IOLCUS, a town in Thessaly, the port from which the Argonauts sailed in quest of the Golden Fleece.

ION, in the Greek mythology son of Apollo by Creusa, and exposed by her in the cave where she bore him, but who was conveyed by the G.o.d to Delphi and educated by a priestess, and was afterwards owned by his mother, and became the ancestor of the Ionians, her husband, Xuthus, being kept throughout in the dark.

IONA, a fertile little island 1 m. W. of Mull, where St. Columba landed from Ireland A.D. 563, and built a monastery which was for centuries the centre of ecclesiastical life and missionary enterprise among the Scots of Scotland and Ireland and the Angles of the N. of England. It is 3 m. long and 1 broad.

IONIA, ancient name of the western districts of Asia Minor between the Hermus and the Maeander, with adjacent islands; was colonised by Greeks 1050 B.C., and its chief cities, including Miletus, Ephesus, Samos, Chios, and later Smyrna, formed the Ionian League; the Ionians were noted for wealth, art, and luxury; coming under Persian yoke in 557 B.C. they deserted to Greece 479 B.C., in the great war, and became again independent; from 387 B.C. they were again under Persia till Alexander the Great took them and merged their history in that of the surrounding peoples.

IONIAN ISLANDS (250), a chain of forty mountainous islands lying off the W. coast of Greece, the largest being Corfu (78), Santa Maura (25), Cephalonia (80), and Zante (44). The climate is good, and there is much fertile soil in the valleys except in Cephalonia; corn, grapes, and currants are grown; sulphur and coal are found in Corfu; their history has been very chequered; after belonging at different times to Venice, France and Turkey, they were seized by Britain and const.i.tuted a dependency in 1815; never satisfied with British rule, they were a source of constant friction which Mr. Gladstone's mission in 1858 was insufficient to allay, and were handed over to Greece in 1863.

IONIC ORDER, an order of Grecian architecture, characterised by the volute of its capital in the form of a ram's horn, and in which the cornice is dentated, the shaft fluted, and the entablature plain or embellished.

IONIC SCHOOL, the name of the earliest of the schools of philosophy in Greece, the prominent members of which were natives of Ionia, one and all of whom traced the beginning or basis of things back to the action of some physical agent, such as water, air, fire, &c., and among whom are reckoned such men as Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Herac.l.i.tus.

IOWA (1,754), one of the United States, on the right bank of the Mississippi River, with Minnesota to the N. and Missouri to the S., and the Missouri River on its western border; is well watered, very fertile, and, though liable to extremes of temperature, very healthy; agriculture flourishes, the country being an undulating plain and most of the soil being arable; cereals and root crops are raised, cattle fed; there are poultry and dairy farms; coal, gypsum, and lead are mined; manufactures include mill products, canned meats, and agricultural implements; general education in the State is advanced, State policy in this respect being liberal; Iowa was admitted to the Union, 1846; Des Moines (32) is the capital; Iowa (7) is the seat of the State University and of some flour-mills and factories.

IPHICRATES, a famous Athenian general, the son of a shoemaker, celebrated throughout Greece for his defeat of the Spartans in 392, as well as for other great military exploits, for which he was rewarded by his countrymen with almost unprecedented honours; _d_. 348 B.C.

IPHIGENIA, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; her father having killed a favourite deer belonging to Artemis in Aulis as he was setting out for Troy, the G.o.ddess was offended, and CALCHAS (q. v.), when consulted, told him she could only be appeased by the sacrifice of his daughter; this he proceeded to do, but as he was preparing to offer her up the G.o.ddess descended in a cloud, carried her off to Tauris, and made her a priestess in her temple. The story has been dramatised by Euripides, Racine, and Geothe.

IPSUS, a small town in Phrygia, the scene of a great contest between the generals of Alexander for succession to the empire.

IPSWICH (57), a town in Suffolk, on the Orwell, 12 m. from the sea; is an old town, and has a number of interesting, as well as some old-fashioned, buildings; is well provided with churches and educational establishments, and was the birthplace of Cardinal Wolsey; manufactures agricultural implements, and exports besides these leather, oil, c.o.ke and agricultural produce.

IQUIQUE (16), important seaport in the N. of Chili; exports nitrates, iodine, and silver.

IRAK-ARABI, ancient Babylonia watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris.

IRAN, the ancient name or plateau of Asia, extending N. and S.

between the Hindu Kush and the Persian Gulf, and E. and W. between the Indus and Kurdistan; inhabited by the Aryans; is the official name for Persia.

IRANIANS, the inhabitants of Iran, a people const.i.tuting an important branch of the Indo-European family, including the Persians, Medes, &c.

IRAWADI, a river, navigable throughout its whole course, formed by the union of two streams from the mountains of Thibet; flows S. through Burma 700 miles, pa.s.sing Mandalay, and falling into the Bay of Bengal in a delta, on one branch of which stands Rangoon.

IRELAND (5,175), an island rather more than half the size of and lying to the west of England and Wales, from which it is divided by the North Channel (13 m. wide), the Irish Sea (140 m.), and the St. George's Channel (50 m.). It consists of a large undulating plain in the centre, containing extensive bogs, several large loughs--Neagh, the Erne, Allen, Derg, drained by the rivers Shannon, Barrow, Liffey, and Boyne, and surrounded on almost all sides by maritime highlands, of which those on the SW., NW., and E. are the highest. The N. and W. coasts are rugged and much indented. The climate is milder, more equable, and somewhat more rainy than that of England; but the cereal and green crops are the same.

Flax is grown in the N. The tendency is to revert to pasturage however, agriculture being generally in a backward state. Unfavourable land-laws, small holdings, and want of capital have told heavily against the Irish peasantry. Fisheries are declining. The chief manufacture is linen in Belfast and other Ulster towns. Irish exports consist of dairy produce, cattle, and linen, and are chiefly to Great Britain. Primary education is largely supported by government grants; there are many excellent schools and colleges; the chief universities are Dublin and the Royal (an examining body only). In Ulster the Protestants slightly outnumber the Roman Catholics, in all other parts the Roman Catholics are in a vast majority. Ireland was occupied by Iberian peoples in prehistoric times; these were conquered and absorbed by Celtic tribes; many kingdoms were set up, and strife and confusion prevailed. There was Christianity in the island before St. Patrick crossed from Strathclyde in the 5th century.

Invasions by Danes, 8th to 10th centuries, and conquest by Normans under Henry II. 1162-1172, fomented the national disquiet. Under Tudor and Stuart rule the history of the country is a long story of faction and feud among the chiefs and n.o.bles, of rebellions, expeditions, ma.s.sacres, and confiscations. Sympathy with the Stuarts brought on it the scourge of Cromwell (1649) and the invasion by William III. Thereafter the penal laws excluded Roman Catholics from Parliament. The union of the Irish with the British Parliament took place in 1801. Catholic disabilities were removed 1829. An agitation for the repeal of the Union was begun in 1842 by Daniel O'Connell, and carried on by the Fenian movement of 1867 and the Home Rule movement led by Charles Parnell. A Home Rule bill was lost in the Commons in 1886, and another in the Lords in 1893. The Church of Ireland (Protestant Episcopal) was disestablished in 1871. Since the Union the executive has been in the hands of a lord-lieutenant, secretary, and council appointed by the Crown. Ireland is far behind Great Britain in wealth, and its population has been steadily declining.

IRELAND, SAMUEL WILLIAM HENRY, a notorious forger of Shakespearian relics, born in London, son of a dealer in old books and prints; imposed on his father and a number of lovers of the antique, till he was exposed by Malone; he published a confession of his forgeries, and died in obscurity and poverty (1777-1835).

IRENaeUS, one of the Fathers of the Church; was bishop of Lyons, and suffered martyrdom about 202; had been a disciple of Polycarp; wrote against the Gnostics in a work in Greek, which all to a few fragments in Latin is lost.

IRE'NE, the daughter of Zeus and Themis, the Greek G.o.ddess of peace; she was an object of worship both in Athens and Rome, is represented as holding in her left arm a cornucopia, and in her right hand an olive branch.

IRENE, empress of Constantinople, born in Athens, a poor orphan girl, famous for her beauty, her talents, and her crimes; was banished to Lesbos, where she maintained herself by spinning; has been canonised by the Greek Church for her zeal in image worship (752-803).

IRETON, HENRY, born at Altenborough, Notts; graduated at Cambridge 1629, and studied law; on outbreak of Civil War he joined the Parliamentarian party, and marrying Cromwell's daughter acquired great influence; took a leading part in the prosecution of the king, was one of his judges, and signed the warrant for his execution; kept by Cromwell in Ireland in 1650, he proved a stern deputy, and died of the plague before Limerick; he was a man of great vigour of character, whose zeal for justice made him almost cruel (1611-1651).

IRIDIUM, a metallic elementary body of rare occurrence, and found in the ores of platinum.

IRIS, the daughter of Thaumus (i. e. wonder) and of the ocean nymph Electra (i. e. splendour); was the G.o.ddess of the rainbow, and as such the messenger of the G.o.ds, particularly of Zeus and Hera, the appearance of the rainbow being regarded as a sign that communications of good omen were pa.s.sing between heaven and earth, as it was to Noah that they would continue to be kept up; she is represented as dressed in a long wide tunic, over which hangs a light upper garment, and with golden wings on her shoulders.

IRKUTSK (421), a central Siberian province, separated from China by the Sayan Mountains; it has Lake Baikal on the E., Yenisei and Yakutsk on the W. and N.; a rich pastoral country, watered by the navigable rivers Angara and the Lena, agriculture, cattle rearing are prosperous industries; there are gold, iron, and salt mines; one-third of the population are forced colonists; the capital, Irkutsk (45), is the seat of government for Eastern Siberia, an ecclesiastical centre, and the chief emporium of commerce; it is the finest city in Siberia.

IRMIN, a Teutonic tribal deity; was honoured by wooden pillars with his image on the top, greatly reverenced by the people; the constellation "The Plough" was known as "Irmin's Chariot."

IRON AGE, the last of the three stages, stone, bronze, iron, which mark the prehistoric development of most now civilised peoples; these, of course, occurred at different periods, and were of different duration in different cases; they are named from the material employed in making cutting instruments and weapons; the forms of instruments are freer than in the bronze period, and rectilineal gives places to free curvilineal decoration; this age is marked, too, by the introduction of writing and the beginning of literary and historic records. See AGES.

IRON CITY, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, from its numerous iron-works.

IRON CROWN, the crown of the ancient Lombard kings, a golden circlet studded with jewels, and so called as enclosing a ring of iron said to have been one of the nails of the cross, beaten out; Napoleon had it brought from Monza, and crowned himself with it as king of Italy. It is now in Vienna.

IRON DUKE, Duke of Wellington, from his iron will, it is surmised.

IRON GATE, the name given to dangerous rapids in the Danube at Orsova, as it issues out of Hungary.