CYCLIC POETS CYCLOPS. 



575 



week; but, as, for example, the year 1814 began 

 with Saturday, 1815 with Sunday, 1816 with Mon- 

 day ; but 1817, because preceded by a leap-year, 

 began, not with Tuesday, but with Wednesday. If 

 we count only common years, it is manifest that, from 

 seven years to seven years, every year would begin 

 again with the same day of the week as the seventh 

 year before ; or, to express the same in other words, 

 after seven years, the dominical letter would return 

 in the same order. But as every fourth year, in- 

 stead of a common year, is a leap-year, this can only 

 take place after 4x7, or 28 years. Such a period 

 of 28 years is called a solar cycle, and serves to show 

 the day of the week felling on the first day of Janu- 

 ary in every year. For this purpose, it is only requi- 

 site to know with what day of the week a particular 

 year began, and then to prepare a table for the first 

 days of the 27 following years. It is the custom now 

 to fix the beginning of the solar cycle at the ninth 

 year B. C., which was a, leap-year, and began with 

 Monday. If you wish to know what day of the week 

 the new-year's day of any year of our reckoning is, 

 you have only to add nine to the number of the year, 

 and then, after dividing this sum by 28, the quotient 

 gives, of course, the number of complete cycles, and 

 the remainder shows what year of the solar period the 

 given year is, of which the table above mentioned 

 gives the day of the week with which it begins. But 

 this reckoning is only adapted to the Julian calendar. 

 In the Gregorian, it is interrupted by the circumstance 

 that, in 400 years, the last year of the century is three 

 times a common year. Hence this reckoning will not 

 give the day of the week for the first day of the 

 year ; but, from 1582 (the commencement of the 

 Gregorian calendar) to 1700, for the llth, from 1700 

 to 1800 for the 12th, in the 19th century for the 13th 

 day of the year, and so on, from which we must then 

 reckon back to the new-year's day. Hence it is far 

 more convenient to prepare a table for the beginning 

 of a century (for example, for 1801, which began 

 with Thursday), and divide by 28 the number of years 

 from that to the given year, and, with the remainder, 

 seek in the table the day of the week for the first day 

 of the year. Besides this, another cycle is necessary 

 for the determination of festival days, by the aid of 

 which the feast of Easter, by which all the movable 

 feasts are regulated, is to be reckoned. Easter de- 

 pends on the first full moon after the vernal equinox. 

 (See Calendar.') The lunar cycle is a period of nine- 

 teen years, after which the new moon fells again on 

 the same day of the month. January 2, 1813, there 

 was a new moon ; January 2, 1832, there was a new 

 moon again. As the time from one new moon to an- 

 other, as astronomy teaches, is about 29^ days, a 

 table of the new moons for 19 years may be very 

 easily prepared. It is only necessary to observe that 

 this lunar cycle always begins with a year, of which 

 the first new moon fells on the first of January, and 

 that this was the case the first year B. C. Divide by 

 19 the number of the year plus 1, and the remainder 

 will show what year in the lunar period the given 

 year is. The number of the year is called the golden 

 number. (See Calendar, and Epact.) Besides these 

 two cycles, which are indispensable for the calcula- 

 tions of the calendar, there are some others, several 

 of them known by the name of periods. See the ac- 

 counts given under the heads Calendar and Era. 



The Germans make much use of the word Cyclus hi 

 science, meaning by it any series of events, works, ob- 

 servations, &c., wliich forms a whole in itself, anc 

 reminds us of a circle ; thus they speak of the Cyclus 

 of works in a certain science, and Cyclus of discove- 

 ries by a philosopher, &c., wherever the series forms 

 a well-connected whole. 



CYCLIC POETS. See Greek Literature. 



CYCLOID ; the line described by any point in the 

 im of a moving wheel. 



Imagine a circle, D, E, H, B, which is rolled per- 

 pendicularly along a straight line, A, D, a, till' the 

 point first at rest is brought to rest again, after an 

 entire revolution. The curve, A, F, G, B, a, thus 

 described by this point, is called a cycloid, because 

 every point in the circumference of a revolving wheel 

 describes a similar curve. The circle, D, E, B, is 

 called the generating circle; the line, A, D, , on 

 which it is described, the base of the cycloid. The 

 length of the cycloid is always four times the diame- 

 ter of the generating circle, and its area three times 

 the area of this circle. This line is very important 

 in the higher branches of mechanics. Imagine a pen- 

 dulum, C, B, suspended by a thread, in such a way 

 that, in the swinging of the pendulum between 

 two plates, C, A, c, a, each of which is bent in the 

 form of a cycloid, the thread rolls and unrolls itself. 

 Then the longest vibrations will be performed hi the 

 same time as the shortest, producing an isochronism, 

 and the cycloid is hence called an isochrone or tanto- 

 chrone. The name of brachystochrone has also been 

 given to the cycloid, because it is the line hi which a 

 heavy body,folling hi a direction oblique to the horizon, 

 would pass hi the shortest time between two points. 

 CYCLOPEDIA. See Encyclopaedia. 

 CYCLOPEAN WORKS, in ancient architecture ; 

 masonry performed with huge blocks of stone, much 

 of which is to be seen hi Sicily, said, by the ignorant, 

 to be the works of an ancient and fabulous gigantic 

 race of people; as Stonehenge is said by the country 

 people to have been built by the devil. Some of 

 these works, called Cyclopean, were the walls of Ar- 

 gos and Sicyone. Near to Nauplea, hi Argolis, there 

 were caverns, which, according to Strabo, were called 

 Cyclopean. As servants of Vulcan, the Cyclops were 

 celebrated hi mythology and fabulous his ,ory for their 

 marvellous works. See Cyclops. 



CYCLOPS ; the name of celebrated giants in the 

 mythology of Greece. They are of two kinds : the 

 former are the sons of Neptune, and the latter the 

 sons of Uranus andGaia (Heaven and Earth.) The 

 latter, three hi number, Arges, Brontes, Steropes 

 (Thunder and Lightning), were those powerful giants 

 who forged thunderbolts for Jupiter, in the workshop 

 of Vulcan, for which Apollo killed them. Wholly 

 different from these are the sons of Neptune, of whom 

 some enumerate seven; others, nearly a hundred. 

 The most distinguished of them is Polyphemus. With 

 him is connected the whole nation of the Cyclops, 

 who are described in the Odyssey (ix. 106, et seq.) as 

 wandering savages, uncouth giants, without agricul- 

 ture or civil union, dwelling in mountain caves, and 

 supporting themselves by the breeding of cattle. 

 According to Homer, they resided on the west side 

 of Sicily, near the dark Cimmeria. As geographical 

 knowledge increased, the region of Cimmerian dark- 

 ness was placed at a greater distance, and this nation 

 was described as dwelling on the Riphaean mountains, 

 rich in beds of metal. The one-eyed people, some- 

 times called Cyclops, sometimes Arimaspians, dug up 



