the soft rock, in which many of the poorest people live. It is a modern city, founded in 1794 near an old Turkish fort, but has grown rapidly, being the chief shipping-port for the corn-growing districts of southern Russia. The harbor is protected by moles against the dangerous winds of the Black Sea, and is menaced by ice hardly more than a fortnight in the whole year. The trade is largely in grain, principally wheat, but sugar, wool and flour are also exported. It also has sugar and oil refineries, and tobacco, leather, soap and chemicals are manufactured. It has a university with 1,714 students, a public library, historical museum, cathedral, opera-house and great grain warehouses and elevators. Water is brought to the city from the Dniester by an aqueduct 27 miles long. Odessa is known as a home of the cholera, for its persecution of the Jews and as headquarters of the nihilists. Population 520,000.
O′din, the chief god of Scandinavian mythology. He is not the creator of the world, but its ruler and the ruler of heaven. His home is in Asgard, whence he sends forth daily his two black ravens, Hugin and Munin (Thought and Memory), to bring news of all that is happening in the world. As god of war he holds his court in Valhalla, where all brave warriors gather after death. He became the wisest of gods by drinking from Mimer's fountain, but at the price of an eye. Frigga is his queen, though he had other wives. His Saxon name, Woden, is perpetuated in our Wednesday or Woden's day.
Œdipus (ĕd′ĭ-pŭs), a hero in Greek legend, whose story is the subject of some of the finest tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides. He was the son of Laius, king of Thebes, who, having learned from an oracle that his own son would kill him, exposed him at his birth. He was discovered by a herdsman, named Œdipus from his swollen feet, and brought up by the king of Corinth as his own son. Learning from an oracle that he was to kill his father and marry his mother, he went to Thebes to escape his fate. Drawing near the city, he met the chariot of the king and was ordered out of the way, which brought on a quarrel in which he slew his father, not knowing him. The Thebans offered the kingdom and, the hand of the queen to whoever would deliver them from the Sphinx, who proposed to all who passed her a riddle, putting to death those who could not solve it. Œdipus offered himself, and she asked: “What being has four feet, two feet and three feet and only one voice; but whose feet vary, and when it has the most, is weakest?” Œdipus answered: “Man,” at which the Sphinx threw herself headlong from the rock where she sat. Œdipus thus became king and the husband of his mother. When a plague devastated the country, the oracle promised relief when the murderer of Laius should be banished, and Œdipus learned from a seer that he had fulfilled the prediction of the oracle and killed his father, and for a wife had his mother. In horror he put out his eyes, while his mother hanged herself. He wandered away with his daughter, Antigone, and near Athens was taken from earth by the Eumenides.
Oer′sted (ẽr′stĕth), Hans Christian, a distinguished Danish physicist, who first discovered a connection between electricity and magnetism, was born on Aug. 14, 1777, and died at Copenhagen, March 9, 1851. He was educated in Copenhagen, where he took his doctor's degree in 1800, and in 1806 he was appointed to a professorship in physics. On July 21, 1820, he was passing the current of a large battery through a platinum wire, when he discovered that a magnetic needle near by was deflected. As shown by its consequences, this proved to be an epoch-making discovery, for which the Royal Society awarded him the Copley medal and the Paris Institute a mathematical prize amounting to 3,000 francs. See Ampère.
Offenbach (ṓf′fen-bäk′), Jacques, a Franco-Jewish composer, was born at Cologne, Germany, June 21, 1819. He settled at Paris, and became manager in one of the theaters. He composed a great number of operettas, but is best known for a series of burlesque operas, which make him the father of the modern comic opera. The Grand Duchess, The Beautiful Helen, Genevieve of Brabant, Barbe-bleue and Madame Favart are among the most notable, the last being very popular in England. He died at Paris, Oct. 5, 1880.
Og′den, Robert Curtis, American educator and magazine-writer, was born at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1836. He received the degree of A. M. from Yale, and LL.D. from Tulane University. Mr. Ogden is president of the trustees of Hampton Institute and a trustee of Tuskegee Institute. (See Hampton and Tuskegee). He also is president of the Southern Education Board and a member of many educational associations.
Ogden, Utah, county-seat of Weber County, at the union of Weber and Ogden Rivers, where the Weber passes through Wahsatch Mountains. It is situated 37 miles north of Salt Lake City, and is 4,340 feet above the sea. It was founded by Brigham Young in 1848-50, is in a rich agricultural and mining region, while at the city limits is the opening of Ogden Canon. The picturesque beauty of this place attracts many tourists, and the water-power of the falls is utilized by the electrical works, which supply light and heat for Ogden and Salt Lake City. It is a railroad center, and has a Methodist university, a foundry and large mills, breweries, canneries, pickle factories, beet-sugar factories and woolen mills. It has public and parochial schools, other ex-
