Collier's New Encyclopedia

A complete general encyclopedia of 1921 — the world as it was understood just after the Great War, from Aachen to Zwingli, across twelve volumes and six thousand pages.

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Hymen

the Greek god of marriage, was son of Bacchus and Venus, or, according to another version, of Apollo and one of the Muses. The people of Athens instituted festivals in his honor, and solemnly invoked him at their nuptials, as the Latins did their Thalassius. Hymen was represented as crowned with flowers, holding a burning torch in one hand, and in the other a wreath. In anatomy, the name denotes the semilunar, parabolic, or circular membrane situated at the outer orifice of the vagina in virgins. PAUL HYMANS HYMENOPTERA (hi-men-op'ter-a), an order of insects, containing about 25,000 species, and now usually acknowledged to stand at the head of the class of insects, and of which many, as ants and bees, are singularly interesting and important.

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