602 



OLY MIMAS 



OMAR KHAYYAM 



from the 2Ut or 22d of July 77U n.c., and is 

 frequently referred to as 'tin' olympiad of 

 Combo* | for historians, instead of retelling in 

 the olyni|>iiul l>y its ninnU-r, frequently designate 

 it hv the name of the winner of the foot-race 

 in tin- Olympic games licloiiging to that period. 

 The first ' year of imr picseiit era (1 A.I).) 

 corres|Hindcd t<i the last half of the fourth year 

 of the 104th with the lirst liulf of the firel year 

 of the 195th olympiad. See CmtoNoi 



Ol>ni|)ias. the wife of Philip II., kin- of 

 Macedonia, uinl mother of Alexander tlir (Ireat. 

 She wns tin- daughter of Xeoptolemus I., king of 

 Epirus. She was a woman of great vigour anil 

 rapacity, but was passionate, jealous, ami ambi- 

 tions. \Vl\rii Philip married Cleopatra, niece of 

 Attains, she left Macedonia, and she was lielieve<l 

 to have instigated his assassination by Pausanias 

 <:137 n.c. ). On the accession of Alexander she re- 

 tnrneil to Macedonia, and brought about the murder 

 of Cleopatra and her daughter. A lexander treated 

 her with respect, luit he never allowed her to 

 meddle with his political schemes. After his 

 death she obtained the support of Polyipwchon, 

 ami in 317 the pair defeated and put to death 

 I'hilip Arrhid.eus, the weak-minded step brother 

 and successor of Alexander, together with his wife 

 Eurydice. Her cruellies soon alienated the minds 

 of the ]ieoplc, whereupon Cassandcr besieged her 

 in I'vilua, ami on its surrender put her to death, 

 316 il.C. 



Ol) Illltiodoru*. "lie of the latest of the Alex- 

 andrian Xeoplatonists, flourished in the first half 

 of the 6th century after Christ, during the reign of 

 the Kmperor .lustinian. Regarding liis life nothing 

 is known. Of hut writing we possess a Life of 

 J'/iiln, with comineiiiaries or scholia on the 

 Unnjii:*, riiilclinit, I'liinlu, and Alcibiailfs I. In 

 tiie-e lie appears as an acute and vigorous thinker 

 and as a man of great erudition. Another < Myin 

 piodorns, of the Peripatetic school, nourished in 

 Alexandria in the ."itli ceninry H.C.. and was the 

 teacher of 1'roclus (q.v.). A third Olympiodorus, 

 from Tbelies in Egypt, "rote in tlrcek a history of 

 the weste.rn empire from 407 to 425 A.D., abridged 

 by I'liotins. 



Olympus, the ancient name of several moun- 

 tains or chains of mountains e.g. in Mysia. Cypins. 

 Lycia, Elis, Laeonia, Arcadia, and one, the most 

 famous of all, between Thessaly ami Macedonia. 

 Its eastern side, which fronts llie sea, shows a 

 line of Mist precipices, cleft by ravines lilled with 

 fon-t ire,-... Uak, chestnut, lirech, and plane trees 

 are scattered along its base, and higher HIP grow 

 fonts i if pine, as in the days of the old poets 



of (i recce and Ko Its highest peak is 9750 



feet ali\e the sea. It was regarded by the ancient 

 (ireeks as the chief aliode. of the gods, and the 

 lialoce of /en- W a- supposed to stand upon its 

 lirood summit. Aocording tollreek legend it was 

 formerly connected \\itli Ossa, but was separated 

 from it by an earthquake, allowing a passage for 

 the I'encus through the narrow vale of Tempo to 

 the sea. The philosopher afterwards transferred 

 the abode of the yods to the planetary spheres. 



Om i a Sanskrit word which, on account of the 

 mystical notions that even at an early date of 

 Hindu civilisation were connected with it, acquired 

 much importance in the development of Hindu 

 religion. Its original sen.-e is that of emphatic 

 or solemn allirmation or assent. Later it became 

 the auspicious won! with which the spiritual 

 teacher hail to begin, and the pujiil had to end, 

 each lewMin of bis reading of the \ cdo. And ulti- 

 mately (an equal to A a in) it came to lie regarded 

 a* an abbreviate,) method of naming the Hindu 

 Trinity. In the Lamaist form of Uuddhism the 



'formula of six syllables,' "//i iiunn jxtilmr hum, 

 \\liicli is variously inteipreted, is the most solemn 

 and sncred of invocations; is the first thing taught 

 to Tibetan and Mongolian children, the last pia\er 

 breathed by the dying man. ll is found cii"iai-d 

 <in rocks, lla^s. and piaving-wheels, itnd is looked 

 on as the essence of religion and wisdom, and the 

 means of attaining eternal bliss. 



Oinaull (tlatd. niijli ninyli, 'seat of the chiefs'), 

 the county town of Tyrone, on the Strule, 34 miles 

 S. of Londonderry and 11(1 XX W. of Dublin. It 

 grew up around an abbey founded in 7!2, but i* 

 lirst heard of as a fort i ess in the end of the l.'ith 

 century, when it was forced to .surrender to the 

 Englisli. It formeil part of James I.'s I'lantation ' 

 giants, and was strongly gairisoned by Mount joy. 

 On its being evacuated by the troops of .lames II. 

 in 16.S9 it was partially burned, and a second tire 

 in 1743 completed its destruction. l!ut it has 

 well rebuilt, and is now a neat and prosperous 

 town. Pop. ( 1881 ) 413.S : ( 1 s!i 1 I 4< i.'i'.l. 



O lllllllil. the chief city of Nebraska, the seat of 

 justice of Douglas county, is on llie. ri^ht bank of 

 the Missouri Itiver, at tlie convergence of se\eral 

 important railway line-. -I'M) miles by rail \V. of 

 Chicago, and 476 miles N. by \\ . of St Louis. I,at. 

 40 16' X. ; Ion. !>,V 56' W. The site of ( lin.iba is a 

 plateau 80 feet aliove the river, which is spanned by 

 wagon- and railway-bridges, one of the latter 2750 

 feet in length amf erected at a eo>t of ^|.L'.'I<I.IHKI. 

 The city covers an area of 'J1J sq. in. Among its 

 institutions are 2 cathedrals anil over one hundred 

 oilier churches, a university, a college, a hall for 

 girls, a medical college, a st.it" iu-titution for the 

 deaf and dumb, and a free public library. There 

 are also hospitals, with accommodations for '.(> 

 patients; a Lnited States court-house and post- 

 olliee building, costing $1,000,000) a county court- 

 house; a high-school liou-e, costing S-"iT>0,000 ; 9 

 national banks, H state banks, and '2 savings-banks : 

 a chamber of commerce and i \position bnildi'ig. 

 There are 140 manufacturing concerns, with n capi- 

 tal of 822,000,000, employing (l.MX) persons and pro- 



,,, 

 ducing goods valued at 180,000,000 per ywur, and 170 



wholesaling houses, vith a capital of $9,000,000. 

 ( Imalia is sai.l to JMISSCSS the largest silvei -smelting 

 works in the world, having an annual output of 



old, silver, copper, find lead valued al s>_".>.(KK).000. 

 ts meat-packing industries are also of vast projKir- 

 t ions, the several establishments having an aggre- 

 gate capital of SI 1,000,000, and employing .VKm per- 

 sona, A belt-line railway encircles the city, ami 

 here are the principal shops of some of the main lines 

 that centre here. Daily papers and many other 

 [eriodicals are published here. pop. i ls;oi Ki.i 

 i isso :io..-,ls ; , IS'.KH 140.4.VJ: i I'.HW) 102,555. 



Olllillias. a tribe of American Indians, of the 

 Dakota stxicK, settled in northern XcbnisUa, and 

 numbering almut 1200. 



Oman, tin- most eastern portion of Arabia, a 

 strip of maritime territory, extending between the 

 Strait of Orinu/ and Kas el Had. and liouiidcd on 

 the S\V. bv the deserts of the interior. At a 

 distance of 'from 20 to 4."i miles inland a chain of 

 mountains runs parallel to the coast, reaching GOOO 

 feet in Jebel Akhdar. There are some richly fertile 

 trncta in this region, especially where water exists 

 for irrigation. The coast is" hot and not very 

 healthy. This part of Arabia is under the rule 

 of the sultan of Muscat (q.v.). 



Omar. Sec CALIF. 



Omar Khayyam, the astronomer-poet of 

 Persia, was liom at Nitdiapur, the capital of 

 Khorassan, aliout the middle of the llth century, 

 and took his takhallus or poetical name. ' Khay- 

 yam,' from his father's calling of tent maker. He 



