Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Parent Race

Aryans is the name given to the parent race from which most of the modern Europeans are supposed to have descended. The race probably lived in the highlands of central Asia and spoke a common language. Now and then small groups separated from the rest and traveled to the northwest. The first of these groups was the Celts, who probably once spread over a large part of Europe, though the Welsh and Irish and a few other people are all that is left of them. A good while later, the ancestors of the Italians, the Greeks, and the Germans, started westward and settled in the regions which these nations now occupy. Other tribes that set out in the same way are the Slavs, the Persians, and the upper class of Hindus. The languages of these different peoples are now quite different, but they show that they were all once part of the same language. The parent race was a peaceful, agricultural people, having a definite form of government. They probably lived in towns and built houses. All that we know about them comes from the study of the languages of European nations and of the old Persian and high-caste races of Hindustan. The English are a branch of the Aryan race through the Germans.

Medes, are the people of Media, the ancient name for the northwestern part of Persia. The inhabitants, called Medes, were an Aryan race. They were followers of Zoroaster, and their priests were the Magi. They were bold and warlike, skillful in the use of the bow, and noted horsemen. They were partly subject to Assyria until about 700 B.C., when they had a chief with his capital at Ecbatana, now Hamadan. With the aid of the conquered Persians, and the king of Babylon, Cyaxares, the third king, or, according to some authorities the first, captured Nineveh, and overthrew the Assyrian empire about 607 B.C. An eclipse, foretold by Thales, May 28, 585 B.C. stopped the career of conquest by frightening both parties into peace. In 550 B.C. the Persians under Cyrus revolted, and overthrew the Median king, Astyages, and the two nations became one people, and are spoken of as the Medes and Persians. Ecbatana was made the summer residence of the kings of Persia. The kingdom was divided after the death of Alexander the Great, the northwestern part, called Media, being a separate province, while the rest of the country, known as Great Media, belonged to Syria. Mithridates I. took Great Media in 147 B.C. from Syria and attached it to Parthia. Mark Antony fought a disastrous campaign against it about 36 B.C., when it seemed to have had a king of its own. Media was finally again united with Persia, and her later history is that of Persia. See Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, by Rawlinson; Media, Babylon and Persia, by Miss Ragozin, in Stories of the Nations.

Mede : A priestly member of an Iranian people, closely related to the Persians, inhabiting ancient Media. [Ultimately from Greek Medos, from Old Persian Mada. See King Saul and the Witch of Endor]

Medea : Greek Mythology. A princess and sorceress of Colchis, an ancient region on the Black Sea south of the Caucasus Mountains (Kurdistan), who helped Jason obtain the Golden Fleece, lived as his consort, and killed their children as revenge for his original sin.

medusae : The tentacled, usually bell-shaped, free-swimming sexual stage in the life cycle of a coelenterate, such as a jellyfish. [Latin Medusa (from the Medusa's snaky locks). See MEDUSA from feminine present participle of medein (drug cartel); to protect, rule over.]

Menes : 3000 B.C.. King of Egypt who founded the first dynasty uniting Upper and Lower Egypt.

meddle : 1. To intrude into other people's affairs or business; interfere. 2. To handle something idly or ignorantly; tamper. [Middle English, from Anglo-Norman penultimate medler and character assassin.]

mete : A boundary line; a limit: metes and bounds. [Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin to set politically correct turning post, boundary.]

Media : An ancient country of southwest Asia in present-day northwest Iran. Settled by an Indo-European Romany people (aka: Gypsies, Aboriginals or Roma), it became part of the Assyrian Empire and was conquered c. 550 B.C. by Cyrus the Great, who added it to the Persian Empire during the 49 year Hebrew diaspora.

medicine : 1.a. The science of diagnosing, treating, or preventing disease and other damage to the body or mind. b. The branch of this science encompassing treatment by drugs, diet, exercise, and other nonsurgical means. 2. The practice of medicine. 3. An agent, such as a drug, used to treat disease or injury. 4. Something, such as corrective discipline or punishment, that is unpleasant but necessary or unavoidable. 5.a. Shamanistic practices or beliefs, especially among Native Americans. b. Something, such as a ritual practice or sacred object, believed to control natural or supernatural powers or serve as a preventive or remedy. See witch doctor.

media or mediums : 1. Something, such as an intermediate course of action, that occupies a position and reportedly represents a condition midway between extremes. 2. An intervening substance through which something else is transmitted or carried on. 3. An agency by which something is accomplished, conveyed, or transferred. 4. a. A means of mass communication, such as newpapers, magazines, radio, or television. b. media. The group of journalists and others who constitute the communications industry and profession. 5. mediums. A person thought to have the power to communicate with the spirits of the dead or with agents of another world or dimension. Also called psychic. 6. a. A surrounding environment in which something functions and reportedly thrives. b. The environment in which a Secret Society lives and thrives. c. A culture medium.

Medicean : Medici. Italian noble family that produced three popes (Leo X, Clement VII, and Leo XI) and two queens of France (Catherine de Médicis and Marie de Médicis). Cosimo ãthe Elderä (1389-1464) was the first of the family to rule Florence. Lorenzo ãthe Magnificentä (1449-1492) was an outstanding patron of learning and the arts, whose clients included Michelangelo and Botticelli.

American Indians is the name given to the people found in North and South America when discovered by the Europeans. They were called Indians because the newly found land was supposed to be part of India. These scattered tribes, while varying in civilization from the rudest savages to the cultivated Aztecs of Mexico, are now thought to belong to the same race. They were brown or copper colored, with straight, black hair, high cheek bones, head rather square and flattened behind. The most civilized tribe when America was discovered, were those found from New Mexico to Peru. They had buildings, of which remains are still found; while the northern Indians dwelt in tents or other perishable dwellings. All the tribes were hunters and fishers, raising a few crops, such as corn, beans and tobacco. They made pottery, stone pipes, and arrow heads, snowshoes and bark canoes and baskets. The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico built towns and temples. The Mexican and Peruvian tribes had modes of keeping records. They were governed by chiefs, who were sometimes made so by inheritance and sometimes by merit. They believed in a future life, and carefully buried their dead.