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Possible definitions for vestal
Vesta
In Roman religion, the goddess of the hearth, identified with the Greek Hestia. Because maintaining a hearth fire was important in ancient times, she was worshiped in every household. Her state worship was elaborate: her temple in Rome had a perpetual fire that was attended by the Vestal Virgins. The fire was officially extinguished and renewed annually on March 1st; its extinction at any other time was viewed as a portent of disaster to Rome.
Avesta
Sacred book of Zoroastrianism. It contains hymns, prayers, and appeals to righteousness ascribed to Zoroaster. The present text was assembled in the 3rd-7th cent. AD from the remains of a larger body of scripture that was destroyed when Alexander the Great conquered Persia. It has five parts: the Gathas, hymns in what are thought to be Zoroaster's own words; Visp-rat, containing homages to spiritual leaders; Vendidad, the main source for Zoroastrian law; the Yashts, 21 hymns to angels and ancient heroes; and the Khurda avesta, composed of minor texts.
Gestapo
(German: "Secret State Police") Political police of Nazi Germany. It was created by H. Gö ring in 1933 from the political and espionage units of the Prussian police and by H. Himmler from the police of the remaining German states. Himmler was given command in 1934. The Gestapo operated without civil restraints, and its actions were not subject to judicial appeal. Thousands of Jews, leftists, intellectuals, trade unionists, political clergy, and homosexuals disappeared into concentration camps after being arrested by the Gestapo. In World War II the Gestapo suppressed partisan activities in the occupied territories, and a section of the Gestapo under A. Eichmann organized the deportation of Jews to the extermination camps in Poland.
Gesualdo
Italian composer. Nobly born, he was a passionate musical dilettante. In 1590 he had his wife and her lover (a duke) murdered, which earned him great notoriety but no punishment. His later marriage to the duke of Ferrara's niece made the cosmopolitan Ferrara court his second home. His steadily deepening melancholia was reflected in his music, which included some 125 madrigals and about 75 sacred vocal works. His extreme chromaticism and abrupt changes in tempo and dynamics, exaggerating such traits in the madrigals of his time, would have no rival until the 20th cent., when his works were rediscovered.
metal
Any of a class of substances with, to some degree, the following properties: good heat and electricity conduction, malleability, ductility, high light reflectivity, and capacity to form positive ions in solution and hydroxides rather than acids when their oxides meet water. About three-quarters of the elements are metals; these are usually fairly hard and strong crystalline (see crystal) solids with high chemical reactivity that readily form alloys with each other. Metallic properties increase from ...
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