The Weeping Rock in Mount Sipylus, Manisa, Turkey, has been associated with Niobe's legend since Antiquity^[1]

Niobe (Νιόβη) was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and she was the sister of Pelops and Broteas, all of whom figure in Greek mythology.

Her father was the ruler of a city called either under his name, as "Tantalis" ^[2] or "the city of Tantalus", or as "Sipylus", in reference to Mount Sipylus at the foot of which his city was located and whose ruins were reported to be still visible in the beginning of the 1st century AD,^[3] although few traces remain today.^[4] Her father is referred to as "Phrygian" and sometimes even as "King of Phrygia",^[5] although his city was located in the western extremity of Anatolia where Lydia was to emerge as a state before the beginning of the first millennium BC, and not in the traditional heartland of Phrygia, situated more inland. References to his son and Niobe's brother as "Pelops the Lydian" led some scholars to the conclusion that there would be good grounds for believing that she belonged to a primordial house of Lydia.

She was already mentioned in Homer's Iliad which relates her prideful hubris, for which she was punished by Leto, who sent Apollo and Artemis, with the loss of all her children, and her nine days of abstention from food during which time her children lay unburied.^[6] Once the gods interred them, she retreated to her native Sipylus, "where Nymphs dance around the River Acheloos,^[7] and although being a stone, she broods over the sorrows sent from the Gods".^[8] Later writers^[9] asserted that Niobe was wedded to Amphion, one of the twin founders of Thebes, where there was a single sanctuary where the twin founders were venerated, but in fact no shrine to Niobe.

Central theme[link]

Niobe boasted of her fourteen children, seven male and seven female (the Niobids), to Leto who only had two children, the twins Apollo and Artemis. The number varies in different sources.^[10] Her speech which caused the indignation of the goddess was rendered in the following manner:

It was on occasion of the annual celebration in honor of Latona and her offspring, Apollo and Diana, when the people of Thebes were assembled, their brows crowned with laurel, bearing frankincense to the altars and paying their vows, that Niobe appeared among the crowd. Her attire was splendid with gold and gems, and her face as beautiful as the face of an angry woman can be. She stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks. "What folly," said she, "is this! to prefer beings whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes! Why should Latona be honored with worship rather than I? My father was Tantalus, who was received as a guest at the table of the gods; my mother was a goddess. My husband built and rules this city, Thebes; and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. Wherever I turn my eyes I survey the elements of my power; nor is my form and presence unworthy of a goddess. To all this let me add, I have seven sons and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. Have I not cause for pride? Will you prefer to me this Latona, the Titan's daughter, with her two children? I have seven times as many. Fortunate indeed am I, and fortunate I shall remain! Will any one deny this? ^[11]

Using arrows, Artemis killed Niobe's daughters and Apollo killed Niobe's sons. According to some versions, at least one Niobid (usually Meliboea) was spared. Their father, Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo for having sworn revenge. Devastated, Niobe fled back to Mount Sipylus^[12] and was turned into stone, and, as she wept unceasingly, waters started to pour from her petrified complexion. Mount Sipylus indeed has a natural rock formation which resembles a female face, and it has been associated with Niobe since ancient times and described by Pausanias. The rock formation is also known as the "Weeping Rock" (Turkish: Ağlayan Kaya), since rainwater seeps through its porous limestone.

Niobe in literature and fine arts[link]

Literature[link]

Lineage of Tantalus

The story of Niobe, and especially her sorrows, is an ancient one. The context in which she is mentioned by Achilles to Priam in Homer's Iliad is as a stock type for mourning. Priam is not unlike Niobe in the sense that he was also grieving for his son Hector, who was killed and not buried for several days.

Niobe is also mentioned in Sophocles's Antigone where, as Antigone is marched toward her death, she compares her own loneliness to that of Niobe.^[13] Sophocles is said to have also contributed a play titled Niobe that is lost.

The Niobe of Aeschylus, set in Thebes, survives in fragmentary quotes that were supplemented by a papyrus sheet containing twenty-one lines of text.^[14] From the fragments it appears that for the first part of the tragedy the grieving Niobe sits veiled and silent.

Furthermore, the conflict between Niobe and Leto is mentioned in one of Sappho's poetic fragments ("Before they were mothers, Leto and Niobe had been the most devoted of friends.").^[15]

Once into Latin language sources, Niobe's account is first told by Hyginus in his collection of stories in brief and plain Fabulae.

Parthenius of Nicaea records a rare version of the story of Niobe, in which her father is called Assaon and her husband Philottus. The circumstances in which Niobe loses her children are also different, see Niobids#Variant myth.

Niobe's iconic tears were also mentioned in Hamlet's soliloquy (Act 1, Scene 2), in which he contrasts his mother's grief over the dead King, Hamlet's father - "like Niobe, all tears" - to her unseemly hasty marriage to Claudius.^[16]

Among works of modern literature which have Niobe as a central theme, Kate Daniels' "Niobe Poems" can be cited.^[17]

Arts[link]

The subject of Niobe and the destruction of the Niobids was part of the repertory of Attic vase-painters and inspired sculpture groups and wall frescoes as well as relief carvings on Roman sarcophagi.

Notably, the subject of the Attic calyx-krater from Orvieto conserved in the Musée du Louvre has provided the name for the so-called "Niobid Painter".^[18]

A lifesize group of marble Niobids, including one of Niobe sheltering one of her daughters, found in Rome in 1583 at the same time as the Wrestlers, were taken in 1775 to the Uffizi in Florence where, in a gallery devoted to them, they remain some of the most prominent surviving sculptures of Classical antiquity (see below). New ones come into daylight from time to time, like one headless statue found in early 2005 among the ruins of a villa in the Villa dei Quintili just outside Rome.^[19]

In painting, Niobe was painted by post-Renaissance artists from varied traditions (see below). An early appearance, "The Death of Niobe's Children" by Abraham Bloemaert, was painted in 1591 towards the start of the Dutch Golden Age. Three notable works, all dating from the 1770s, "Apollo and Diana Attacking Niobe and her Children" by Anicet-Charles-Gabriel Lemonnier, "The Children of Niobe Killed by Apollo and Diana" by Pierre-Charles Jombert and "Diana and Apollo Piercing Niobe’s Children with their Arrows" by Jacques-Louis David belong to the tradition of French Baroque and Classicism.

A notable abstract work of the 20th century, titled, simply, "Niobe" was painted by Károly Patkó who also produced at the same time a sketch.

In classical music Benjamin Britten based one of his Six Metamorphoses after Ovid on Niobe.

In modern music, Canadian electronic/pop musician Dan Snaith, aka Caribou (musician), entitled the last track on his 2007 Polaris Prize winning Andorra (album) as "Niobe".

In modern dance, José Limón named a section of his dance theater work "Dances for Isadora" as "Niobe". The section is a solo for a woman mourning the loss of her children.

Examples in painting and sculpture[link]

• 

  1591 painting by Abraham Bloemaert

• 

  1770 painting by Anicet Charles-Gabriel Lemonnier

• 

  1772 painting by Pierre-Charles Jombert

• 

  1772 painting by Jacques-Louis David

• 

  1610 tapestry by François Spierincx

• 

  Picture of the Uffizi sculpture representing Niobe photographed by Giorgio Sommer

• 

  Statue of Niobe in Kvetna Gardens, Kroměříž, Czech Republic

• Houdini Gravesite.jpg

  Niobe statue at Harry Houdini's Grave in New York City

Related terms[link]

The choice of "Niobe" simply as a name in works of art and literature is not uncommon either. Two minor characters of Greek mythology have the same name (see Niobe (disambiguation)) and the name occurs in several works of the 19th century. More recently, one of the characters in the films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions was also named Niobe.

The element Niobium was so named as an extension of the inspiration which had led earlier to the naming of the element tantalum by Anders Gustaf Ekeberg. On the basis of his argument according to which there were two different elements in the tantalite sample, Heinrich Rose named them after children of Tantalus; Niobium and Pelopium, although the argument was later contested as far as pelopium was concerned.

A mountain in British Columbia, Canada is named Mount Niobe.

Sources[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Niobe

Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article Niobe.

Modern scholarship[link]

Classical authors[link]

General reading[link]

Popular reading[link]

• Peter James - Nikos Kokkinos (2001-01). Travel article: "More on the "weeping stone" simulacrum of Niobe in Turkey". Fortean Times. http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/505/niobe_rock_goddess.html Travel article:. 
• Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood (2011). Novel: "Niobe and Pelops: Children of Tantalus". http://www.amazon.com/Children-Tantalus-Pelops-Victoria-Grossack/dp/1456368907/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291971990&sr=1-1 Novel:. 
• Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood (2011). Novel: "Niobe and Amphion: The Road to Thebes". http://www.amazon.com/Road-Thebes-Amphion-Tapestry-ebook/dp/B004F9PAP2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1292183538&sr=1-1 Novel:. 
• Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood (2011). Novel: "Niobe and Chloris: Arrows of Artemis". http://www.amazon.com/Arrows-Artemis-Tapestry-Bronze-ebook/dp/B004G08YKI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1292183625&sr=1-1 Novel:. 

References[link]

Philippe Jaroussky
Philippe Jaroussky, 2011 Misteria Paschalia Festival, Kraków Philharmonic
Born	Philippe Jaroussky (1978-02-13) February 13, 1978 (age 34) Maisons-Laffitte, France
Occupation	opera singer
Years active	1999–present
Website
www.philippejaroussky.fr

Philippe Jaroussky (born 13 February 1978 in Maisons-Laffitte, France)^[1] is a French sopranist countertenor. He began his musical career with the violin, winning an award at the Versailles conservatory and then took up the piano before turning to singing. He is noted for a virtuosic coloratura technique and for compelling and enlivened interpretations of baroque cantatas and operas.

Jaroussky was inspired to sing by the Martinique-born countertenor Fabrice di Falco.^[2] He received his diploma from the Early Music Faculty of the Conservatoire de Paris. Since 1996, he has studied singing with Nicole Fallien.^[3] He has formed his own ensemble called Artaserse, and also often performs with the Ensemble Matheus under Jean-Christophe Spinosi and with L'Arpeggiata under Christina Pluhar.

Reception and awards[link]

According to La Terrasse, "this young singer with the tone of an angel and the virtuosity of the devil has come into the limelight in only a few years as the great new French vocal talent."^{[citation needed]} He received the 2007 best French lyrical artist award. Jaroussky was awarded "The Best Singer of the Year" at the Echo Classic Awards, 2008.

Discography[link]

• Alessandro Scarlatti: Sedecia, Re di Gerusalemme. Lesne, Pochon, Harvey, Padmore. Il Seminario Musicale, Gérard Lesne. Virgin Veritas (rec. November 1999, École Sainte-Geneviève, Versailles, France)
• Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea. Laurens, Oliver, Schofrin, Oro. Ensemble Elyma, Gabriel Garrido. K617 (rec. July/August 2000, Chiesa San Martino, Erice, Italy)
• Pierre Menault: Vêpres pour le Pére la Chaize. Greuillet, Janssens, Lombard, van Dyck. Ensemble La Fenice, Jean Tubéry. K617 (rec. April 2001, chiesa Saint-Lazare, Avallon, France)
• Giovanni Battista Bassani: La morte delusa. Galli, del Monaco, Piolino, Sarragosse. Ensemble La Fenice, Jean Tubéry. Opus 111 (rec. August 2001, Delft, Nederland)
• Antonio Vivaldi: Catone in Utica. Edwards, Laszczkowski, Cangemi, Faraon. La Grande Écurie, Jean-Claude Malgoire. Dynamic (rec. November 2001, Théâtre Municipal, Tourcoing, France)
• Antonio Vivaldi: La Verità in cimento. Rolfe-Johnson, Stutzmann, Laurens, Mingardo. Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi. Naïve – Opus 111 (rec. September 2002, Église de Daoulas, Bretagne, France)
• Solo recital: Benedetto Ferrari: Musiche varie. Ensemble Artaserse. Ambroisie (rec. October/December 2002, Chapelle Jésus-Enfant – Paroisse Ste. Clothilde, Paris, France)
• George Frideric Handel: Agrippina. Gens, Perruche, Smith, Grégoire, di Falco. La Grande Écurie, Jean-Claude Malgoire. Dynamic (rec. March 2003, Théâtre Municipal, Tourcoing, France)
• Solo recital: Un concert pour Mazarin. Ensemble La Fenice, Jean Tubéry. Virgin Classics, 2004 (rec. June 2003, Abbaye de Saint-Michel, Thiérache, France)
• Claudio Monteverdi: Selva morale e spirituale. Spiritualità e liturgia / I salmi vespertini / Vespro dei Martiri / L'eloquenza divina. Ensemble Elyma, Gabriel Garrido. Ambronay Edition (rec. 2003/2004, Festival d'Ambronay, France)
• Antonio Vivaldi: Orlando furioso. Larmore, Lemieux, Cangemi. Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi. Naïve – Opus 111 (rec. June 2004, Église de Daoulas, Bretagne, France)
• Claudio Monteverdi: L'Orfeo. van Rensburg, Gerstenhaber, Thébault, Gerstenhaber, Gillot, Kaïque. La Grande Écurie, Jean-Claude Malgoire. Dynamic (rec. October 2004, Théâtre Municipal, Tourcoing, France)
• Solo recital: Antonio Vivaldi: Virtuoso cantatas. Ensemble Artaserse. Virgin Veritas (rec. October 2004, Chapelle des sœurs auxiliaires, Versailles, France)
• Antonio Vivaldi: Griselda. Lemieux, Cangemi, Kermes, Ferrari, Davies. Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi. Naïve – Opus 111 (rec. November 2005, Salle Surcouf, Foyer du Marin, Brest, France)
• Solo recital: Beata Vergine, Motets à la Vierge entre Rome et Venise, Grandi, Legrenzi, Cavalli, Antonio Rigatti, Giovanni Paolo Caprioli, Frescobaldi, Sances, Ensemble Artaserse. Virgin Classics (rec. December 2005, Église Notre-Dame du Liban, Parigi, France)
• Solo recital: Vivaldi Heroes. Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi. Virgin Classics (rec. October 2006, Auditorium de l'Ecole Nationale de Musique, Brest, France)
• Solo recital: Carestini, the story of a castrato. Le Concert d'Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm. Virgin Classics, 2007
• J. S. Bach: Magnificat – G. F. Handel: Dixit Dominus. Dessay, Deshayes, Spence, Naouri. Le Concert d'Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm. Virgin Classics, 2007
• Antonio Vivaldi: Nisi Dominus and Stabat Mater. Philippe Jaroussky, Lemieux. Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi. Naïve (rec. July 2007, Salle Surcouf, Brest (France))
• Solo recital: Opium – Mélodies françaises. Philippe Jaroussky, Jerôme Ducros. Virgin Classics, 2009. – songs by Debussy, Hahn, Fauré, César Franck, Massenet, Ernest Chausson, André Caplet, Saint-Saëns, Paul Dukas, Guillaume Lekeu, Cécile Chaminade, Gabriel Dupont, Vincent d'Indy.
• Via Crucis. Claudio Monteverdi, Benedetto Ferrari, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Giovanni Legrenzi, Luigi Rossi, Tarquinio Merula, L'Arpeggiata, dir. Christina Pluhar, Philippe Jaroussky, Nuria Rial, Enzo Gragnaniello, Barbara Furtuna. Jean-Philippe Guissani, Giovanni Antonio, Pandolfi Mealli, Roccu Mambrini, Toni Casalonga, Nando Acquaviva, Lorenzo Allegri, Virgin Classics, 2010.
• Solo recital: J. C. Bach Opera arias. Le Cercle de l'Harmonie, dir. Jérémie Rhorer Virgin. – awarded the Diapason d'Or de l'Année 2010 in France.
• Solo recital: Caldara in Vienna (Forgotten Castrato Arias) Philippe Jaroussky / Concerto Köln, Emmanuelle Haïm
• Vivaldi Ercole sul Termodonte Diana Damrau, Vivica Genaux, Romina Basso, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Rolando Villazón, Philippe Jaroussky, Topi Lehtipuu, dir. Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante, Virgin Classics. 2011

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Philippe Jaroussky

• Concerts Parisiens
• Philippe Jaroussky International Forum
• Performance of aria "Vedrò con mio diletto" (Vivaldi, "Il Giustino") on YouTube
• Philippe Jaroussky recordings on Virgin Classics
• Philippe Jaroussky videos on MaleSopranos.com
• New York Times Sunday Magazine profile
• Official website (French)

An 1816 lithography of Agostino Steffani from an unknown original.

Beginning from the autograph of the Duetto da camera Pria ch'io faccia by Agostino Steffani.

Agostino Steffani (25 July 1654 – 12 February 1728) was an Italian ecclesiastic, diplomat and composer.

Biography[link]

Steffani was born at Castelfranco Veneto. At a very early age he was admitted as a chorister at San Marco, Venice. In 1667 the beauty of his voice attracted the attention of Count Georg Ignaz von Tattenbach, by whom he was taken to Munich, where his education was completed at the expense of Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria, who appointed him Churfürstlicher Kammer- und Hofmusikus and granted him a liberal salary. After receiving instruction from Johann Kaspar Kerll, in whose charge he lived, he was sent in 1673 to study in Rome, where Ercole Bernabei was his master, and among other works he composed six motets, the original manuscripts of which are now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge.

On his return to Munich in 1674 he published his first work, Psalmodia vespertina, a part of which was reprinted in Giovanni Battista Martini's Saggio di contrappunto in 1774. In 1675 he was appointed court organist. The date when he was ordained priest, with the title of Abbate of Lepsing, is not precisely known. His ecclesiastical status did not prevent him from turning his attention to the stage, for which, at different periods of his life, he composed work which undoubtedly exercised a potent influence upon the dramatic music of the period. Of his first opera, Marco Aurelio, written for the carnival and produced at Munich in 1681, the only copy known to exist is a manuscript score preserved in the royal library at Buckingham Palace. It was followed by Solone in 1685, by Audacia e rispetto, Prerogative d'amore and Servio Tullio in 1686, by Alarico in 1687, and by Niobe, regina di Tebe in 1688.

Notwithstanding the favor shown to him by the Elector Maximilian Emanuel, he accepted in 1688 the appointment of Kapellmeister at the court of Hanover, where he speedily improved an acquaintance dating from 1681 with Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg (Celle; afterwards Elector of Hanover), winning also a pleasant footing with the Elector's daughter Sophia Charlotte (afterwards Electress of Brandenburg and Queen of Prussia), the philosopher Leibniz, the Abbate Ortensio Mauro, and many men of letters and intelligence, and where, in 1710, he showed great kindness to Handel, who was then just entering upon his glorious career. He inaugurated a long series of triumphs in Hanover by composing, for the opening of the new opera house in 1689, an opera called Enrico il Leone, which was produced with extraordinary splendour and achieved an immense reputation. For the same theatre be composed La Lolta d'Ercole con Achilleo in 1689, La Superbia d'Alessandro in 1690, Orlando generoso in 1691, Le Rivali concordi in 1692, La Liberia contenta in 1693, I Trionfi del Job and I Baccanali in 1695, and Briseide in 1696. The libretto of Briseide is by Palmieri. Those of most, if not all the others are by the Abbate Mauro.

The scores are preserved at Buckingham Palace, where, in company with five volumes of songs and three of duets, they form part of the collection brought to England by the Elector of Hanover in 1714, when ascending as King George I of Great Britain. But it was not only as a musician that Steffani distinguished himself in his new home. The elevation of Ernest Augustus to the electorate in 1692 led to difficulties, for the arrangement of which it was necessary that an ambassador should visit the various German courts, armed with a considerable amount of diplomatic power.

The accomplished abbate was sent on this delicate mission in 1696, with the title of envoy extraordinary, and he fulfilled his difficult task so well that Pope Innocent XI, in recognition of certain privileges he had secured for the Hanoverian Catholics, consecrated him bishop of Spiga in the Spanish West Indies. Between 1709 and 1723 Steffani served as Vicar Apostolic of Upper and Lower Saxony, a new Roman Catholic diaspora jurisdiction, embracing Upper and Lower Saxon territories.

In 1698 he was sent as ambassador to Brussels, and after the death of Ernest Augustus in the same year he entered the service of the Elector Palatine, John William, Elector Palatine, at Düsseldorf, where he held the offices of privy councillor and protonotary of the Holy See. Invested with these high honours, Steffani could scarcely continue to produce dramatic compositions in public without grievous breach of etiquette. But his genius was too importunate to submit to repression; and in 1709 be ingeniously avoided the difficulty by producing two new operas: Enea at Hanover and Tassilone at Düsseldorf in the name of his secretary and amanuensis Gregorio Piva, whose signature is attached to the scores preserved at Buckingham Palace. Another score, that of Arminio in the same collection, dated Düsseldorf, 1707, and evidently the work of Steffani, bears no composers name.

Steffani did not accompany the elector George to England; but in 1724 the Academy of Antient Musick in London elected him its honorary president for life; and in return for the compliment he sent the association a magnificent Stabat Mater, for six voices and orchestra, and three fine madrigals. The manuscripts of these are still in existence, and the British Museum possesses a very fine Confitebor, for three voices and orchestra, of about the same period. All these compositions are very much in advance of the age in which they were written; and in his operas Steffani shows an appreciation of the demands of the stage very remarkable indeed at a period at which the musical drama was gradually approaching the character of a merely formal concert, with scenery and dresses. But for the manuscripts at Buckingham Palace these operas would be utterly unknown; but Steffani will never cease to be remembered by his beautiful chamber-duets, which, like those of his contemporary Carlo Maria Clari (1669–1745), are chiefly written in the form of cantatas for two voices, accompanied by a figured bass. The British Museum (Add. MSS. 5055 seq.) possesses more than a hundred of these charming compositions, some of which were published at Munich in 1679. Steffani visited Italy for the last time in 1727, in which year Handel, who always gratefully remembered the kindness he had received from him at Hanover, once more met him at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome. This was the last time the two composers were destined to meet. Steffani returned soon afterwards to Hanover, and died on February 12, 1728 while engaged in the transaction of some diplomatic business at Frankfurt.

Steffani stands somewhat apart from contemporary Italian composers (e.g. Alessandro Scarlatti) in his mastery of instrumental forms. His opera overtures, etc., show a remarkable combination of Italian suavity with a logical conciseness of construction which is due to French influence. In vocal music he is considered inferior to Scarlatti, and none of his famous duets, despite their charm, can compare for seriousness of intention with the Sicilian master's chamber-cantatas with the exception of Avanti il levar de la tenda (See external references below) which is superior in melodic construction and is a precursor to Mozart's work for voice. His instrumental music, however, is historically important as a factor in the artistic development of Handel.

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Edition: A. Steffani: Ausgewählte Werke, ed. H. Riemann

Avanti il levar de la tenda

• Free scores by Agostino Steffani in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Agostino Steffani at the International Music Score Library Project

Jan Gruber (born 15 March 1984 in Prague) is a Czech rower. He finished 5th in the men's coxless four at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

External links[link]

• Jan Gruber at RowingOne.com
• Profile at sports-reference.com

This biographical article relating to Czech rowing is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e