golden calf, idol worshipped by the Hebrews during the period of the Exodus from Egypt in the 13th century bc and during the age of Jeroboam I, king of Israel, in the 10th century bc. Mentioned in Exodus 32 and I Kings 12 in the Old Testament, worship of the golden calf is seen as a supreme act of

calla: The golden, or yellow, calla lily (Z. elliottiana), with more heart-shaped leaves, and the pink, or red, calla lily (Z. rehmannii) are also grown. The spotted, or black-throated, calla lily (Z. albomaculata), with white-spotted leaves, has a whitish to yellow or pink spathe that shades within…

tapestry: 15th century: …famous for its production of tapis d’or, or “golden carpets,” so called because of the profuse use of gold threads. Examples such as The Triumph of Christ, popularly known as the Mazarin Tapestry (c. 1500), are characterized by their richness of effect.

golden cat, either of two cats of the family Felidae: the African golden cat (Profelis aurata), or the Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii), also known as Temminck’s cat. The African golden cat is a solitary, nocturnal inhabitant of tropical forests. It is 90–100 cm (36–40 inches) long, including

Spain: Lepanto: …have always been their “Golden Age.”

golden chain, (Laburnum anagyriodes), small tree or shrub of the pea family (Fabaceae), cultivated as an ornamental. The golden chain tree is native to southern Europe. The plant is one of only two species in the genus Laburnum, the other being alpine, or Scotch, laburnum (L. alpinum); a hybrid of

David Henry Hwang: Hwang’s next play, Golden Child (produced 1996, revised 1998), had a relatively short run but ultimately was nominated for a Tony Award. Based on the stories of Hwang’s maternal grandmother, it examines the tensions between tradition and change in Chinese society.

Michael Ritchie: The 1980s: The Golden Child was one of 1986’s top-grossing films, thanks largely to the charisma of star Eddie Murphy. After the disappointing The Couch Trip (1988), Ritchie reteamed with Chase on Fletch Lives (1989), but it failed to match the success of the 1985 original.

Maria Elena Vieira da Silva: …seen in the dreamlike cityscape Golden City (1956). She and her husband, the Hungarian artist Arpad Szenes, lived in Brazil during World War II. Vieira da Silva returned to Paris in 1947 and became a French citizen in 1956.

Vito Pandolfi: …commedia dell’arte in the film The Golden Coach (1952). Pandolfi also directed two films: Gli ultimi (1962; “The Last Ones”), based on a work by Father Davide Maria Turoldo, and Provincia di Latina (1965; “The Province of Latina”), a documentary.

stagecraft: Costume of the 20th century and beyond: Natalya Goncharova’s design for Le Coq d’or in 1914 was unprecedented in its use of vivid colours, chiefly shades of red, yellow, and orange, with other colours for discordant emphasis. The forms of the costumes and their decorations were based on traditional Russian folk dress, though that dress was…

Kathy Bates: Films: … (2006), Bee Movie (2007), and The Golden Compass (2007).

Philip Pullman: …Lights (1995; also published as The Golden Compass, 1996), the first volume of the trilogy, won the 1996 Carnegie Medal in Literature and was adapted into a major motion picture (2007). It was followed by The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000). The latter volume won the Whitbread…

tickseed: Golden coreopsis (C. tinctoria) is a popular garden plant, and swamp tickseed (C. rosea) is grown in wildflower gardens.

corydalis: Major species: …with pink yellow-tipped flowers; and golden corydalis (C. aurea), a 15-cm (6-inch) annual. Southern corydalis (C. micranthra) is found throughout the southern United States and has small yellow flowers.

cowrie: The 10-centimetre (4-inch) golden cowrie (C. aurantium) was traditionally worn by royalty in Pacific Islands, and the money cowrie (C. moneta), a 2.5-centimetre (1-inch) yellow species, has served as currency in Africa and elsewhere.

Mexican tulip poppy, (Hunnemannia fumariifolia), perennial plant of the poppy family (Papaveraceae) native to southwestern North America. The plant is the only member of the genus Hunnemannia and is grown as an ornamental. The Mexican tulip poppy has large four-petaled sulfur-yellow flowers about 5

ribes: Major species: speciosum); golden, or clove, currant (R. aureum), bearing spicy-fragrant yellow flowers; and R. viburnifolium, a sprawling evergreen.

Greece: Greece’s debt crisis: …election, including the ultraright-wing nationalist Golden Dawn party, which registered about 7 percent of the vote. As the winner, ND had the first opportunity to try to form a coalition government but was unable to do so, as were Syriza and PASOK, forcing a new election on June 17. This…

Aleister Crowley: In 1898 he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an organization derived from the Rosicrucians. One of Crowley’s rivals within the London Golden Dawn group was the poet William Butler Yeats. On a visit to Egypt in 1904, Crowley reported mystical experiences and wrote The Book of the…

Ozaki Kōyō: …the novel Konjiki yasha (1897–1902; The Golden Demon), which portrayed the social cost of modernization when the power of money wins out over human affection and social responsibility. Kōyō’s guidance was eagerly sought by young writers. Two of his best-known disciples were the romantic-short-story writer Izumi Kyōka and the naturalistic…

Verbenaceae: … (Holmskioldia sanguinea) and species of pigeon berry, or golden dewdrop (Duranta), and glory-bower (Clerodendrum) are cultivated as ornamentals. The shrub lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla) is notable for its fragrant oil. The family also includes teak (Tectona grandis), an important timber tree of Southeast Asia (see teak).

William Kirby: …a writer whose historical novel The Golden Dog (1877, authorized version 1896) is a classic of Canadian literature.

golden eagle, (Aquila chrysaetos), dark brown eagle of the family Accipitridae, characterized by golden lanceolate nape feathers (hackles), dark eyes, yellow cere, gray beak, fully feathered legs, large yellow feet, and great talons. Its wingspread reaches 2.3 metres (almost 8 feet). It is the

chinquapin: …or giant, evergreen chinquapin (Chrysolepis chrysophylla), is native to western North America. It may be 45 metres (148 feet) tall and has lance-shaped leaves about 15 cm (6 inches) long, coated beneath with golden-yellow scales. The bush, or Sierra evergreen, chinquapin (Chrysolepis sempervirens) is a small spreading mountain shrub…

Pierce Brosnan: …first film in the series, GoldenEye (1995), made more than $350 million worldwide, the most ever for a Bond film at that time. The second, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), scored record grosses for a Bond film in the United States. Brosnan brought out the human side of the Bond character,…

snake: Specializations for securing food: …such as that of the golden fer-de-lance (Bothrops insularis) of Queimada Island, off the Brazilian coast, which would lose as prey most of the birds it bites if they could fly very far away. Other venoms kill more slowly, and the snake bites, retires, and waits, finally trailing the bitten…

Pelias: …task of bearing off the Golden Fleece. According to Homer, Pelias and Neleus were twin sons of Tyro (daughter of Salmoneus, founder of Salmonia in Elis) by the sea god Poseidon, who came to her disguised as the river god Enipeus, whom she loved. The twins were exposed at birth…

Franz Grillparzer: …trilogy Das Goldene Vlies (1821; The Golden Fleece) was interrupted by the suicide of Grillparzer’s mother and by illness. This drama, with Medea’s assertion that life is not worth living, is the most pessimistic of his works and offers humanity little hope. Once more the conflict between a life of…

The Order of the Golden Fleece, order of knighthood founded in Burgundy in 1430 and associated later especially with Habsburg Austria and with Spain. The order was founded by Philip III the Good, duke of Burgundy, at Bruges in Flanders in 1430, to commemorate his wedding there to Isabella of

Jerusalem: Architecture: An eighth gate, the Golden Gate, to the east, remains sealed, however, for it is through this portal that Jewish legend states that the messiah will enter the city. The Jaffa and Damascus gates are still the main entrances. The city wall remains intact and unbroken, save for a…

Golden Gate, strait, in California, western coastal U.S., connecting San Francisco Bay with the Pacific Ocean and separating San Francisco from Marin County. An ancient river mouth, it is about 3 miles (5 km) long, from 1 to 3 miles wide, and 300 feet (90 metres) deep and serves as the ocean

Golden Gate Bridge, suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate in California to link San Francisco with Marin county to the north. Upon its completion in 1937, it was the tallest and longest suspension bridge in the world. The Golden Gate Bridge came to be recognized as a symbol of the power and

Golden Gate Highlands National Park, national park in southeastern Free State province, South Africa, near the Lesotho border. It was established in 1963 and originally had an area of 18.5 square miles (48 square km) in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains. The park was subsequently expanded on

Alcatraz: …part of the newly created Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and Alcatraz remains one of San Francisco’s most popular tourist destinations.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: The de Young, located in Golden Gate Park and founded in 1895, is the older of the two museums. Its highly regarded collection of American paintings features more than 1,000 works dating from colonial to contemporary times. Disrepair and earthquake damage forced the museum to close in 2000 for a…

San Francisco: Education: Other institutions include Golden Gate University (1853), the City College of San Francisco (1935; a two-year public college), and the San Francisco Art Institute (1871).

Vikram Seth: … (1985) foreshadows the polish of The Golden Gate, a novel of the popular culture of California’s Silicon Valley, written entirely in metred, rhyming 14-line stanzas and based on Charles Johnston’s translation of Aleksandr Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. In the work Seth successfully harnesses contemporary situations to a demanding 19th-century form; the…

ginger ale: Golden, or aromatic, ginger ales tend to be sweeter, less acid, darker, and generally more pungent.

The Golden Girls, American television sitcom created by writer and producer Susan Harris that aired on the NBC network from 1985 to 1992. The series follows four older women living together as roommates in Miami. The Golden Girls was acclaimed for its positive portrayal of older women and female

Golden Globe Award, any of the awards presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) in recognition of outstanding achievement in motion pictures and television during the previous year. Within the entertainment industry, the Golden Globes are considered second in importance

yacht: Transatlantic racing and global circumnavigation: Circumnavigation races included the Golden Globe Race, sponsored by the Sunday Times of London in 1968, and races later organized by the Royal Naval Racing Association and held quadrennially from 1973. The introduction of self-steering gear did much to facilitate such racing.

Golden Gloves, amateur boxing competition initiated by Arch Ward, sports editor of the Chicago Tribune. First sponsored by the Tribune in 1926, annual tournaments were held between Chicago and New York teams from 1927. The New York organizer was Paul Gallico of the New York Daily News. In later

chrysography: …splendid manuscripts known as the Golden Gospels were produced. Most famous among these masterpieces is the Godescalc Gospels, written between 781 and 783, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

Japanese architecture: The Asuka period: …and a main hall (kondō), both used for worship. Support buildings, such as lecture halls, a belfry, and living quarters, lay outside and to the north of the inner cloister. True to the continental style, the buildings and gates were sited along a south-north axis and were symmetrical in…

golden hamster, (Mesocricetus auratus), a species of hamster commonly kept as a pet. Like other hamsters, it has a stout body with short, stocky legs and short, wide feet with small, sharp claws. The head has small, furry ears and huge internal cheek pouches that open inside the lips and extend to

Sir Francis Drake: Circumnavigation of the world: …which Drake later renamed the Golden Hind (or Hinde), weighed only about 100 tons. It seemed little enough with which to undertake a venture into the domain of the most powerful monarch and empire in the world.

Golden Horde, Russian designation for the Ulus Juchi, the western part of the Mongol empire, which flourished from the mid-13th century to the end of the 14th century. The people of the Golden Horde were a mixture of Turks and Mongols, with the latter generally constituting the aristocracy. The

Istanbul: City site: …a long ridge above the Golden Horn; the other is a solitary eminence in the southwest corner. Around their slopes are ranged many of the mosques and other historic landmarks that were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985.

Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger: …famous poem “Guldhornene” (1802; “The Golden Horns”), about the loss of two golden horns symbolizing a union of past and present, after his meeting with the Norwegian scientist and philosopher Henrik Steffens, who was eager to spread the doctrine of German Romanticism in Denmark. The ideals of Steffens gave…

Ontario: Settlement patterns: …complex known as the “Golden Horseshoe” sprawls along the Lake Ontario shore from Oshawa to St. Catharines and includes greater Toronto and the port and industrial city of Hamilton. Toronto is Canada’s largest city. Its hinterland embraces not only much of the province but also a good part of…

battlefield medicine: …has been dubbed the “golden hour,” when prompt treatment of bleeding has the best chance of preventing death. Thus, developments in military medicine have focused on treatment to quickly stop bleeding and on the provision of immediate medical care. In the early 21st century these developments—together with the use…

Golden House of Nero, palace in ancient Rome that was constructed by the emperor Nero between ad 65 and 68, after the great fire of 64 (an occasion the emperor used to expropriate an area of more than 200 acres [81 hectares] of land in the centre of the city). Nero had already planned and begun a

Salman Rushdie: Post-fatwa writings: In The Golden House (2017) Rushdie explored the immigrant experience in the United States through a wealthy Indian family that settles in New York City in the early 21st century. His next novel, Quichotte (2019), was inspired by Cervantes’s Don Quixote.

ide: The golden ide is a hardy, reddish gold variety of the species commonly kept in pools and park lakes.

Sea Islands, low-lying chain of about 100 sandy islands off the Atlantic Ocean coast of the southeastern United States. The islands stretch for some 300 miles (480 km), generally southwestward and then southward along the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida between the mouths of the

jackal: …species are usually recognized: the golden, or Asiatic, jackal (C. aureus), found from eastern Europe to Southeast Asia, the African golden wolf (C. anthus), found in northern and eastern Africa, and the black-backed (C. mesomelas) and side-striped (C. adustus) jackals of southern and eastern Africa. Jackals grow to a length…

kiwi: Other species: Golden kiwi (Actinidia chinensis) has fewer hairs and yellower, sweeter flesh than A. deliciosa and is grown commercially in some places. Other kiwis include two cold-hardy species (A. arguta and A. kolomikta), Chinese egg gooseberry (A. coriacea), red kiwi (A. melanandra), silver vine (A. polygama),…

langur: …15 species, including the beautiful golden langur (T. geei) from Bhutan, the spectacled langur (T. obscurus) from the Malay Peninsula, with white eye rings and pink muzzle, and a group of black langurs with white markings on the head and body, including François’ langur (T. francoisi) and its relatives, which…

golden larch, (Pseudolarix amabilis), coniferous tree of the family Pinaceae, native to China. A golden larch resembles a tree of the true larch genus (Larix) but has small cones that fall apart when mature and club-shaped, short branchlets, or shoots, that are longer than those of Larix species.

Ludwig Pfyffer: His Golden (or Borromean) League (1586)—the alliance of the seven Catholic cantons for furtherance of religious interests—nearly led to the destruction of the Swiss Confederation and precipitated the division of the canton of Appenzell along religious lines. Pfyffer established close relations with the Holy League of…

St. George: …de Voragine’s Legenda aurea (1265–66; Golden Legend) repeats the story of his rescuing a Libyan king’s daughter from a dragon and then slaying the monster in return for a promise by the king’s subjects to be baptized. George’s slaying of the dragon may be a Christian version of the legend…

Venice Film Festival: …festival’s highest honour by the Leone d’Oro (Golden Lion), awarded to the best film. In 1968 students began to protest the Venice Biennale because of what they perceived to be its increasing commodification of art; as a result, no film prizes were awarded in 1969–79, and the festival’s reputation briefly…

golden lion marmoset, (Leontopithecus rosalia), species of tamarin having a lionlike thick mane, a black face, and long, silky, golden fur. A striking-looking animal, it is found only in fragmented forest habitats in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, where it is listed as

golden lion marmoset, (Leontopithecus rosalia), species of tamarin having a lionlike thick mane, a black face, and long, silky, golden fur. A striking-looking animal, it is found only in fragmented forest habitats in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, where it is listed as

Jinpingmei, the first realistic social novel to appear in China. It is the work of an unknown author of the Ming dynasty, and its earliest extant version is dated 1617. Two English versions were published in 1939 under the titles The Golden Lotus and Chin P’ing Mei: The Adventurous History of Hsi

Douglas Stewart: This was followed by The Golden Lover (1944; published with The Fire on the Snow), the retelling of a Maori legend. Three historical dramas for the stage were Ned Kelly (1943), Shipwreck (1947), and Fisher’s Ghost (1960).

Mainz, city, capital of Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), west-central Germany. It is a port on the left bank of the Rhine River opposite Wiesbaden and the mouth of the Main River. It was the site of a Celtic settlement where the Romans established (14–9 bce) a military camp known as Mogontiacum

chamomile: …cultivated as garden ornamentals, especially golden marguerite, or yellow chamomile (Cota tinctoria).

golden ratio, in mathematics, the irrational number (1 + 5)/2, often denoted by the Greek letter ϕ or τ, which is approximately equal to 1.618. It is the ratio of a line segment cut into two pieces of different lengths such that the ratio of the whole segment to that of the longer segment is equal

golden mean, in philosophy, an approach to ethics that emphasizes finding the appropriate medium, or middle ground, between extremes. The phrase golden mean is most frequently applied to the ethical ideas described by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 bce) in his treatise Nicomachean

history of medicine: China: …about 300 ce, and the Yuzhuan yizong jinjian (“Imperially Commissioned Golden Mirror of the Orthodox Lineage of Medicine,” also known in English as the Golden Mirror), a compilation made in 1742 of medical writings of the Han dynasty (202 bce–220 ce). European medicine began to obtain a footing in China…

golden mole, (order Chrysochloridea), any of 18 species of blind and tailless burrowing insectivores that live in sub-Saharan Africa. They are sufficiently different from other moles and insectivores to constitute their own mammalian order. Golden moles have a cylindrical body, short limbs, and no

plant disease: Nematode diseases: The golden nematode of potatoes (Heterodera rostochiensis) is a menace of the European potato industry. Great efforts have been made to control it. The speck-sized golden cysts that dot infested plant roots are the remains of female bodies. Each cyst may contain up to 500 eggs,…

The Golden Notebook, novel by Doris Lessing, published in 1962. The novel presents the crisis of a woman novelist, Anna Wulf, suffering from writer’s block. Immensely self-analytical, she seeks to probe her disorderly life by keeping four notebooks: a black one covering her early years in British

Las Vegas: Cultural life: …earliest of these establishments, the Golden Nugget Casino, was in its day the largest of the city’s gambling houses. It became a model for those that followed it, the basic concept being a nondescript building festooned with ever-larger, brighter, and gaudier electric signs. An exception to this model at the…

golden number, in chronology, the position of a solar, or calendar, year within the 19-year Metonic cycle (q.v.) after which the phases of the Moon recur on the same dates. The sequence of golden numbers, used in fixing the date of Easter, begins at one at each year in which the New Moon occurs on

oak: Major species and uses: castaneaefolia), golden oak (Q. alnifolia), Holm, or holly, oak (Q. ilex), Italian oak (Q. frainetto), Lebanon oak (Q. libani), Macedonian oak (Q. trojana), and Portuguese oak (Q. lusitanica). Popular Asian ornamentals include the

old man cactus: …or woolly torch (Cephalocereus palmeri); golden old man (Pilosocereus chrysacanthus); old woman (Mammillaria hahniana); Chilean old lady (Eriosyce senilis); and old man of the mountain (Cleistocactus trollii).

radio: In the United States: Only “golden oldies” stations—which allowed aging baby boomers to relive their younger years with music of the 1950s through the ’70s—resembled the Top 40 programming approach of yesteryear.

oriole: 5-inch) golden oriole (O. oriolus), which ranges eastward to Central Asia and India. It is yellow, with dark eye marks and black wings. The African golden oriole (O. auratus) is similar. The maroon oriole (O. traillii) of the Himalayas to Indochina is one of the Asian…

golden parachute, a provision in an employment contract that grants lucrative severance benefits to an executive if control of the company changes hands, as by a merger. Most definitions offered by legal authorities stress three elements: (1) a lucrative or attractive severance package, (2)

Kinkaku-ji, Zen Buddhist temple in Kyōto, Japan, that is officially named Rokuon-ji but is popularly known as Kinkaku-ji for its magnificent Golden Pavilion. The temple is one of the finest examples of architecture from the Muromachi period, when the Ashikaga shogunate reigned. The site was

Loudonia: behrii, called golden pennants because of the way its thin, delicate fruits wave in the breeze, occurs in South Australia, western Victoria, and New South Wales. L. aurea and L. roei are restricted to South Australia and Western Australia. L. aurea, which has inflated yellow fruits that…

pitcher plant: Nepenthaceae: mirabilis), and the golden peristome (N. veitchii), as well as a number of hybrid species such as Hooker’s pitcher plant N. ×hookeriana, N. ×mastersiana, and N. ×dominii.

aviculture: …rare species, such as the golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) and the Chinese silver pheasant (a subspecies of Lophura nycthemera), are maintained primarily in aviaries and zoos, where they are abundant.

plover: Some plovers, like the golden (Pluvialis species) and black-bellied (Squatarola squatarola), are finely patterned dark and light above and black below in breeding dress. These two genera are sometimes included in Charadrius.

pothos, (Epipremnum aureum), hardy indoor foliage plant of the arum family (Araceae) native to southeastern Asia. It resembles, and thus is often confused with, the common philodendron. Pothos is an evergreen plant with thick, waxy, green, heart-shaped leaves with splashes of yellow. As a

groundsel: Major species: cineraria); and golden ragwort (S. aureus) are cultivated as border plants. German ivy (S. mikanoides) and florist’s cineraria (S. cruentus) are popular houseplants.

golden chain, (Laburnum anagyriodes), small tree or shrub of the pea family (Fabaceae), cultivated as an ornamental. The golden chain tree is native to southern Europe. The plant is one of only two species in the genus Laburnum, the other being alpine, or Scotch, laburnum (L. alpinum); a hybrid of

golden ratio, in mathematics, the irrational number (1 + 5)/2, often denoted by the Greek letter ϕ or τ, which is approximately equal to 1.618. It is the ratio of a line segment cut into two pieces of different lengths such that the ratio of the whole segment to that of the longer segment is equal

number game: Fibonacci numbers: If a golden rectangle ABCD is drawn and a square ABEF is removed, the remaining rectangle ECDF is also a golden rectangle. If this process is continued and circular arcs are drawn, the curve formed approximates the logarithmic spiral, a form found in nature (see Figure 4).…

redfish, (Sebastes norvegicus), commercially important food fish of the scorpionfish family, Scorpaenidae (order Scorpaeniformes), found in the North Atlantic Ocean along European and North American coasts. Also known as ocean perch or rosefish in North America and as Norway haddock in Europe, the

Golden Retriever dog, breed of sporting dog developed in Scotland in the 19th century as a gundog and water retriever to assist hunters in recovering game birds. Typically a strong and hardy all-around dog and an excellent swimmer, it stands 21.5 to 24 inches (55 to 61 cm) at the withers and weighs

golden rice, a genetically modified rice (Oryza sativa) that has been engineered to biosynthesize beta-carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A. Beta-carotene, a pigment responsible for the orange coloration of carrots and other plants, gives the rice its distinctive hue. Although the crop was intended

Keith Urban: ” The albums Golden Road (2002) and Be Here (2004) generated more number-one country singles, earning fans and critical acclaim.

golden rose, ornament of wrought gold set with gems, generally sapphires, that is blessed by the pope on the fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday) and sent, as one of the highest honours he can confer, to some distinguished individual, ecclesiastical body, or religious community or, failing a

Golden Rule, precept in the Gospel of Matthew (7:12): “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. . . .” This rule of conduct is a summary of the Christian’s duty to his neighbour and states a fundamental ethical principle. In its negative form, “Do not do to others what you

Anouk Aimée: …her other noteworthy films are Golden Salamander (1950) and Lola (1960).

golden ratio, in mathematics, the irrational number (1 + 5)/2, often denoted by the Greek letter ϕ or τ, which is approximately equal to 1.618. It is the ratio of a line segment cut into two pieces of different lengths such that the ratio of the whole segment to that of the longer segment is equal