ORGANON (Gr. ὄργανον, instrument, from ἕργον, work), the name given to Aristotle's logical treatises. They are so called because logic is itself neither a speculative science nor a practical art in the ordinary sense, but an aid or instrument to all scientific thought. Francis Bacon, regarding the Aristotelian logic as he understood it as of no avail, gave to his own treatise the name Novum Organum in the belief that he had discovered a new inductive logic which would lead necessarily to the acquisition of new scientific knowledge. Compare also Whewell’s Novum Organum Renovatum and Lambert’s Neues Organon. In medieval music the term was applied in a similar sense to early attempts at improvised counterpoint i.e. a part sung as an accompaniment above or below the melody or plainsong; it consisted of 8ths and 5ths (or 4ths) added to the plainsong.
ORGY (through French from Lat. orgia, Gr. ὄργια, in derivation
connected probably with ἔργον, work; cf. Lat. operare, to
sacrifice), a term originally denoting the secret rites or ceremonies
connected with the worship of certain deities, especially
those of Dionysus-Bacchus. The Dionysiac orgies, which were
restricted to women, were celebrated in the winter among the
Thracian hills or in spots remote from city life. The women
met, clad in fawn-skins, with hair dishevelled, swinging the
thyrsus and beating the cymbal; they danced and worked
themselves up to a state of mad excitement. The holiest rites
took place at night by the light of torches. A bull, the representative
of the god, was torn in pieces by them as Dionysus-Zagreus
had been torn; his bellowing reproduced the cries of
the suffering god. The women tore the bull with their teeth,
and the eating of the raw flesh was a necessary part of the ritual.
Some further rites, which varied in different districts, represented
the resurrection of the god in the spring. On Mount Parnassus
the women carried back Dionysus-Licnites, the child cradled
in the winnowing fan. The most famous festival of the kind
was the τριετηρίς celebrated every second winter on Parnassus
by the women of Attica and Phocis. The celebrants were called
Maenads or Bacchae. The ecstatic enthusiasm of the Thracian
women, Κλώδωνες or Μιμαλλόνες, was especially distinguished.
The wild dances, songs, drinking and other “orgiastic” ceremonies
which were characteristic of these rites have given rise
to the use of the word “orgy” for any drunken, wild revel or
festivity (see Dionysus and Mystery).
ORIA, a town of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Lecce, 25 m.
E. of Taranto and 19 m. S.W. of Brindisi by rail, 540 ft. above
sea-level. Pop. (1901), 8838. It occupies the site of the ancient
Uria, the chief town of the Sallentini, which stood in a commanding
position in the centre of the peninsula of the ancient Calabria
(q.v.), almost midway between Brundusium and Tarentum on
the Via Appia. Strabo mentions that he saw there the old palace
of the Messapian kings (vi. 3. 6, p. 282). The town contains a
small museum and a fine castle of Frederick II., erected in 1227.
The Doria family of Genoa and Rome is said to derive its name
from a certain Tommaso d’Oria, who led the rebellion against
Frederick’s son Manfred. Much damage was done by a cyclone
in 1878.
ORIBI, or Ourebi, the local name of a small South African
antelope (Oribia scoparia), standing about 24 in. at the shoulder,
and characterized by the presence of a bare glandular spot
below the ear, the upright horns of the bucks, which are ringed
for a short distance above the face, and the tufted bushy tail, of
which the terminal two-thirds are black. The name is extended
to include the other members of the same genus, such as the Abyssinian, O. montana; the Gambian, O. nigricandata; the British East African, O. haggardi; and the Mozambique, O. petersi.
ORIEL, JOHN FOSTER, Baron (1740–1828), Irish politician,
was the son of Anthony Foster of Louth, an Irish judge. He
was returned to the Irish parliament in 1761, and made his
mark in financial and commercial questions, being appointed
chancellor of the Irish exchequer in 1784. His law giving
bounties on the exportation of corn and imposing heavy taxes
on its importation is noted by Lecky as responsible for making
Ireland an arable instead of a pasture country. In 1785 he became
Speaker. He opposed the Union, and ultimately refused to
surrender the Speaker's mace, which was kept by his family.
He was returned to the united parliament, and in 1804 became
chancellor of the Irish exchequer under Pitt. In 1821 he was
created a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Oriel of Ferrard
in the county of Louth, and died on the 23rd of August 1828.
His wife (d. 1824) had in 1790 been created an Irish peeress,
as Baroness Oriel, and in 1797 Viscountess Ferrard; and their
son, Thomas Henry (d. 1843), who married Viscountess Massereene
(in her own right) and took the name of Skeffington, inherited
all these titles; the later Viscounts Massereene being their
descendants.
ORIEL, in architecture, a projecting bay window on an upper
storey, which is carried by corbels or mouldings. It is usually
polygonal or semicircular in plan, but at Oxford in some of the
colleges there are examples which are rectangular and rise
through two or three storeys. In Germany it forms a favourite
feature, and is sometimes placed at the angle of a building,
carried up through two or three floors and covered with a lofty
roof. The oriel is also said to have been provided as a recess
for an altar in an oratory or small chapel. In the 15th century
oriels came into general use, and are frequently found over
entrance gateways.
The origin of the word is unknown. The suggested derivation from Lat. aureolum, with the supposed meaning of a gilded chamber or room, is not, according to the New English Dictionary, borne out by any historical evidence, and early French forms—such as eurieul—do not point to an origin in a word beginning with au. Du Cange (Glossarium, s.v. Oriolum) quotes Matthew of Paris (1251, Vitae Abbatum S. Albani): adjacet atrium nobilissimum in introitu, quod porticus vel Oriolum appellatur; and also a French use of 1338, where a licence to build an oriol is granted to one Jehan Bourgos. The earliest meaning seems to be a gallery, portico or corridor, and the application of the term to a particular form of window apparently arose from such a window being in an “oriel.” In Cornwall “orrel” is still used of a balcony or porch at the head of an outside staircase leading to an upper story in a fisherman's cottage. The name of Oriel College, at Oxford, comes from a tenement known as Seneschal Hall or La Oriole, and granted to the college in 1327. There is no trace of the reason why the tenement was so called, but it would seem that it referred to one of the earlier applications of the word, to a gallery or porch, rather than to a window.
ORIENTATION, the term in architecture given to the position
of a building generally with reference to the points of the compass,
and more especially (as the word implies) to that of the
East. It would seem that some of the Egyptian temples were
orientated in the direction of the sun or of some selected star, the
exact position of which on some particular day would be an
indication to the priest of the exact time of the year—a matter
of great importance in an agricultural country, when the calendar
was not known. The orientation of Greek temples has enabled
astronomers to calculate the dates of the foundation of early
temples, allowance being made for the gradual changes which in
the course of centuries had taken place in the precession of the
equinox. The principal front of the Greek temple always faced
east; and the rays of the rising sun, passing through the great
doorway of the naos, lighted up the statue at the further end, this
being the only occasion on which the people who came to witness
the event were able to gaze on the sculptured figure of the deity.
In early Christian architecture, in the five first basilicas built by Constantine, the apse of the church was at the west end, and the priest, standing behind the altar, faced the east; this orientation being probably derived from that of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and the church at Bethlehem. Three-fourths of the early churches in Rome followed this orientation, but in many it was reversed at a later date. In Sta. Sophia, Constantinople, and all the Byzantine churches, the apse was always at the east end, and the same custom obtains in the early churches in Syria and the Coptic churches in Egypt.
In Spain, Germany and England generally the eastern
