inhabitants of Arensburg are of German descent, as are the nobles and the clergy of the island; but the peasantry are Esthonian. Long governed by the Teutonic knights, it be- came a Danish province in 1559, was given up to Sweden in 1645, and in 1721 fell into the hands of Russia. Capital Arensburg. Pop. 5,000. Island popula- tion 66,000, chiefly Esthonians. CESOPHAGUS, in anatomy, a slightly flexed canal, between the pharynx and the stomach, inclining to the left in the neck, the right in the upper thorax, and the left again through the posterior medi- astinum. It is narrow and flat in the neck, and rounded in the lower and longest part. It passes through the dia- phragm, and terminates nearly opposite the 10th dorsal vertebra in the cardiac orifice of the stomach. The passage of the food is caused by muscular contrac- tion through the action of the parvagum nerve. OFF A, a King of Mercia, who attained the throne after Ethelbald, on defeating the usurper Beornred, A. D. 757. He brought Kent under his sway, and re-