Ganymede In Greek legend, the son of King Tros (or Laomedon) of Troy. Because of his unusual beauty, he was carried off by Zeus disguised as an eagle, and he became cup¬ bearer to the gods. Other versions of the legend trace his abduction to other gods or to King Minos of Crete. The story has long been held to have homosexual implications, and the word catamite is derived from his Latin name, Catamitus.
Gao Xingjian (b. Jan. 4, 1940, Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, China) Chinese emigre novelist and play¬ wright. His novel Soul Mountain (1989) resulted from a pilgrimage in the form of a 10-month walking tour along the Yangtze River. Gao’s works were banned in China after the pub¬ lication of his play Fugitives (1989), which reflected the 1989 events in Tiananmen Square. In 1987 he settled
Ganymede and Zeus in the form of an eagle, antique marble statue; in the Vatican Museum
ANDERSON—AUNARI FROM ART RESOURCE/EB INC.
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Gaozu ► garden city I 735
in France and later became a French citizen. Fie was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000.
Gaozu Vgau-'dzu\ or Kao-tsu orig. Liu Bang Me-'ii-'baqN or Liu Pang (b. 256 bc, Peixian, in modern Jiangsu province, China—d. 195 bc, China) Man of peasant background who rose to become the founder of China’s Han dynasty (206 bc-ad 220). When Shihuangdi, emperor of the Qin dynasty, died in 210 bc, Liu joined the rebels led by Xiang Yu in an effort to overthrow the Qin. Xiang Yu triumphed and rewarded Liu with the kingdom of Han in western China, but the two allies subsequently turned against each other. Liu’s pragmatic shrewdness triumphed over Xiang Yu’s aristocratic naivete, and, taking the name Gaozu, he became the Han dynasty’s first ruler.
gar Any of several large North or Central American fishes of the genus Lepisosteus. They are related to the bowfin and date back to the Eocene Epoch. Gars are confined chiefly to fresh water, though some species enter brackish or salt water. They frequently bask at the surface in sluggish waters and commonly breathe atmospheric air. Their jaws and face form a sharp-toothed beak, and their body is encased in an armour of diamond¬ shaped, thick scales. Their eggs are toxic to predators. They are highly voracious predators, with long rows of needlelike teeth. The alligator gar of the southern U.S. reaches a length of about 10 ft (3 m) and is one of the largest freshwater fishes.
Garand \go-'rand, 'gar-ond\, John C(antius) (b. Jan. 1, 1888, St. Remi, Que., Can.—d. Feb. 16, 1974, Springfield, Mass., U.S.) Canadian- born U.S. firearms engineer. He moved with his family to Connecticut in 1898. From 1919 he worked as a civilian employee at the Springfield Armory. There he devised a gas-operated weapon that was 43 in. (109 cm) long yet weighed only 9.5 lbs (4.3 kg). Adopted in 1936 as the U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30 Ml, the Garand rifle became the world’s first standard- issue autoloading infantry rifle. It gave U.S. troops in World War II such an advantage in firepower that George Patton called it “the greatest battle implement ever devised.” More than five million Mis were manufactured before it was phased out in 1957. Garand signed over all patents of his invention to the U.S. government.
garbanzo See chickpea
Garbo, Greta orig. Greta Louisa Gustafsson (b. Sept. 18, 1905, Stockholm, Swed.—d. April 15,
1990, New York, N.Y., U.S.)
Swedish-U.S. film star. She was working as a salesclerk when she was chosen to appear in publicity films for the store where she worked.
Her modest success encouraged her to study at the Royal Dramatic The¬ atre’s training school, where the film director Mauritz Stiller discovered her. He cast her in The Story ofGosta Berling (1924) and became her men¬ tor and coach. Stiller and Garbo were hired by MGM in 1925, and Garbo’s beauty and enigmatic personality made her a star in her first U.S. film.
The Torrent (1926). Aloof, mysteri¬ ous, yet passionate, she mesmerized audiences in films such as Love (1927), Anna Christie (1930), Grand Hotel (1932 ),Anna Karenina (1935),
Camille (1936), and Ninotchka (1939). Her reclusive life after her sud¬ den retirement at age 36 added to her mystique.
Garcia Lorca Vgar-'the-a-'lor-kaN, Federico (b. June 5, 1898, Fuente Vaqueros, Granada province, Spain—d. Aug. 18 or 19, 1936, between Vfznar and Alfacar, Granada province) Spanish poet and dramatist. Garcia Lorca studied literature, painting, and music and later was a founder, director, and musician for La Barraca, a theatrical company that brought classical drama to rural audiences. He was an established experimental poet when he became famous for The Gypsy Ballads (1928), a verse col¬ lection lyrically combining his musical, poetical, and spiritual impulses; as in many of his later works, its themes and images were drawn from folk traditions. Of his many poems of death, “Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter” (1935), written for a friend, is his most famous poem and the finest elegy in modern Spanish literature. His dramatic trilogy consisting
of Blood Wedding (produced 1933), Yerma (produced 1934), and The House of Bernarda Alba (produced 1936) is the best known of his mas¬ terpieces. As if fulfilling the premonition of violent death that haunts his works, he was shot without trial by fascists during the Spanish Civil War.
Garcia Marquez \gar-'se-a-'mar-kas\, Gabriel (Jose) (b. March 6, 1928, Aracataca, Colom.) Latin American writer. He worked many years as a journalist in Latin Ameri¬ can and European cities and later also as a screenwriter and publicist, before settling in Mexico. His best- known work, the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), recounts the history of the fictional village of Macondo, the setting of much of his work; enormously admired and influential, it became the principal vehicle for the style known as magic realism. Later novels include The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975),
Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), and The General in His Labyrinth (1989). His collections of short sto¬ ries and novellas include No One Writes to the Colonel (1968) and Leaf Storm (1955). In 2002 he pub¬ lished Vivirpara contrarla, an autobiographical account of his early years. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
Garcilaso de la Vega \'va-go\ known as El Inca (b. April 12, 1539, Cuzco, Peru—d. April 24, 1616, Cordoba, Spain) One of the great Span¬ ish chroniclers of the 16th century. Garcilaso was the illegitimate son of a conquistador and an Inca noblewoman. Raised in his father’s household on a vast estate in Peru, he absorbed the traditions of both cultures. After going to Spain in 1560, he served as captain in the Spanish army against the Moors, and then he entered the priesthood. He is best known for La Florida del Ynca (an account of Hernando de Soto’s expeditions north of Mexico) and his history of Peru. He was related to his namesake, the Spanish Golden Age poet Garcilaso de la Vega (b. 1503, Toledo, Spain—d. Oct. 14, 1536, Nice, duchy of Savoy).
Gard, Roger Martin du See Roger Martin du Gard
Garda, Lake ancient Lacus Benacus Lake, northern Italy. Largest of the Italian lakes, it is 34 mi (54 km) long and 2 to 11 mi (3 to 18 km) wide, with a shoreline of 77.5 mi (125 km). It borders Lombardy, Veneto, and Trentino-Alto Adige. Separated from the Adige River valley by the nar¬ row ridge of Mount Baldo, it is fed by the Sarca River at its northern end, while the Mincio flows out toward the Po River to the south. The lake is encircled by the Gardesana scenic route, opened in 1931. Well sheltered by the Alps to the north, Lake Garda has a temperate Mediterranean cli¬ mate. It is a popular resort area.
garden Plot of ground where herbs, fruits, flowers, vegetables, or trees are cultivated. The earliest surviving detailed garden plan is Egyptian and dates from about 1400 bc; it shows tree-lined avenues and rectangular ponds. Mesopotamian gardens were places where shade and cool water could be enjoyed; Hellenistic gardens were conspicuously luxurious in their display of precious materials, a tradition carried over by Byzantine gardens. Islamic gardens made use of water, often in pools and fed by narrow canals resembling irrigation channels. In Renaissance Europe, gar¬ dens reflected confidence in human ability to impose order on the exter¬ nal world; Italian gardens emphasized the unity of house and garden. French 17th-century gardens were rigidly symmetrical, and French cul¬ tural dominance in Europe popularized this style into the next century. In 18th-century England, increasing awareness of the natural world led to the development of “natural” gardens that made use of irregular, nonsym- metrical layouts. Chinese gardens have generally harmonized with the natural landscape, and have employed rocks gathered from great distances as a universal decorative feature. Early Japanese gardens imitated Chi¬ nese principles; later developments were the abstract garden, which might feature only sand and rocks, and miniature gardens made in trays (see bonsai).