RHADAMANTHUS 



4991 



RHEIMS 



suits, for many of his best works are badly 

 faded. 



Reynolds was the son of a rector and school- 

 master of Plympton, Devonshire. At the age 

 of eighteen he began studying with a -promi- 

 nent portrait painter, and two years later 

 started on an independent career. A sojourn 

 of three years in Italy, the land of art, proved 

 of great value to the talented young man, and 

 by 1752 his reputation was firmly established. 

 In 1768 he was elected first president of the 

 Royal Academy, was knighted by King George 

 III. and in 1784 became painter to the king, 

 nolds was an intimate friend of Johnson, 

 Goldsmith, Garrick and other literary men, and 

 was associated with them in the celebrated 

 try Club. 



The National Gallery of London possesses a 

 number of the best of Reynolds' canvases, in- 

 cluding portraits of Goldsmith, Dr. Johnson, 

 Garrick and Admiral Keppel. Three portraits 

 of himself are also in this collection. Mrs. 

 Siddons as the Tragic Muse, the Duchess of 

 Devonshire and many other famous pictures 

 are in smaller galleries or private collections. 

 In America many fine examples of his work are 

 housed in the Metropolitan Museum, in the 

 New York Public Library and in several pri- 

 vate collections. Reynolds wrote an admirable 

 series of treatises on the history of art, which 

 are collected under the title Discourses before 

 the Royal Academy. 



RHADAMANTHUS, rod a man' thus, in 

 Greek mythology, a son of Jupiter and Eu- 

 ropa. By his inflexible integrity Rhadaman- 

 fhus aroused the jealousy of his brother Minos, 

 while the latter was king of Crete, and was 

 forced to flee from the country. After his 

 death Rhadamanthus and his brothers, Minos 

 and Aeacus, ruled as judges of the lower world. 

 It was their duty to question all newly-arrived 

 souls, to sort out the good thoughts and actions 

 from the bad, and to place them in the scales 

 of Themis, the goddess of justice. If the good 

 outweighed the evil the spirit went to the Ely- 

 sian Fields; if evil prevailed, the spirit suffered 

 in the fires of Tartarus. 



RHEA, re' a, a large bird which is popularly 



called the ''South American ostrich," because 



of its similarity to the ostrich. Scientists note 



90 many points of difference, however, that in 



at years they are inclined to place the two 



in distinct familu^, calling the rheas Rheidae 



idc). The ostrich has two toes, without 



claw.*; thr rhca three, with claws. Thr r! 



head axi<; ;o not so bare of feathers; 



it has wings, which are, however, very small, 

 and of no value for flight. Finally, this bird 

 is only about half the size of the ostrich, for it 

 stands not more than three feet in height. 

 The rhea is not found north of the equator, 

 but is numerous in the plains 

 of Southern Brazil, Uruguay, 

 Paraguay and Northern Ar- 

 gentina. It is of some com- 



THE RHEA 



mercial importance; its plumes, much inferior 

 to ostrich plumes, are made into brushes, and 

 its skin is manufactured into a native rug. 

 Rheas are polygamists; one male appropriates 

 two or more females; the latter lay their eggs 

 in the same nest, and when the number reaches 

 twenty to twenty-five the male assumes the 

 task of hatching them. The birds live in com- 

 munities of a dozen to twenty, and eat worms, 

 snails, berries, seeds anything small in tho 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms. The local 

 name of the rhea is nandu (nan'doo). 



RHEA, in classic mythology, a goddess who 

 was the symbol of the productiveness of nature. 

 She was often given the name of "Mother of 

 the Gods." Rhea was the daughter of Uranus 

 and Gaea, or Heaven and Earth, the sister and 

 wife of Saturn, the mother of Pluto, Jupiter, 

 Neptune, Juno, Vesta and Ceres. In Phrygia, 

 a division of Asia Minor, Rhea was identi- 

 fied with Cybcle, who presided over mountain 

 fastnesses and fortified places. She was at- 

 trm led by priests called Curetes, and her 

 : iot was driven by lions. Rhea cured 

 Bacchus of madness, taught him 1m- religious 

 rites, then aent him forth to teach the cultiva- 

 tion of thr vino. 



RHEIMS, or REIMS, rccmz, a fortified city 

 of Northern France, whose magnificent thir- 



