Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/872

(EDIPUS COLONEUS. 742 OELWEIN. Colonus). A tragedy by ir-ophocles, produced in B.C. 401 after the author's death. The action takes place in the i;rove of the Eumenides at Colonus, whither the blind Uidipus is led by his daughter Antigone, and where he is to die. Crcon attempts to induce (Kdipus to go with liini, and, failing, carries oil' Antigone and Isniene, who are rescued by Theseus, King of Athens. Polyniccs appears and is cursed by his father. Finally (Kdipus withdraws into the grove and his death is an- nounced. The tragedy is simple in plot and filled with an atmosphere of peace and dignity, except in the scenes with Creon and Polynices. CEDIPUS TYRAN'NUS (Lat., from Gk. OldiKdi'g Tvpavf<ic, (tidipoiis tyrannos, (Edipua the King). The greatest drama of Sojihoclfs and the most representative of Greek ti-agcdies. 'The scene is Thebes, which has been visited by a pestilence, and can be cleansed only by the pun- ishment of the murderer of Laius, on whom (l.di])us invokes curses. The i)lot consists in the gradual bringing home to G^dipus that he is the unwilling murilerer of his father and the hus- band of his own mother. In the horror of the enlightenment. .Tocasta kills herself and CEdipus in frenzy blinds himself and begs of Creon to banish him. The dialogue is full of life, the interest of the action is sustained throughout, and the choral |)ortirins are of notable beauty. OEHLENSCHLAGER, e'lcn-shla'gcM-, Adam GoTTi.oii (1779-1850). A great Danish poet and dramatist, born of German ancestry at Vester- bro. near Copenhagen. He was irregularly edu- cated; was destined first for trade, then for the university, and then went on the stage. After failure as an actor he studied law, but in 1802 he quitted law to devote himself to literature. In the symbolic poem (hiliViorncne he declared his new faith, destroyed older ver-ses then in the printer's hands, and composed in haste new ones in their place that made him undisputed head of the new Romanticists. From 180.5 to ISOll he trav- eled on a Government stipend, visiting Goethe, Madame de Stael, and other noted writers. In 1810 he was made professor of a-sthetics at Copenhagen, but did not long retain this posi- tion. In I82!t he was crowned by Tegner as King of the Singers of the North. He was sim- ilarly honored at the royal palace in Copen- hagen in 1849, and his funeral, two months later, was made a national solemnity. Oehlenschliiger's importance lies in drama, beginning with Saiict }l(iii.i Anflcn-Siiil (1803), followed by a series of national trag'edies, Hdkon Jnrl (1807; English trans. 187.t). Hnhhir hin Godp, Karl den Store, Valnnldke. ..tcI or/ Ynlhorfi, Vacriiincnie i Mikla- (jiKird. and thirteen others, together with five of a more general character, of which the first. Cor- rrnijio (German, 1807; Danish. 1811; English trans., 1854), is typical. Oehlenschliiger's dramas, like those of other Romanticists, show epic and I.vrie rather than dramatic qualities. They are genuinely national, most nf them rooted in the popular sagas, and they show unrivaled rommand of language. Through them he gave the Etiiliis new life. liy his youthful /'orwi.t (18051 he revealed unexpected lyric ])Ossibilities in the Danish language. Of these pnems perhaps the dranintic fairy tale AlntlrUn is most signifi- cant. His Inter lyric and epic work is not of great value, except Xortlrnx (hcirr (doils of the rjrlh, 1819), an etrort to utilize Xorse myth- ology for modern poetry. Oehlenschliiger's H'orfcs are in 20 volumes, comprising dranuis, memoirs, miscellaneous prose and verse (Copenhagen, 1851-54). For his life consult Arentzen (Copen- hagen, 1879) and Xielson (ib., 1879). OEHLEB, e'ler. Gustav Friedricii (1812- 72). A German theologian. He was born at Ebingen, Wiirttemberg. In 1834 he became teach- er in the Jlissionary Institution of IJasel, which he left in 1837 to study Orient;il languages at Berlin. The same year he went to Tiibingen as npclciil. In 1840 he became jirofessor in the seminary at Schouthal' and remained until 1845, when he ac- cepted a call to Breslau. He opposed the union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches, and while declaring in favor of confessional Luther- anism, he held aloof from the old Lutheran party. In 1852 he returned to Tiibingen as director of the seminary and i)rofessor of Old Testament theology in the university. Here he produced his principal work. Throlonie drs Altai Testa- tiicnts (2 vols., 1873-74; English trans., Edin- burgh, 1874-75: New York, 1883). Oehler was one of the foremost Old Testament scholars of his time of the conservative school. He contributed many articles to Herzo'r's Enci/clopiidic, and wrote a Lrhrhuch dcr Sniiibolilc ( 1870. edited by .lohann Delitzsch). Consult Josef Knapp, Ein Lehcnshild von Ochlcr (Tiibingen, 1870). OEHME, e'mc. Erwix (1831 — ). A German landscape and genre ])ainter, born in Dresden. He was a son and ]iupil of the landscape painter Ernst F. Oehme (1797-1855), and also pupil of Ludwig Richtcr and of the Dresden Academy, but formed his style nuiinly by studying nature on his travels through Germany, Switzerland, France, and England. A fine specimen of his landscapes is the "Stone Quarrv in Saxon Switz- erland" (1800, Dresden GalleA-). In 1877 he executed in the banquet hall of the Albrechtsburg at Meissen three mural paintings representing the "Rape of the Saxon Princes in 1415." and in 1887-89 a picture in heroic size of the "Dec- laration of Venezuela's Independence by Bolivar." fnr the House of Parliament at Caracas. He also did excellent decdrative work, especially in imita- tion of old Golielins for several royal palaces. CEIL DE BCETTF, e'y' dr brf (Fr., ox-eye). A term ap|dieil in architeiture to those small round or oval openings in the frieze or roof of large buildings which serve to give light to spaces otherwise dark. The most famous is in the ante- room of the royal chamber at Versailles, which gave name to the a])artment. OELAND, e'Wnt. An i>land in the Baltic Sea. See (JlAND. OELS, els. A city of Prussia. See Ols. OEL'WEIN, fd'win. A city in Fayette Coun- ty, Inwa, 53 miles north of Cedar Rapids; on the Rock Island system, and at the jnnctinn of four branches of the Chicago Great Western Railroad (.Map: Iowa, F 2). The latter maintains large rejiair shops here, and there is alsu a foundry. The government, under a charter of 1888. revised in 1897, is vested in a mayor, elected every two years, and a unicameral coiuicil. The water- works are owned and operated by the municipal- ity. .Settled in 1875. Oelwein was incorporated first in 1888. Its growth during the decade 18901900 was extraordinarily rapid, a popula-