Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/608

604 CYCADS ministers at her altars. Her worship, wher- ever established, was of the same Bacchanalian character. Her priests in Phrygia were called Corybantes ; in Crete, Ouretes ; at Home, Galli ; Cybele. but everywhere they must be both youths and eunuchs. Though this worship had prevailed from very early times in Greece and Asia, where it may be traced under various names in various countries, it was not introduced at Rome till the period of the second Punic war. Then the image of Oybele or Rhea was brought from Pessinus in Galatia, a temple was raised to her on the Palatine hill, and the festival of the Megalesia was instituted in her honor by the Roman matrons. Cybele is usually repre- sented seated on a throne, with a mural crown from which a veil is suspended. Crouching lions are frequently on the right and left of the throne, and occasionally she appears in a char- iot drawn by lions. ^ CYCADS, a group of the gymnospermous di- vision of the phaenogamous or flowering plants, Cycadoidea megalophylla Cone and Leaf. apparently beginning near the close of the carboniferous age, passing their climax in the CYCLADES Jurassic period, and thence gradually declining to the present time. Though related to the coniferous trees in structure and fructification, they are entirely different in habit ; they have a simple trunk, with a tuft of large leaves or fronds at the top, resembling a tree fern or a young palm. The fronds unroll in expand- ing, as in the ferns, but their form resembles palm leaves, though there is no tendency to split longitudinally. They are sometimes 30 ft. high, while the allied genus zamia rarely exceeds 3 or 4ft. They are at present confined to warm regions: the West Indies, Mexico, equatorial South America, southern Africa, Madagascar, southern Asia, Japan, the East Indies, and Australia. They are especially a mesozoic type, having the retrospective features of the palaeozoic ferns and the prospective char- acters of the cretaceous palms. CYCLADES (Gr. /c^/cAof, a circle), a group of nearly 60 small islands in the Grecian archi- pelago or .^Egean sea, N". of Candia. With the exception of one island, Stampalia, which is under Turkish rule, they belong to Greece, and constitute one of the 13 nomarchies into which the kingdom is divided ; area, 926 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 123,299. It is divided into seven eparchies. The ancient Greeks gave this name to these islands in the belief that they formed a circle around the holy island of De- los, while all the other islands within the same sea were called Sporades, from their being scattered in every direction. In fact, these islands form three distinct, nearly straight and parallel lines running from N. W. to S. E., of which the first, comprising Zea (anc. Ceos), Thermia (Cythnus), Serpho (Seriphus), Siphan- to (Siphnus), and Polycandro (Pholegandros), seem to have formed in antediluvian times one mountain chain, connected with the mountains of Attica on the north, and by the island of Milo with the western mountains of Candia on the south ; the second, comprising Andro (Andros), Tino (Tenos), Mycono (Myconus), Naxia (Naxos), Amorgo (Amorgos), and Stam- palia (Astypaleea), another mountain chain connected with that of Euboaa and the S. W. promontory of Asia Minor ; the third, lying between the first and second, and comprising Giura (Gyarus), Syra (Syros), Paro (Paros), Antiparo (Antiparos), Nio (los), and Santorin (Thera), may have had a connection with the E. end of Candia. Santorin is still a very re- markable volcanic island. Paro and Antiparo are renowned for their stalactite caves. These islands, once subject to Athens, and the basis of its maritime power, were among the first to shake off the Turkish yoke. Several of them have a fertile soil, producing barley, olive oil, and wine, while others are nearly sterile, yielding principally sulphur and alum. Silk is raised in the islands of Andro and Tino. Many of the inhabitants follow the sea. Syra, or Hermopolis, the capital (pop. 21,000), is a great emporium of the Levantine and Mediter- ranean trade.