to aristocratic members of a Council of New England was thwarted by the development of self-governing English colonies at Plymouth and Mas¬ sachusetts Bay, which received their charters directly from the crown. He received the charter for Maine in 1639 but was unable to effect his plan.
Gorgon One of three monsters in Greek mythology, the most famous of which was Medusa. According to Hesiod, the three Gorgons were daughters of the sea god Phorcys.
Another tradition held that they were created by the earth goddess, Gaea, to aid her sons, the Titans, in their struggle with the gods. Classical art depicts them as winged females with snakes for hair.
gorilla Largest of the great apes. A stocky, powerful forest dweller native to equatorial Africa, the gorilla (Gorilla gorilla ) has black skin and hair, large nostrils, and prominent brow ridges. Adults have long, pow¬ erful arms; short, stocky legs; an extremely thick, strong chest; and a protruding abdomen. Adult males have a prominent crest on top of the skull and a “saddle” of gray or silver hairs on the lower part of the back.
Males, about twice as heavy as females, may reach a height of about 5.5 ft (1.7 m) and a weight of 300- 600 lbs (135-275 kg). Gorillas are mainly terrestrial, walking about on all four limbs. They live in stable family groups of six to 20 animals that are led by one or two silver- backed males. They eat leaves, stalks, and shoots. They are unag- gressive and even shy unless pro¬ voked. They are calmer and more persistent than chimpanzees; though not as adaptable, gorillas are highly intelligent and capable of problem solving. The gorilla is hunted for its body parts and meat, and its habitat is disappearing. It is an endangered species throughout its range; the mountain subspecies is critically endangered.
Goring Vgoe-riqN, Hermann or Hermann Goering (b. Jan. 12, 1893, Rosenheim, Ger.—d. Oct. 15,
1946, Niirnberg) German Nazi leader. He fought in World War I with the German air force. In 1922 he joined the Nazi Party and was given command of the SA. After the abortive Beer Hall Putsch, he escaped to Austria, then returned to Germany (1927) and was elected to the Reich¬ stag. Chosen president of the Reich¬ stag (1932), his power mounted after Adolf Hitler was named chancellor in 1933. As Hitler’s most loyal sup¬ porter, Goring held numerous posts, including minister of the interior in Prussia, where he established the Gestapo. He also became head of the German air force (Luftwaffe) and minister of economic affairs. After the Luftwaffe failed to win the Battle of Britain, Goring lost face and semi- retired to his country estate, where he displayed the vast art collection he had confiscated from Jews in occupied countries. In 1946 he was con¬ demned to death at the Niirnberg trials but committed suicide by taking a poison capsule.
Gorgon, carved marble mask of the early 6th century bc; in the Acropolis Museum, Athens
AUNARI—ART RESOURCE
Male gorilla (Gorilla gorilla).
KENNETH W. FINK/ROOT RESOURCES
Hermann Goring, commander of the Storm Troopers, 1933.
HEINRICH HOFFMANN, MUNICH
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
782 i Gorki ► Gossart
Gorki See Nizhniy Novgorod
Gorky, Arshile orig. Vosdanik Adoian (b. April 15, 1904, Khorkom, Van, Turkish Armenia—d. July 21, 1948, Sherman, Conn., U.S.) Armenian-born U.S. painter. In 1920 he emigrated from Turkish Armenia to the U.S. In 1925, after study at the Rhode Island School of Design, he settled in New York City, where he studied and then taught at the Grand Central School of Art (1926-31). He sought to assimilate the aesthetic visions of Paul Cezanne, Joan Miro, and Pablo Picasso by paint¬ ing in their styles until he encountered the emigre European Surrealists; he then developed his own style of abstraction featuring biomorphic forms that suggest plants or human viscera floating over a background of melt¬ ing colours. After a series of personal calamities, he hanged himself. He is the most important direct link between Surrealism and Abstract Expres¬ sionism.
Gorky, Maksim orig. Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov (b.
March 28, 1868, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia—d. June 14, 1936, Nizhny Novgorod) Russian writer. After a childhood of poverty and misery (his assumed name, Gorky, means “bitter”), he became a wandering tramp. His early works offered sympathetic portrayals of the social dregs of Rus¬ sia; they include the outstanding stories “Chelkash” (1895) and “Twenty- Six Men and a Girl” (1899) and the successful play The Lower Depths (1902). For his revolutionary activity, he spent the years 1906-13 abroad as a political exile. His works include the autobiographical trilogy My Childhood (1913-14), In the World (1915-16), and My Universities (1923). Though initially an open critic of Vladimir Iuch Lenin and the Bol¬ sheviks, after 1919 he cooperated with Lenin’s government. He lived in Italy from 1921 to 1928. Upon his return to the U.S.S.R., he became the undisputed leader of Soviet writers. When the Union of Soviet Writers was established in 1934, he became its first president and helped estab¬ lish Socialist Realism. He died suddenly while under medical treatment, possibly killed on the orders of Joseph Stalin.
gorse Any of several related plants of the genera Ulex and Genista. Common gorse ( U. europaeus ) is a spiny, yellow-flowered leguminous shrub native to Europe and naturalized in the Middle Atlantic states and on Vancouver Island. The large green spines and green twigs of Spanish gorse (G. hispanica ), native to Spain and northern Italy, make it appear evergreen in winter. Both species bear yellow, pea-like flowers and grow well in dry soil.
Gorsky, Aleksandr (Alexeyevich) (b. Aug. 18, 1871, St. Peters¬ burg, Russia—d. Oct. 20, 1924, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Russian dancer, choreographer, and influential director of the Bolshoi Ballet. He trained in St. Petersburg and joined the Mariinsky Theatre, where he became a soloist in 1895. He directed several ballets before moving to Moscow in 1900 as lead dancer and stage manager of the Bolshoi. He reshaped the repertoire and introduced realism in scenery and costume, reviving inter¬ est in the company.
Gortyn Vgor-.tlnN Ancient city, south-central Crete, Greece. Although unimportant in Minoan times, it later displaced Phaestus as the dominant city. It shared or disputed control of Crete with Knossos until the Roman annexation in the 1st century bc, when it became the administrative capi¬ tal of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica. Among the city’s ruins, the great civic law code of Gortyn, discovered in the 19th century, is the most extensive account of Greek law before the Hellenistic Age.
goryd \g6-'ry6\ In Japanese mythology, vengeful spirits of the dead. They were originally thought to be spirits of nobles who had been killed unjustly and who avenged themselves by bringing about natural disasters, disease, and wars. Identified by divination, they were appeased by being granted status as gods. Later the belief arose that anyone could become a goryd by willing it at the moment of death or by meeting an untimely death. Various forms of exorcism and magical practices, such as the Bud¬ dhist recitation of nembutsu (invoking the name of the Buddha Amida), have been used to ward them off.
Gosden, Freeman F(isher); and Correll, Charles J. (respec¬ tively b. May 5, 1899, Richmond, Va., U.S.—d. Dec. 10, 1982, Los Ange¬ les, Calif.; b. Feb. 2, 1890, Peoria, Ill., U.S.—d. Sept. 26, 1972, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. comedians. They performed comedy routines in traveling vari¬ ety shows before creating two black characters, Sam and Henry, for a Chicago radio show (1926-28). In 1929 they broadened their appeal by devising a larger cast of characters for a new nightly radio program, Amos ’n ’ Andy, thus creating the first situation comedy. As Amos the cab driver
and his sidekick, Andy, they became the mainstays of radio’s most popu¬ lar program in the 1930s, and their popularity ensured the success of radio broadcasting as a form of mass entertainment. Their show, which was broadcast weekly, finally ended in 1954, partly in response to criticism that its humour was offensive to blacks.