ODOACER 



(EDEMA 



579 



the highest of the gods, the Alfadur, rules heaven 

 and earth, and is omniscient. As ruler of heaven, 

 his seat is the palace Hlidskialf in Asgard, from 

 whence his two black ravens, Hugin (Thought) 

 and Munin (Memory), fly forth daily to gather 

 tidings of all that is being done throughout the 

 world. As god of war, he holds his court in 

 Valhalla, whither come all brave warriors after 

 death to revel in the tumultuous joys in which 

 tliey took most pleasure while on earth. His 

 greatest treasures are his eight-footed steed Sleip- 

 ner, lib spear Gungner, and his ring Draupner. 

 As the concentration and source of all greatness, 

 excellence, and activity Odin bears numerous dif- 

 ferent names. By drinking from Mimir's fountain 

 he became the wisest of gods and men, but he 

 purchased the distinction at the cost of one eye. 

 He is the greatest of sorcerers, and imparts a 

 knowledge of his wondrous arts to his favourites. 

 Frigga (q.v. ) is his queen, and the mother of 

 Balder (q.v.), the Scandinavian Apollo; but he 

 has other wives and favourites, and a numerous 

 progeny of sons and daughters. He is claimed as 

 ancestor of various royal dynasties. Rhys con- 

 tends that the myths relating to Woden, the great 

 Teutonic sky-god, may be traced to a Celtic origin, 

 and compares the name Woden with the Celtic 

 Gwydion. See SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Odoacer, ODOVACAB, the ruler of Italy from 

 the year 476 to 493, was the son of .Kdico, a captain 

 of the Germanic Scyrri. He entered the military 

 service of the western Roman empire, and rapidly 

 rose to eminence. He took part in the revolution 

 by which Orestes (475) drove the Emperor Julius 

 Nepos from the throne, and conferred on his son 

 Romulus the title of Augustus, which the people 

 Bcoffingly changed into Augustulus. He soon per- 

 ceived the weakness of the new ruler, and at the 

 head of the Germanic mercenaries Herulians, Iliig- 

 ians, Turcilingians, ami Scyrri marched against 

 Pavia, which Orestes had garrisoned, stormed the 

 city, and put his opponent to death ( 476 ). Romulus 

 ahdicatd\ and withdrew into obscurity. Thus 

 perished the Roman empire. Odoacer showed him- 

 self to be a wise, moderate, and politic ruler, 

 sought to conciliate the Byzantine emperor Zeno, 

 and, with the title of Patricitu, ruled Italy from 

 Ravenna. The barbarian ruler did everything in 

 his power to lift Italy out of the deplorable con- 

 dition into which she had gunk. Though an 

 Arian himself, he acted with a kingly impar- 

 tiality that more orthodox monarch* have rarely 

 exhibited. He conducted a successful campaign 

 in Dalmntia, ami against the Rugii on the I)aniil>e. 

 The increasing power of Odoacer excited the jeal- 

 ousy and alarm of Zeno, who encouraged Theo- 

 dene, king of the Ostrogoths, to undertake an 

 expedition against Italy (489). Odoacer, defeated 

 in three great battles ( at Isonzo, at Verona, and on 

 the Adda), shut himself up in Ravenna, which he 

 bravely defended for three years. Compelled by 

 famine, he capitulated (403) OH condition that the 

 kingdom of Italy should l>e shared between him 

 and Theoderic ; but a fortnight after Odoacer was 

 assassinated at a feast by Theoderic himself. See 

 Hodgkin, Italy and her Inwulen. 



Odometer. _ See PEDOMETER. 



O'Donnell, LEOPOLD, Marshal of Spain, born 

 at TenerilFe, 12th January 1809, was descended from 

 an ancient Irish family. He entered the Spanish 

 army when young, and espoused the cause of the 

 infant Queen Isaliclla against Don Carlos (see 

 CARLISTS). When the Carlists were overthrown 

 he was created Chief of the Staff to Espartero. 

 He took the side of the queen-mother in 1840, 

 emigrated with her to France, and took up his 

 residence at Orleans, where he planned many of 



the political risings which took place under the 

 rule of Espartero. In 1843 his intrigues against 

 Espartero (q.v.) were successful; and he was re- 

 warded by the governor-generalship of Cuba, where 

 he amassed a large fortune by favouring the iniquit- 

 ous trade in slaves. When he returned to Spain 

 (1848) he intrigued against Bravo Murillo and 

 Narvaez ; was made war minister by Espartero in 

 1854 ; but plotted against his benefactor, and in 

 1856 supplanted him by a coup d'dat. He was 

 in three mouths' time succeeded by Narvaez, but 

 in 1858 he returned to power ; in 1859 he com- 

 manded the army in Morocco, and after a tedious 

 campaign took the Moorish camp, and the city of 

 Tetnan surrendered, whereupon he was made Duke 

 of Tetuan. In 1866 his cabinet was upset hy 

 Narvaez, and he died at Bayonue, 5th November 

 1867. 



Odontoptcryx (Gr. odous, 'a tooth ;' pteryx, 

 'a wing'), a goose-like or duck-like bird, the 

 remains of which occur in the London clay (see 

 EOCENE SYSTEM). The alveolar margins of both 

 jaws are furnished with tooth-like denticulations, 

 which are actual parts of the bony substance itself, 

 and, therefore, not like true teeth. The tooth-like 

 serrations, of two sizes, are of triangular or com- 

 pressed conical form, and are all directed forwards. 



Odoiltornitlies, extinct toothed birds from 

 the Cretaceous strata of North America. There 

 are two distinct types Iclithynrnis and Hesper- 

 omis. The former and its relative Apatornis were 

 small tern-like Hying birds, with teeth in sockets, 

 and with biconcave vertebra-. But Hesperornis 

 was a large bird, about six feet long, with utterly 

 degenerate wings and obviously incapable of flight. 

 According to .Marsh, to whom our knowledge of 

 these forms is chiefly due, it was a consummate 

 diver, even more aquatic than the penguin. The 

 teeth are set in grooves, the vertebrae saddle- 

 shaped. 'A bird indeed,' Stejneger says, 'but a 

 kind of swimming, loon-like raptorial ostrich, with- 

 out fore-limbs, with the gape armed with formid- 

 able rows of strong teeth like a gigantic lizard, 

 and with a large, broad, and flattened tail like 

 a beaver." See Marsh's monograph ( 1880). 



4l>nlaiiii>adius. JOANNES (the Latin form 

 of HAUSSCIIEIN, although his proper name was 

 Hiissgen), one of the most eminent of the coad- 

 jutors of Zwingli in the Swiss Reformation, born 

 in 1482 at Weinsl>erg, in Swabia. He relinquished 

 the study of law at Bologna for that of theology 

 at Heidell>erg, became tutor to the sons of the 

 Elector Palatine, and sulisequently preacher in 

 Weinsberg. Being appointed preacher at Basel, 

 he formed the acquaintance of Erasmus, who em- 

 ployed him as assistant in his edition of the New 

 Testament. In 1516 he left Basel for Augsburg, 

 where also he filled the office of preacher, and where 

 he entered into a convent. But Luther's publica- 

 tions exercised so great an influence on him that 

 he left the convent, and liecame chaplain to Franz 

 von Sickingen, after whose death he returned to 

 Basel in 1522, and, in the capacity of preacher and 

 professor of Theology, commenced his career as a 

 reformer. He held disputations with supporters of 

 the Church of Rome in Baden in 1526, and in Bern 

 in 1528. In the controversy concerning the Lord's 

 Supper he gradually adopted more and more the 

 views of Zwingli. In 1529 he disputed with Luther 

 in the conference at Marburg, and he wrote several 

 treatises. He died at Basel, 24th November 1531. 

 He was remarkable for his gentleness of character. 

 There are Lives in German by Herzog (1843) and 

 Hagenbach (1859). 



(Ecumenical. See ECUMENICAL. 



4K<I<- Ilia (Gr., 'a swelling') is the term applied 

 in medicine to the swelling occasioned by the effu- 



