CYMBELINE, a legendary British king, and the hero of Shakespeare’s romance play of the name.

CYNAEGIRUS, a brother of AEschylus; distinguished himself at Marathon; is famed for his desperate attempt to seize a retreating ship.

CYNEWULF, a Saxon poet, flourished at the second half of the 8th century; seems to have passed through two phases, first as a glad-hearted child of nature, and then as a devout believer in Christ; at the former stage wrote “Riddles” and “Ode to the West Wind,” at the latter his themes were the lives of Christ and certain Saints.

CYNICS, a sect of Greek philosophers, disciples of Antisthenes, who was a disciple of Socrates, but carried away with him only part of Socrates’ teaching and enforced that as if it were the whole, dropped all regard for humanity and the universal reason, and taught that “virtue lay wholly in the avoidance of evil, and those desires and greeds that bind us to enjoyments,” so that his disciples were called the “Capuchins of the Old World.”  These in time went further than their master, and conceived a contempt for everything that was not self-derived; they derived their name from the gymnasium in Athens, where their master taught.

CYPRIAN, ST., one of the Fathers of the Church, born at Carthage, about the year 200, converted to Christianity in 245; devoted himself thereafter to the study of the Bible, with the help of Tertullian his favourite author; became bishop of Carthage in 248; on the outbreak of the Decian persecution had to flee for his life, ministering to his flock the while by substitutes; on his return, after two years, he was involved in the discussion about the reception of the lapsed; under the Valerian persecution was banished; being recalled, he refused to sacrifice to the gods, and suffered martyrdom in 258; he was a zealous bishop of the High Church type, and the father of such, only on broader lines.  Festival, Sept. 16.

CYPRUS (21), a fertile, mountainous island in the Levant, capital Nicosia (12); geographically connected with Asia, and the third largest in the Mediterranean, being 140 m. long and 60 m. broad; government ceded to Great Britain in 1878 by the Sultan, on condition of an annual tribute; is a British colony under a colonial governor or High Commissioner; is of considerable strategic importance to Britain; yields cereals, wines, cotton, &c., and has 400 m. of good road, and a large transit trade.

CYRENAICS, a sect of Greek philosophers, disciples of Aristippus, who was a disciple of Socrates, but who broke away from his master by divorcing virtue from happiness, and making “pleasure, moderated by reason, the ultimate aim of life, and the supreme good.”

CYRE`NE, a town and Greek colony in Africa, E. of Egypt, extensive ruins of which still exist, and which was the capital of the State, called Cyrenaica after it, and the birthland of several illustrious Greeks.

CYRIL, ST., surnamed the PHILOSOPHER, along with his brother Methodius, the “Apostle of the Slavs,” born in Thessalonica; invented the Slavonic alphabet, and, with his brother’s help, translated the Bible into the language of the Slavs; d. 868.  Festival, March 9.