Browse the Dictionary

ECCLESIA	The assembly of the people, which in Greek cities bad the power of final decision in public affairs.
ECHIDNA	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A monster and robber in Greek fable, half maiden, half snake, the daughter of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe, or, according to another story, of Tartarus and Gaaea. Her home was the country of the Arimi in Cilicia, where she brought forth to Typhoeus a number of monsters, Cerberus Chimaera, Sphinx, Scylla, the serpent of Lerna, the Nemean lion, etc. (See TYPHOEUS She was surprised in her sleep and slain by Argos. (See ARGOS, 1.)
ECHION	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 One of the five Sparti who helped Cadmus to build Thebes; husband of Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, and father of Pentheus. (See SPARTI.)
ECHO	A Nymph, who by her chattering prevented Hera, from surprising her husband Zeus in the company of the Nymphs. Hera punished her by making it impossible for her either to speak first, or to be silent when any one else was speaking. She loved the beautiful Narcissus, but in vain, and pined away in grief till nothing remained of her but her voice.
ECLECTICS OR " SELECTERS"	The technical name in philosophy for philosophers who were attached to no particular school, but made a selection of favourite dogmas from. the tenets of the different sects.
ECLOGUE	A selected piece of writing. Properly a poem taken out of a larger collection, and so applied, under the Roman Empire, to a short poem, as an idyll or satire. The term was specially applied to the pastoral poems of Vergil and Calpurnius Siculus.
EDICTUM	The Roman term for any written announcement made by a magistrate to the people. An edictum was sometimes temporary only, as, e.g., the announcements of the public assemblies or games; sometimes it contained permanent enactments, as, for instance, the edicta of the censors against luxury. The name was especially applied to the proclamations issued by judical functionaries on assuming office, and stating the principles or rules which they intended to follow in the exercise of their authority. The edicta of the aediles relative to the markets belong to this class. One kind of edictum was specially important in its bearing upon Roman law, the edictum of the praetor. In his edictum the paetor laid down the rules which he would observe in arranging the proceedings of the regular courts and of his voluntary jurisdiction, and in deciding cases which did not appear to be covered by the written enactments of the Twelve Tables, or later legislation. These edicta, written on wood, stone, or bronze, were in early times published only as occasion required, but in later times the praetors regularly promulgated them on entering upon their office. They prevented the fossilization of the law, and allowed the enactments of the Twelve Tables to adapt themselves in natural development to the changing circumstances of civic life and intercourse. It is true that the edicta had no force beyond the praetor's year of office, but, as every new praetor observed what was found in the edicta of his predecessors, a permanent nucleus of constantly repeated rules, called edictum perpetuum (or continuous edict), was formed in course of time. This became, for the later period, a recognised source of customary law, side by side with the leges proper. At length, under Hadrian, the mass of edicta was reduced to system by Salvius Julianus, and received the force of law at the imperial command. This body of law included the accepted edicta of the praetor urbanus and the other praetors administering law in the provinces, of the proconsuls, propraetors, and aediles, It was called edictum perpetuum, ius, proetorium, or ius honorarium, the latter because its authors had held public offices (honores). On this collection the Corpus Iuris of Justinian is in great part founded. The emperor and imperial officials, as proefectus urbi and proefectus proetorio, had also the right of issuing edicta.
EDUCATION	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Greek. The Dorians of Crete and Sparta followed a peculiar line in the matter of education. Throughout Greece generally the state left it to private effort; but in Sparta and Crete it came under the direct supervision of the community. At Sparta, as soon as a child was born, a commission of the elders of its tribe had to decide whether it should be reared or exposed. If it was weakly or deformed, it was exposed in a defile of Mount Taygetus. Till his seventh year, a boy was left to the care of his parents. After this the Paidonomos, or officer presiding over the whole department of education, assigned him to a division of children of the same age called a bua. Several of such buas together formed a troop or ila. Each bua was superintended by a Buagoros, each ila by an Ilarchos. Both these officers were elected from among the most promising of the grown up youths, and were bound to instruct the children in their exercises. The exercises were calculated to suit the various ages of the children, and consisted in running, leaping, wrestling, throwing the spear and discus, as well as in a number of dances, particularly the war dance or Pyrrhiche (see PYRRHIC DANCE). The dancing was under the constant superintendence of the Paidonomos, and five Bidyoe, under him. The discipline was generally directed to strengthening or hardening the body. The boys went barefoot and bareheaded, with hair cut short, and in light clothing. From their twelfth year they wore nothing but an upper garment, which had to last the whole year. They slept in a common room without a roof, on a litter of hay or straw, and from their fifteenth year on rushes or reeds. Their food was extremely simple, and not sufficient to satisfy bunger. A boy who did not want to be hungry had to steal; if he did this cleverly, he was praised, and punished if detected. Every year the boys had to undergo a flogging at the altar of Artemis Orthia, as a test of their power to endure bodily pain. They were whipped till the blood flowed, and deemed it a disgrace to show any sign of suffering. Reading and writing were left to private instructors; but music, and choral singing in particular, formed a part of the regular discipline. The understanding was assumed to be formed by daily life in public, and the conversation of the men, to which the boys were admitted. Every Spartan boy looked up to his seniors as his instructors and superiors; the consequence being that in Sparta the young behaved to their elders with more modesty and respect than in any other Greek city. Besides this, every man chose a boy or youth as his favourite. He was bound to set the boy an example of all manly excellence, and was regarded as responsible and punishable for his delinquencies. This public education and the performance of the regular exercises, under the superintendence of the Bidyoe, lasted till the thirtieth year. In the eighteenth year the boy passed into the class of youths. From the twentieth year, when military service proper began, to the thirtieth, the youth was called an eiren. He was not regarded as a man, or allowed to attend the public assembly till his thirtieth year. The girls had an education in music and gymnastic education similar to that of the boys, and at the public games and contests each sex was witness of the performances of the other. The girls' dress was extremely simple, consisting of a sleeveless tunic reaching not quite down to the knees, and open at the sides. In this, however, there was nothing which interfered with modesty and propriety of behaviour. In Crete the system of education was generally similar to that of Sparta. But the public training did not begin till the seventeenth year, when the boys of the same age joined themselves freely into divisions called agelai, each led by some noble youth, whose father was called agelatas, and undertook the supervision of the games and exercises. It is probable that the young men remained in this organization till their twenty-seventh year, when the law compelled them to marry. At Athens, as in Greece generally, the father decided whether the child should be reared or exposed. The latter alternative seems to have been not seldom adopted, especially when the child was a girl. If the education of a child was once fairly commenced, the parents had no power to put it out of the way. At the birth of a boy, the door of the house was adorned with a branch of olive; at the birth of a girl, with wool. On the fifth or seventh day after birth the child underwent a religious dedication at the festival of the Amphidromia ("running round"). It was touched with instruments of purification, and carried several times round the burning hearth. On the tenth day came the festival of naming the child, with sacrifice and entertainment, when the father acknowledged it as legitimate. To the end of the sixth year the boys and girls were brought up together under female supervision; but after this the sexes were educated apart. The girls' life was almost entirely confined to her home: she was brought up under the superintendence of women, and with hardly anything which can be called profitable instruction. The boy was handed over to a slave older than himself called Poedagogos. It was the slave's duty to watch the boy's outward behaviour, and to attend him, until his boyhood was over, whenever he went out, especially to the school and the gymnasium. The laws made some provision for the proper education of boys. They obliged every citizen to have his son instructed in music, gymnastics, and the elements of letters (grammata), i.e. writing, reading, and arithmetic. They further obliged the parents to teach their boys some profitable trade, in case they were unable to leave them a property sufficient to maintain them independent. If they failed in this, they forfeited all claim to support from the children in old age. But with schools and their arrangements the state did not concern itself. The schools were entirely in private hands, though they were under the eye of the police. The elementary instruction was given by the grammatistoe, or teachers of letters, the teacher writing and the scholars copying. The text-books for reading were mostly poems, especially such as were calculated to have an influence on the formation of character. The Homeric poems were the favourite reading book, but Hesiod, Theognis, and others were also admitted. Collections of suitable passages from the poets were early made for the boys to copy, learn by heart, and repeat aloud. The higher instruction given by the grammatikos was also of this literary character. Mathematics were introduced into the school curriculum as early as the 5th century, drawing not till the middle of the 4th century B.C. Instruction in music proper began about the thirteenth year. The profound moral influence attributed to music in Greek antiquity made this art an essential part of education. It brought with it, naturally, an acquaintance with the masterpieces of Greek poetry. The instrument most practised was the lyre, from its suitableness as an accompaniment to song. The flute was held in less esteem. The aim of education was supposed to be the harmonious development of mind and body alike. Instruction in gymnastics was consequently regarded as no less essential than in music, and began at about the same age. It was carried on in the paloestroe (see PALAeSTRA) under the paidotribai, who were, like the grammatikoi, private, not public instructors. The boys began their gymnastics in the paloestra, and completed them in the gymnasia under the superintendence of the gymnastoe. The ephebi, in particular, or boys between sixteen and nineteen, practised their exercises in the gymnasia, till, in their twentieth year, they were considered capable of bearing arms, and employed on frontier service. At this point they became liable to enlistment for foreign service, and obtained the right of attending the meeting of the public assembly. Towards the end of the 5th century B.C. the class of sophistoe, or professors of practical education, arose. This gave the young men an opportunity of extending their education by attending lectures in rhetoric and philosophy; but the high fees charged by the sophistoe, had the effect of restricting this instruction to the sons of the wealthy.
EDUCATION
EGERIA	A goddess of fountains, who was also a goddess of birth, and possessed the gift of prophecy. It was from her fountain in the sacred enclosure of the Camenae, before the Porta Capena in Rome, that the Vestal Virgins brought the water necessary for the baths and purifications of their office. There was another fountain of Egeria in the precincts, of Diana at Aricia. In Roman story Egeria was the consort and counsellor of king Numa, who used to meet her in a grotto in the precincts of the Camenae. After the death of her beloved, she fled to the shrine of the Arician Diana, by whom, as her wailings disturbed the worship, she was changed into the fountain which bore her name. Married women worshipped her at Rome, as a goddess of childbirth.
EIDOTHEA	A sea-goddess, daughter of Proteus, the old man of the sea.
EIRENE	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The Greek goddess of peace, one of the Horae. She was worshipped as goddess of wealth, and represented accordingly as a young woman with Platus in her arms. (See PLUTUS.) Among her other attributes are the cornucopia, the olive branch, Hermes' staff, and ears of corn in her hand and on her head. The corresponding deity among the Romans was Pax, to whom an altar was set up on July 4th, 13 B.C., on the return of Augustus from Gaul.
EISANGELIA
EISPHORA
EKECHEIRIA	The "truce of God" (literally, "holding of hands"), observed in Greece at the great festivals which were visited by strangers; e.g. the national games, and the Eleusinia in Attica. This peace was proclaimed by heralds throughout Greece, to secure the visitors to the games freedom in passing backwards and forwards and security during the festival. In the case of the Eleusinia the truce lasted 1 1/2 months and ton days.
ELAPHEBOLIA	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A festival held at Athens in the month Elaphebolion (March-April) in honour of Artemis as goddess of the chase and of game. (See ARTEMIS.
ELECTRA	Daughter of Agamemnon and ClytaeBmnetra, sister of Iphigenia and Orestes. She saved Orestes from the murderer of his father, and assisted him afterwards in avenging his death. She married Pylades, her brother's friend, and became the mother of Medon and Strophius.
ELECTRA	One of the Pleiades, the mother (by Zeus) of Dardanus, ancestor of the royal house of Troy.
ELECTRUM	This word had two meanings in antiquity. (1) A mixture of gold and silver in the proportion of about 4:1. (2) Amber, the use of which in ornamentation was known to the Greeks as early as the Homeric age through their trade with Phoecenicia. In later times, mainly through the overland trade, amber was brought down from the Baltic to the months of the Po, and from thence farther south. In the classical times it seems to have been only in exceptional cases that amber was applied to the uses of art; and as Greek influence increased, the taste for it disappeared in Italy. It was only towards the end of the republican age that it gradually came into favour again, and then as a material for ladies' ornaments, such as bracelets, pins and rings, and for adorning bedsteads and similar furniture. Under the Empire it was more fashionable than it had ever been. The white, wax-coloured sort was accounted the worst, and was only used for fumigation. The ruddy amber, especially if transparent, found more favour; the bright yellow, of the colour of Falernian wine, was liked best of all. The natural colour was sometimes intensified or altered by artificial means.
ELECTRYON	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Son of Perseus and Andromeda, king of Mycenae, father of Alcmene, the mother of Heracles. (See AMPHITRYON
ELEGY	The general term in Greek for any poem written in the elegiac metre, a combination of the dactylic hexameter and pentameter in a couplet. The word elegos is probably not Greek, but borrowed from the Lydians, and means a plaintive melody accompanied by the flute. How it happened that the word was applied to elegiac poetry, the earliest representatives of which by no means confined it to mournful subjects, is doubtful. It may be that the term was only chosen in reference to the musical setting, the elegy having originally been accompanied by the flute. Like the epos, the elegy was a production of the Ionians of Asia Minor. Its dialect was the same as that of the epos, and its metre only a variation of the epic metre, the pentameter being no more than an abbreviation of the hexameter. The elegy marks the first transition from the epic to lyric proper. The earliest representatives of the elegy, Callinus of Ephesus (about 700 B.C.), and Tyrtaeus of Aphidnae in Attica (about 600), gave it a decidedly warlike and political direction, and so did Solon (640-559) in his earlier poems, though his later elegies have mostly a contemplative character. The elegies of Theognis of Megara (about 540), though gnomic and erotic, are essentially political. The first typical representative of the erotic elegy was Mimnermus of Colophon, an elder contemporary of Solon. The elegy of mourning or sorrow was brought to perfection by Simonides of Ceos (died B.C. 469). After him the emotional element predominated. Antimachus of Colophon (about 400) gave the elegy a learned tinge, and was thus the prototype of the elegiac poets of Alexandria, Phanocles, Philetas of Cos, Hermesianax of Colophon, and Callimachus of Cyrene, the master of them all The subject of the Alexandrian elegy is sometimes the passion of love, with its pains and pleasures, treated through the medium of images and similes taken from mythology, sometimes learned narrative of fable and history, from which personal emotion is absent. This type of elegy, with its learned and obscure maimer, was taken up and imitated at Rome towards the end of the Republic. The Romans soon easily surpassed their Greek masters both in warmth and sincerity of feeling and in finish of style. The elegies of Catullus are among their arliest attempts; but in the Augustan age, in the hands of Cornellus Gallus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, the elegiac style was entirely appropriated by Latin literature. Ovid in his Fasti showed how a learned subject could be treated in this metre. From his time onward the elegiac metre was constantly employed. In the later literature it was used, like the epic metre, for every possible subject, as, for instance, by Rutilius Namatianus in the description of his return from Rome to France (A.D. 416). In the 6th century A.D. the poet Maximianus, born in Etruria at the beginning of the 6th century, is a late instance of a genuine elegiac poet.
ELEPHANTS	Indian elephants were first used in European warfare by the successors of Alexander for the purpose of breaking through the enemy's ranks. An elephant, if completely equipped, carried on its back, besides its driver, a tower or howdah, generally containing four archers. The Romans first learned their use in the war with Pyrrhus. In the Second Punic War they got possession of African elephants, the first which they turned to their own account, and used them against Philip of Macedon. But elephants never played so important a part in the Roman armies as they had in those of Alexander's successors. They were liable to panic if the enemy frightened them with firebrands or in any other way, and in this state became dangerous to friends as well as enemies. Combats of elephants, however, were always the central attraction in the fights of wild animals in the games of the circus, and, from the time of Augustus, the chariots which bore the images of the deified emperors were drawn by elephants in the solemn procession.
ELEUSINIA	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The two mystic festivals of Demeter and her daughter Persephone (Core) celebrated in Attica. They took their name from the city of Eleusis, twelve miles distant from Athens. This was, from time immemorial, a seat of the worship Of Demeter, instituted, it was said, by the goddess herself after the disappearance of her daughter. (See DEMETER.) The worship of Dionysus was early associated with that of the two goddesses of the earth, for Dionysus was himself a god of fertility, worshipped here under the name of Iakchos, as son of Zeus and Demeter or Persephone. The ritual of the Eleusinian service was supposed to have been ordained by Eumolpus (see EUMOLPUS). The conquest of Eleusis, which took place, according to the story, under king Erechtheus, gave Athens a right to take part in the solemnity, and the lesser of the two festivals was actually celebrated in Athens. Eleusis, however, continued to be the chief seat of the worship, and the highest priesthoods were hereditary in the Eleusinian families of the Eumolpidae and Kerykes. The sanctity which shrouded the Eleusinian mysteries occasioned the foundation of Eleusinia on their model in other Greek cities. But the initiations at Eleusis were always accounted the most sacred and the most efficacious. The events celebrated in the mysteries were the descent of Persephone into the world below, and her return to light and to her mother. The former was celebrated at the greater Eleusinia between autumn and seed-time; the latter in spring at the lesser Eleusinia. The symbolical representation of both events had the same object. This was to excite and strengthen in the minds of the initiated, by means of the story of Persephone, the faith in the continuance of life, and a system of rewards and punishments after death. The right of initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries was in all probability restricted originally to inhabitants of Attica, but it was not long before it was extended to all Greeks. In later times, after their closer connexion with the Greeks, the Romans were also admitted. Barbarians were excluded, and so were all who had been guilty of murder, or any other serious offence. The neophyte was proposed for initiation by an Athenian citizen who had himself been initiated. He was admitted first to the lesser mysteries at the lesser Eleusinia. At this stage the candidates were termed Mystoe, and were allowed to take a limited part in the greater Eleusinia the next autumn. They were not initiated, however, into the greater mysteries, until the greater Eleusinia succeeding these ; and after their initiation were called epoptoe, or seers. The external arrangement of the festival was in the hands of the second archon, or Archon Basileus, who exercised a general superintendence over the whole of the public worship. He was assisted by four overseers (epimeletoe), two of whom were elected from the whole body of citizens, and two from the Eleusinian families of the Eumolpidae and Kerykes.[1] The high-priestly officials, who carried out the liturgical functions at the celebration, were also chosen from these two families. The Hierophantes, or chief priest, belonged to the house of Eumolpus. It was his duty to exhibit to the initiated the mysterious shrines, and probably to lead the performance of the hymns handed down from his ancestors. The Keryx, or herald, was of the house of the Kerykes. He summoned the initiated, in the traditional form of words, to worship, pronouncing for them the form of prayer. The Daduchos or torch-bearer, and the superintendent of the sacrifice, were also important officials. The lesser Eleusinia were celebrated in the month Anthesterion, which corresponded roughly to February. The service was performed at Agrae, a suburb of Athens on the Ilissus. in the temple of Demeter and Core, and accompanied by mystical rites, the nature of which is unknown. It was said to have been founded at the wish of Heracles, who, being a stranger, was excluded by usage from the greater Eleusinia. The great Eleusinia were celebrated in the middle of Boedromion (roughly = September), for a space probably of nine days. The first days were devoted to the preparation for the main festival, bathing in the sea, sacrifices of purification, and the like. On the sixth day, the 20th Boedromion, the immense multitude of mystae, in festal attire and crowned with myrtle, marched in procession along the sacred way to Eleusis, preceded by the image of Iokchos, who gave his name to the celebration. Much time was spent, partly in the performance of acts of devotion at the numerous holy places on the road, partly in merriment and banter; so that it was late in the evening before they arrived at the Telesterion, or house of initiation, at Eleusis. This was a magnificent temple erected by Pericles in place of the ancient temple of Demeter, which had been burnt down in the Persian War. During the following nights various celebrations took place at those spots in Eleusis and its neighbourhood which were hallowed in the story of the goddess. In these were represented the sorrowful searching of the goddess for her lost daughter, and the mother's joy at finding her. The transition from sorrow and fasting to joy and festivity was symbolized by the potion mixed of water, meal, and penny-royal, supposed to have been the first food tasted by Demeter after her reception in Eleusis. It was probably while, these celebrations were going on that the Epoptae, and the Mystae who were called totheir final initiation, took part in the mysteries proper. Mysterious rites were first, it would seem, performed in darkness, which threw the celebrants into a state of painful suspense and expectation. Then, in a dazzling light, and amid great splendour, the Hierophantes showed them certain shrines of the goddess and Iakchos, explaining their meaning; holy songs being meantime performed, partly by himself, partly by choirs with instrumental accompaniment. The climax of the whole was the sacred drama, a representation of the story of the three goddesses in the worlds above and below. The festival was brought to a close by a libation of water from two vessels in the shape of a top (plemochoe). The water was poured in the direction of east and west with mystical formulae. The ancients speak of the revelations made in the mysteries as having a beneficial influence on morality, pointing as they did to reward and punishment after death. They represent them farther as giving comfort in the trials and sufferings of life, and as opening brighter hopes after death. It is certain that there were few citizens of Athens who were not initiated; many who neglected the rite early in life were initiated in old age. For in the popular belief the initiation conferred a claim to the joys promised in the mysteries to the good after death. The Eleusinian mysteries maintained their position for a long time. Among the Romans, men of the highest rank, as, for instance, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, deigned to receive the initiation. When the Christian emperor Valentinian put an end to all religious celebrations by night, he excepted the Eleusinia, which continued in existence till they were abolished by Theodosius towards the end of the 4th century A.D.
ELEUTHERIA	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A festival in honour Of Eros, celebrated at Samos. (See EROS.
ELYSIUM	In Homer Elysium is a beautiful meadow at the western extremity of the earth, on the banks of the river Oceanus. Thither the favoured of Zeus such as Rhadamanthys his son, and his son-in-law Menelaus, are carried without having seen death. They live a life of perfect happiness, there is no snow, nor storm, nor rain, but the cool west wind breathes there for ever. Hesiod speaks of the islands of the blest by the Ocean, where some of the heroes of the fourth generation of men live a life without pain, and where the earth produces her fruits three times in the year. According to Pindar, all who have three times passed blamelessly through life live there in perfect bliss under the sway of Cronus and his assessor Rhadamanthys. Such are Cadmus and Peleus, and Achilles through the intercession of his mother Thetis with Zeus. Like Cronus, the Titans, after their reconciliation with Zeus, dwell on these islands. In later times Elysium with its bliss was localized in the world below, and regarded as the abode of those whom the judges of the dead had pronounced worthy of it. (Cp. HADES, REALM OF.)
EMANCIPATIO	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The formal liberation of a son from the control (manus) of his father. If the son were sold three times over, all the rights of his father came to an end. If then a father wished to make a son his own master (sui iuris), he made him over three times by mancipatio or a fictitious sale to a third person. The third person emancipated him the first and second time, so that he came again into the control of his father. After purchasing him a third time he either emancipated him himself, and thus became his patronus, or he sold him back to his father, to whom he now stood, not in the relation of a son, but in mancipio, so that the father could liberate him without more ado. In this case the father remained patronus of the son. The emancipated son did not, as in the case of adoption (see ADOPTION), Pass into the patria potestas of another, and therefore retained his father's family name. But he lost his right to inherit in default of a will.
EMATHION	Son of Eos and Tithonus, brother of Memnon, from whom he seized the government of the Ethiopians. He was slain by Heracles when travelling in search of the apples of the Hesperides.
EMMELEIA	The serious and majestic dance of the chorus in the Greek Tragedy.
EMPEDOCLES	A Greek philosopher and poet, born of a rich and noble family at Agrigentum in Sicily, about 490 B.C. Like his father, Meton, who had taken part in the expulsion of the tyrant Thrasydaeeus, he was an ardent supporter of the democracy. He lent his aid in destroying the aristocracy and setting up a democratic constitution, although his fellow-citizens offered him the kingly dignity. He was content with the powerful influence which he derived from his wealth, his eloquence, and extraordinary knowledge. His acquaintance with medicine and natural science was so great as to win him the reputation of a wonder-worker in his lifetime, and the position of a hero after his death. It was probably a political revolution which caused him, in advanced age, to leave his country and settle in the Peloponnese. He died about 430 B.C., away from Sicily. A later story represented him as having thrown himself into the crater of Aetna, that his sudden disappearance might make the people believe him a god. The truth, however, was said to have been revealed by the appearance of his shoes, thrown up by the volcano. He was the author of propitiatory hymns, probably of a mystical and religious character; of a didactic poem on medicine; and of an epic poem in three books upon Nature. This last was his <italisc>chef d'oeuvre, and had a high reputation in antiquity, both for its contents, and for its form, in which the writer took Homer for his master. Considerable fragments of it remain, written in a sublime and pregnant style. His system is grounded upon the assumption of four unchangeable elements, fire (the noblest of all), air, earth, and water, and two opposing forces, Love which binds and attracts, and Hate which separates and repels. The formation of the world began when the elements, held together by Love, and separated by Hate, again tended to union under the influence of Love. The manifold minglings and separations of the elements originated the different species, that of man included. Our perceptions arise from the particles which are thrown off by things, and stream in upon us through special pores or passages. As in our persons all the fundamental elements are united, we are enabled by their means to recognise what is homogeneous outside us. Our ideas are not pure but compounded of the particles which pour in upon us and go out from us. The system of Empedocles often agreed with that of Pythagoras. Both adopted the theory of transmigration, and the moral and ascetic doctrines connected with it. The propitia. tory hymns above mentioned may well have been in harmony with these ideas.
ENCAUSTIKE	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The art of painting by burning in the colours. (See PAINTING.)
ENCOMION	Originally the song sung by the chorus at the komos or festal procession held at the great national games in honour of the victor, either on the day of his victory or on its anniversary. The word came afterwards to denote any song written in celebration of distinguished persons, and in later times any spoken or written panegyric whatever.
ENDEIS	Daughter of Chiron and the Naiad Chariclo, wife of Aeacus, mother of Peleus and Telamon.
ENDEIXIS	A term in Athenian jurisprudence, denoting a prosecution in notorious cases, as, for instance, against the Prytanes, if they refused to put a question to the vote in the great assembly. It was especially employed against persons who, although lying under atimia, presumed to claim a share in civic rights, as (particularly) by instituting prosecutions, or appearing, speaking, and voting in the assembly [Aristotle, Const. of Athens, 29, 52, 63].
ENDROMIS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A boot of leather or felt, rising as far as the calf or above it, and fitting close to the foot. In front it was open and fastened with straps. It was specially adapted for journeys or hunting, and consequently appears often in representations of Artemis and of the Erinyes. Runners in races too, often wore it. (See ELEUSINIA, fig. 1, and ERINYS.)
ENDROMIS	A thick woollen rug (mentioned by Martial and Juvenal, iii 102).
ENDYMION	In Greek mythology, the beautiful son of Aethlios (or, according to another story, Zeus and Calyce), daughter of Aeolus, king of Elis, father of Epeus, Aetolus, and Paeon, the first of whom won the government of the country by conquering in a race which his father had set on foot. He was loved by Selene, the goddess of the moon, by whom he had fifty daughters. They were supposed to symbolize the fifty lunar months which intervened between the Olympic games. His grave was at Olympia. Another story made him a shepherd or hunter on Mount Latmos in Caria. Zeus bestowed on him eternal youth and eternal life in the form of unbroken slumber. Selene descended every night from heaven to visit and embrace the beautiful sleeper in his grotto.
ENNIUS	The founder of the Hellenized type of Latin poetry. He was born 239 B.C. at Rudiae in Calabria, and was by descent a Graecised Messapian. He was probably educated at Tarentum, and served with the Romans in the Second Punic War in Sardinia, whence Cato took him to Rome in 204 B.C. His poetical talent here came to his aid, not in a pecuniary way (for he was in slender circumstances to the end of his life), but as an introduction to the favour of the great men. Among these must be mentioned the Scipios, and Fulvius Nobilior, who took him in his retinue to the Aetolian war in B.C. 189,and whose son procured him the citizenship five years later (184). A gouty affection did not prevent him from continuing his literary work to an advanced age.He was in his sixty-seventh year when he finished his Annales, and he put a tragedy on the stage shortly before his death. He died in 170 B.C., in his seventieth year, It was said that the Scipios placed his image in their family vault. Ennius wrote poetry with success in a great number of styles. But in his own opinion, as well as in that of his fellowcitizens, his greatest work was his Annales in eighteen books. This was a chronological narrative of Roman history in verse. Like Naevius' Bellum Poenicum, it began with the destruction of Troy, and came down to the poet's own times. In this poem Ennius created for the Romans their first national epic, the fame of which was only eclipsed by Vergil. But he did more. By the introduction of the Greek hexameter Ennius did much to further the future development of Latin poetry. His predecessor, Naevius, had continued to write in the native Saturnian metre, which was hardly capable of artistic development. But the practice of writing in the strict dactylic measure enabled the Latin poets to assimilate the other metrical forms presented by Greek literature. Of the Annals we possess, relatively speaking, only a small number of fragments. Some of these can only be distinguished from prose by their metrical form; others are very fine, both in form and ideas. Ennius showed considerable capacity, too, as a writer of tragedies. His dramas, which were very numerous, were composed after Greek models, especially the tragedies of Euripides. More than twenty of these Euripidean plays are known to us by their titles and surviving fragments. He also wrote proetextoe, or tragedies on Roman subjects, as, for instance, the Ambracia, representing the siege and conquest of this city by his patron Fulvius Nobilior. His comedies were neither so numerous nor so important as his tragedies. Besides these he wrote several books of saturoe, or collections of poems of various contents and in various metres. Several of his adaptations or translations of Greek originals were probably included in these: as, for instance, the Hedyphagetica, a gastronomic work after Archestratus of Gela; Epicharmus, a didactic poem on the "Nature of Things"; Euhemerus, a rationalistic interpretation of the popular fables about the gods; Proecepta or Protrepticus, containing moral doctrines; and others of the same kind. There was a poem entitled Scipio, written in honour of the elder Africanus. Whether this was a satura or a drama is uncertain. The memory of Ennius long survived the fall of the Republic. Even after literary taste had taken quite a different direction, he was revered as the father of Latin poetry, and especially as having done much to enrich the Latin language.
ENNODIUS	A Latin rhetorician and poet. He was born about 473 A.D. in the south of France, and died in 521 as bishop of Pavia. Among the other works, he wrote between 504 and 508 an extremely fulsome panegyric on Theodosius the Great, and a biography of Epiphanius, his predecessor in the see. Both these writings have a value for the historian. Besides these we have a collection of twenty-eight model speeches, some of which were really delivered: nine books of letters, and two of poems, sacred and secular. The first book of poems contains longer, the second shorter and occasional pieces. Both show a certain command of form.
ENOMOTIA	A subordinate division of the Lochos in the Spartan army. (See LOCHOS and MORA.)
ENYALIOS	Epithet of Ares. (See ARES.)
EOS	The Greek goddess of the dawn, daughter of the Titan Hyperion and Theia, sister of Hellos and Selene, by Astraeus, mother of the winds, Argestes, Zephyros, Boreas and Notos, the morning star Heosphoros, and of the stars in general. Her hair is beautiful, her arms and fingers ruddy, her wings are white. She rises early from her couch on the Eastern Ocean, and in a saffron-coloured mantle, on a golden chariot drawn by white horses, she comes forth as her brother's herald to proclaim the rising of day to mortals and immortals, Loving all fresh and youthful beauty, she carries away Clitus, Cephalus, Orion and Tithonus, to whom she bears Memnon and Emathion. She is represented in works of art as hovering in the sky, or riding on her chariot, moving with a torch before Ares, or sprinkling dew from a vase over the earth. See <smappCaps>MEMNON</smappCaps>.
EPHEBI	The Athenian name for youths over the age of sixteen. The completion of a boy's sixteenth year was the occasion of a festival, at which the ephebus made a drink offering to Heracles, and entertained his friends with wine. His hair, hitherto worn long, was cut, and the locks dedicated to Apollo. For the two following years the ephebi were mainly employed in gymnastic exercises, and after that time the proper civic ephebia commenced. After an examination intended to test the genuineness of their civic descent and their physical capacity, the ephebi were entered on the list of their tribe, presented to the people assembled in the theatre, armed with spear and shield, and taken to the sanctuary of Agraulos at the foot of the citadel, where they bound themselves by a solemn oath to the service and defence of their country. For the two following years they served as guards on the frontier. After the completion of their twentieth year they were admitted to the meetings of the assembly and employed in foreign service. Their dress was the chlamys and the petasus.
EPHETAE
EPHORS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A boardof five members at Sparta, elected annually from all the citizens. It is said to have been established by Lycurgus or king Theopompus (770 B.C.). The original intention was that it should give decisions in private matters, and represent the absent kings in certain of their duties, especially the superintendence of the officials and of public discipline. But their circle of authority gradually widened, till it came to mean a superintendence over the whole commonwealth, including the kings. The ephors had the right of raising objections against their actions, calling them, like other officials, to account for their conduct, punishing them with fines and reprimands, and even prosecuting them before the senate, and threatening them with deposition and death. They were the only citizens who were not obliged to rise in the kings' presence, a fact which gives a good idea of the relative position of the two parties. Besides the duty of opposing everything which they thought adverse to the laws and interests of Sparta, they had from early times the right of summoning the deliberative and legislative assemblies, the Gerusia and Ecclesia, to make proposals to them, and take the lead in proceedings left to their management. Two of them regularly accompanied the kings on their campaigns. It is probable also that they had the superintendence of the public treasure. In their capacity of protectors of the public discipline their authority extended itself to the minutest details of private life. In regard to the Helots and Periceci it was still more alsolute. Even on a pericecus they could pass sentence of death without trial. (See PERICECI) On important occasions a majority of their votes was required. At the end of their annual office, on which they entered at the beginning of the Spartan year or at the time of the autumnal equinox, they were liable to be called to account by their successors. The year was dated by the name of the first Ephor on the board.
EPHORUS	A Greek historian, born about 400 B.C. at Cyme, in Asia Minor. He lived to see the invasion of Asia by Alexander the Great in 334. Like Theopompus, he was a pupil of Isocrates, who, seeing that he was not likely to succeed as a public speaker, persuaded him to write history. He was the author of a Universal History, which omitted the mythical age, and began with the return of the Heraclide into the Peloponnese. It treated in thirty books the history of the Greek and barbarian world, during a space of 750 years, ending in 340 B.C. The last book is said to have been completed by his son Demophilus. The work was continued in the Alexandrian period by Diyllus of Athens, Psaon of Plataeea, and Menodotus of Perinthus. It was much read and used for the wealth and excellent arrangement of its material, which embraced geography, ethnography, mythology, and the history of civilization and literature. It met with much hostile criticism, but had its admirers, among whom was Polybius.
EPICHARMUS	A Greek comedian, born in the island of Cos, about 540 B.C. When only a child of three months old he came with his father Helothales, a physician, to Megara in Sicily, where he died about 450 at the age of 90. Like his father, he is said to have been personally acquainted with Pythagoras, and whether this is so or no, his philosophical attainments were not inconsiderable. It was Epicharmus who gave to the Doric comedy of Sicily its literary form. Thirty-five of his plays, written in the Doric dialect, are known to us by their titles, and a few meagre fragments have survived. They differed from the Attic comedy in having no chorus. Their subjects were taken partly from the stories of gods and heroes, which they burlesqued and caricatured, and partly from life. The plots seem to have been simple and the action rapid. The philosophical leanings of Epicharmus are shown in numerous sayings of deep practical wisdom. Plato said that Epicharmus was the prince of comedy, as Homer was of tragedy, a striking testimony to the perfection of his compositions in their own line. In his mythical comedy he was imitated by Dinolochus of Syracuse,
EPICTETUS	A Greek philosopher, born at Hieorapolis in Phrygia. He lived a long time in Rome as a slave, in the house of Epaphroditus, a favourite of Nero. Emancipated by his master, he became a professor of the Stoical system, which he had learned from the lectures of Musonius Rufus. When the philosophers were expelled from Rome by Domitian in 94 A.D., Epictetus went to Nicopolis in Epirus, where he lived as the master of a school until the reign of Hadrian (117 A.D.) He formed numerous disciples by free conversations after the manner of Socrates. Among these was Arrianus, to whom we owe an account of Epictetus' doctrine, for the master himself left nothing in writing. The main point on which he laid stress was the independence of the human mind of all external circumstances, such being not in our power. This freedom is to be attained by patience and renunciation. The duty of man is to find all his happiness within himself, and the power of which he should be most in awe is the deity in his own breast.
EPICURUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A Greek philosopher, founder of the Epicurean school, which was so named after him. He was born 342 B.C. in the Attic deme of Gargettus, and spent his early years in Samos, where his father had settled as a cleruchus. (See COLONIES, Greek.) While still young he returned to Athens, and there acquired by independent reading a comprehensive knowledge of previous philosophies. In 310 (aetat. 32) he began to teach philosophy, first in Mytilene, and afterwards in Lampsacus. After 304 he carried on his profession at Athens. Here he bought a garden,in which he lived in retirement in a very modest and simple style, surrounded by his brother and his friends. He died (B.C. 268, aetat. 74) of calculus, after terrible sufferings. But to the last moment he never lost the tranquil serenity which had characterized his whole life. Such was his authority with his disciples that none of them ventured to make any innovation in his doctrines. His school continued to flourish in Athens, under fourteen masters, for 227 years; and much longer in other cities. His writings were remarkably numerous, and in parts very comprehensive. They were admired for their clearness, but their form was found fault with as too careless. Epicurus used to say himself that writing gave him no trouble. All that remains of them [exclusive of what may be gleaned from quotations in later writers], is: (1) a compendium of his doctrine in forty-four short propositions, written for his scholars to learn by heart. This we must, however, remember is not preserved in its original form. (2) Some fragments, not inconsiderable, but much mutilated and very incomplete, of his great work On Nature, in thirty books. These are preserved in the Herculanean papyri. (3) Three letters have survived from the body of his correspondence, besides his will. For his system, see PHILOSOPHY.
EPIGAMIA	The right of contracting a valid marriage, with all its legal consequences. It was possessed only by citizens of the same state; aliens could only acquire it by special legal authorization, i.e., a decreo of the popular assembly. At Athens even the Metaeci, or resident aliens, were excluded from it. (Comp. CONUBIUM.)
EPIGONI	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The descendants of the seven princes who marched against Thebes: Aegialeus, son of Adrastus; Alcmaeon, son of Amphiaraus; Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus; Sthenelus, son of Capaneus; Thersander, son of Polynices; Euryalus, son of Mecisteus. To avenge the slain, they marched against Thebes, under the leadership of Adrastus, ten years after the first Theban war (see ADRASTUS). Unlike their ancestors, they started with the happiest auspices. The oracle of Amphiaraus at Thebes promises them victory, and a happy return to all, that is, except Aegialeus the son of Adrastus, the only warrior who escaped in the previous war. In the decisive battle at Glisas, Aegialeus falls by the hand of Laodamas, son of Eteocles, and leader of the Thebans. Laodamas is himself slain by Alemaeon. Part of the defeated Thebans, by the advice of Teiresias, fly before the city is taken, and settle in the territory of Hestiaeotis in Thessaly, or among the Illyrian Encheli, where the government is in the hands of descendants of Cadmus (see CADMUS). The victors having conquered and destroyed the city, send the best part of the booty, according to their vow, to the Delphic oracle. Thersander and his family are henceforth the rulers of Thebes.
EPIGRAM	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Properly = an inscription, such as was often written upon a tomb, a votive offering, a present, a work of art, and the like, to describe its character. Inscriptions of this sort were from early times put into metrical form, and the writer generally tried to put good sense and spirit into them. They were generally, though not always, written in the elegiac metre. The greatest master of epigram was Simonides of Ceos, the author of almost all the sepulchral inscriptions on the warriors who fell in the Persian wars. His lines are remarkable for repose, clearness, and force, both of thought and expression. Fictitious inscriptions were often written, containing brief criticisms on celebrated men, as poets, philosophers, artists and their productions. The form of the epigram was also used to embody in concise and pointed language the clever ideas, or the passing moods of the writer, often with a tinge of wit or satire. The occasional epigram was a very favourite form of composition with the Alexandrian poets, and remained so down to the latest. times. Some writers, indeed, devoted themselves entirely to it. Many of the choicest gems of Greek literature are to be found in the epigrams. The epigrammatists used other metres besides the elegiac, especially the iambic. In later times more complex and almost lyrical measures were employed. The Greek Anthology has preserved 4,500 epigrams, of the greatest variety in contents, and from the hand of more than 300 poets. (See ANTHOLOGY). Among these are found some of the most celebrated names of ancient and of later times. A great number, too, are found in inscriptions. Of all the Greek varieties of lyric poetry, the epigram was earliest welcomed at Rome. It lived on in an uninterrupted existence from Ennius till the latest times, being employed sometimes for inscriptions, sometimes for other and miscellaneous purposes. In the second half of the 1st century A.D. Martial handled it in various forms and with the power of a master. We also have a collection of epigrams by Luxorius (6th century A.D.). Many of such poems are preserved on inscriptions, besides a great quantity in manuscript, which in modern times have been collected into a Latin Anthology.
EPIMELETAE	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The name given at Athens to commissioners nominated as occasion might require for the superin- tendence of departments. Some of these commissioners were regularly elected every year, as, e.g., the ten epimelet of the wharves, who were responsible for the care of the ships of war and equipments stored in the docks; and the ten commis- sioners of the Emporion, whose duty it was to enforce the laws relative to duties and commerce. For the commissioners of the revenue, see TAMIAS.
EPIMETHEUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Brother of Prometheus and husband of Pandora. (See PROMETHEUS.)
EPINIKION	A prize hymn sung by the chorus in honour of the victors at the great national games.
EPITHALAMIOM	The wedding-hymn sung before the bridal chamber by a chorus of youths and maidens.
EPITIMIA	The full possession of civic privileges, the opposite of atimia.
EPONYMOS	Properly the person after whom anything is named. This was in various Greek states the unofficial title of the magistrates after whom (in default of a generally received standard of chronology) the year was designated. In Athens this would be the first Archon, in Sparta the first Ephor, in Argos the priestess of Hera. When the ephebi, at Athens, were enrolled in the list of the citizens who could be called out for military service, the name of the first archon of the year was attached. And when the citizens of various ages were summoned to military service, a reference was made to the archon eponymos, under whom they had been originally enrolled. The ancient heroes who gave their name to the ten tribes of Clisthenes, and the heroes worshipped by the demes, were also called eponymoi. The statues of the former were in the market place, and it was near them that official notices were put up [Aristotle, Const. of Athens, 53].
EPOPEUS	Son of Poseidon and Canace, the daughter of Aeolus, brother of Aloeus. He migrated from Thessaly to Sicyon, where he became king. He was killed by Lycus for the sake of Antiope, who, it was alleged, was mother of Zethus by him.
EQUITES
ERANOS	The Greek term for an organized club or society, for the purposes of feasting and amusement, whose members were called eranistae. Sometimes it would be formed in connexion with the worship of particular deities. Sometimes, again, the object of an eranos would be mutual assistance by advances of money. The governmeni encouraged these clubs, because their corporate character made it easier to settle with expedition any legal proceedings arising out of their affairs. Trials of this kind, for refusal to pay subscriptions, or to repay loans, had to be settled within a month.
ERATOSTHENES	A Greek savant, born at Cyrene in 275 B.C. He completed his philosophical education at Athens, where he made his first public appearance as a lecturer on philosophy. His learning won him such a reputation that Ptolemy III (Euergetes) invited him in 247 B.C. to Alexandria, and made him librarian there in the place of Callimachus. He is said to have died, after nearly losing his eye-sight, by voluntary starvation in 195 B.C. He was a master of science in all its branches history, geography, geometry, astronomy, philosophy, grammar and poetry. As a writer he treated an astonishing variety of subjects, and won thereby the name of Pentathlos (or master in the five great exercises of the arena). It is said that he was the first person who assumed the name of Philologos, or friend of science. His greatest service consist in the fact that he was the founder of scientific geography. His greatest work was his Geographica, in three books. The first was upon physical geography, the second treated mathematical geography on the basis of the measurement of degrees, discovered by himself. The subject of the third was chorography, based upon a map of his own drawing, The work is unfortunately lost, and known only by what later writers, especially Strabo, have preserved. Historical investigation owes a great deal to the Chronographia, in which he undertook to found chronology on astronomy and mathematics. His comprehensive book on Ancient Comedy was a contribution to the history of literature. The Catalogoi was a work on astronomy and mythology, in which were collected the fables of the ancient writers on the constellations, with an enumeration of the single stars in each group. A dry compendium, called the Catasterismoi, containing a mere enumeration of 44 constellations, with 475 stars, and the fables attached, is based on the great work of Eratosthenes. His poetical efforts were a, short epic called Hermes, and a celebrated elegy, the Erigone. Besides the compendium above mentioned, and some fragments, we have a letter of Eratosthenes to Ptolemy Euergetes on the doubling of the cube, and an epigram on the same subject.
EREBUS	In Greek mythology, the primeval darkness, springing, according to Hesiod, from Chaos, brother of Night, and father by her of Aether and Hemera (day). The word is commonly used of the lower world, filled with impenetrable darkness.
ERECHTHEUM	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The original sanctuary of the tutelary deities of Athens, Athene Pollas, (the goddess of the city) Poseidon, and Erechtheus. It was situated on the Acropolis. The old temple, said to have been built by Erechtheus, was burnt by the Persians in 480 B.C. The restoration was perhaps begun as far back as the time of Pericles, but, according to the testimony of an inscription in the British Museum (no. XXXXV), was not quite finished in 409. The new temple was, even in antiquity, admired as one of the most beautiful and perfect works of the Attic-Ionic style. It was 65 feet long and nearly 36 broad; and was divided into two main parts. Entering through the eastern portico of six Ionic pillars, one came into the cella of Athene Pollias, with an image of the goddess, and a lamp that was always kept burning. To the solid wall at the back was attached the Erechtheum proper. Here were three altars, one common to Poseidon and Erechtheus, the other to Hephaestus and the hero Butes. Connected with this, by three doors, was a small front-chamber, with seven half columns adorning the western wall, and three windows between them. This chamber was approached through a hall attached to the north side of the temple, adorned with seven Ionic columns in front, and one on each side. Under this was a cleft in the rock, said to have been made by the stroke of Poseidon's trident during his contest with Athene for the possession of the Acropolis. Corresponding to this on the south side was a small hall, supported not by pillars, but by caryatides. This was called the Hall of Core, and it probably contained the tomb of Cecrops. From it a step led down to a court, once walled round, in which were the Pandroseum (see PANDROSOS), the sacred olive tree of Athene, and the altar of Zeus Herkeios. On the east side, in front of the temple of Athene Polias, stood the altar on which the great hecatomb was offered at the Panathenaea. (See plan of ACROPLIS.)
ERECHTHEUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A mythical king of Athens. According to Homer he was the son of Earth by Hephaestus, and brought up by Athene. Like that of Cecrops, half of his form was that of a snake-a sign that he was one of the aborigines. Athene put the child in a chest which she gave to the daughters of Cecrops, Agraulos, Herse, and Pandrosos, to take care of; forbidding them at the same time to open it. The two eldest disobeyed, and in terror at the serpent-shaped child (or according to another version, the snake that surrounded the child), they went mad, and threw themselves from the rocks of the Acropolis. Another account made the serpent kill them. Erechtheus drove out Amphictyon, and got possession of the kingdom. He then established the worship of Athene, and built to her, as goddess of the city (Polias), a temple, named after him the Erechtheum. Here he was afterwards worshipped himself with Athene and Poseidon. He was also the founder of the Panathenaic festival. He was said to have invented the four-wheeled chariot, and to have been taken up to heaven for this by Zeus, and set in the sky as the constellation of the charioteer. His daughters were Orithyia and Procris (see BOREAS and CEPHALUS). Originally identified with Erichthonius, he was in later times distinguished from him, and was regarded as his grandson, and as son of Pandion and Zeuxippe. His twin brother was Butes, his sisters Procne and Philomela. The priestly office fell to Butes, while Erechtheus assumed the functions of royalty. By Praxithea, the daughter of Cephissus, he Was father of the second Cecrops (see PANDION, 2), of Metion (see DAeDALUS); of Creusa (see ION), as well as of Protogoneia, Pandora, and Chthonia. When Athens was pressed hard by the Eleusinians under Eumolpus, the oracle promised him the victory if he would sacrifice one of his daughters. He chose the youngest, Chthonia; but Protogeneia and Pandora, who had made a vow with their sister to die with her, voluntarily shared her fate. Erechtheus conquered his enemies and slew Eumolpus, but was afterwards destroyed by the trident of his enemy's father, Poseidon.
ERGINUS	King of the Minyae of Orchomenus, son of Poseidon (or Clymenus, according to another account), and one of the Argonauts. At the games of Poseidon at Onchestos, Clymenus was killed by a stone thrown by a noble Theban. Erginus in consequence compelled the Thebans to pay him an annual tribute of l00 oxen for twenty years. Heracles, on returning from his slaughter of the lions of Cithaeron, came upon the heralds who were collecting the tribute. He cut off their noses and ears, tied their hands round their necks, and told them that this was the tribute they might take back to their master. War broke out. Heracles armed the Thebans with the arms hanging in the temples, the Minyae having carried off all the others; slew Erginus, destroyed Orchomenus, and forced the Minyae to pay double the tribute to Thebes. The sons of Erginus were the mythical architects Agamedes and Trophonius.
ERICHTHONIUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Son of Dardanus (see DARDANUS) and Bateia, father of Tros.
ERICHTHONIUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 See ERECHTHEUS.
ERIGONE	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Daughter of Icarius, who hanged herself for grief at the murder of her father, and was taken up to heaven as the constellation of the Virgin. (See ICARIUS.)
ERINYES	The goddesses of vengeance. Homer speaks sometimes of one, sometimes of several, but without any definite statement about either number, name, or descent. Hesiod makes them the daughters of Gaia (Earth), sprung from the blood of the mutilated Uranus. According to others they were the daughters of Night (Nyx) or of the Earth, and Darkness (Skotos). Euripides is the earliest writer who fixes their number at three, and considerably later we find them with the names Allecto ("She who rests not"), Tisiphone ("Avenger of murder"), and Magaera ("The jealous one.") They are the avengers of every transgression of natural order, and especially of offences which touch the foundation of human society. They punish, without mercy, all violations of filial duty, or the claims of kinship, or the rites of hospitality ; murder, perjury, and like offences; in Homer even beggars have their Erinys. The punishment begins on earth and is continued after death. Thus they pursue Orestes and Alemaeon, who slew their mothers, and CEdipus for the murder of his father and marriage with his mother, without regard to the circumstances by which their offences were excused. Their principle is a simple one, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." In spite of their terrible attributes as goddesses of vengeance they were called Semnai (the honourable) and Euminedes(the kindly). For the punishment of the evil secures the well-being of the good, and by pursuing and destroying transgressors the Erinyes prove themselves benevolent and beneficent. They were worshipped in Athens under the name of Semnai, and had a shrine on the Areopagus, and the hill of Colonus. Fresh water and black sheep were offered to them in sacrifice. The terrible picture drawn of them by Aeschylus in his Eumenides, as women like Gorgons, with snakes for hair, bloodshot eyes, grinding teeth, and long black robes with blood-red girdles, was softened down in later times. They appear as maidens of stern aspect, with snakes in their hair or round their girdles and arms, torches, scourges, or sickles in their hands, generally in the costume of huntresses, and sometimes with wings as a sign of the swiftness of their vengeance (see cut). The Furies (Furiae or Dirae) of the Roman poets are a mere adaptation of the Greek Erinyes. They are generally represented as torturing the guilty in the world below, but as sometimes appearing on earth, to excite to crime and throw men into madness.
ERIPHYLE	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 In Greek mythology, sister of Adrastus and wife of Amphiaraus. (See ADRASTUS.) Bribed with a necklace by Polynices, she prevailed on her husband to take part in the war of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes, in which he met his death. (See AMPHIARAUS.) In revenge for this she was slain by her son Alcmaeon. (See ALCMAeON.)
ERIS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The goddess of discord, fighting, and quarrelling in the Greek mythology. In Homer she is sister and companion of Ares, and like him insatiate of blood; in Hesiod she is daughter of Night, and mother of trouble, oblivion, hunger, pain, murder and carnage, brawls, deceit, and lawlessness. She was the only one among the gods who was not bidden to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. In revenge she threw a golden apple among the guests, and thus gave occasion for the Trojan War. (See TROJAN WAR.) Side by side with this destructive Eris was a beneficent Eris, the sister, according to Hesiod, of the other. She was the personification of noble rivalry, and is represented as stimulating even dullards to exertion.
EROS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The god of love among the Greeks. His name does not occur in Homer; but in Hesiod he is the fairest of the deities, who subdues the hearts of all gods and men. He is born from Chaos at the same time as the Earth and Tartarus, and is the comrade of Aphrodite from the moment of her birth. Hesiod conceives Eros not merely as the god of sensual love, but as a power which forms the world by inner union of the separated elements; an idea very prevalent in antiquity, especially among the philosophers. But according to the later and commoner notion, Eros was the youngest of the gods, generally the son of Aphrodite by Ares or Hermes, always a child, thoughtless and capricious. He is as irresistible as fair, and has no pity even for his own mother. Zeus, the father of gods and men, arms him with golden wings, and with bow and unerring arrows, or burning torches. Anteros, the god of mutual love, is his brother, and his companions are Pothos and Himeros, the per sonifications of longing and desire, with Peitho (Persuasion), the Muses, and the Graces. In later times he is surrounded by a crowd of similar beings, Erotes or loves. (For the later legend of Eros and Psyche, see PSYCHE.) One of the chief and oldest seats of his worship was Thespiae in Baeotia. Here was his most ancient image, a rough, unhewn stone. His festival, the Erotia or Erotidia, continued till the time of the Roman Empire to be celebrated every fifth year with much ceremony, accompanied by gymnastic and musical contests. Besides this he was paid special honour and worship in the gymnasia, where his statue generally stood near those of Hermes and Heracles. In the gymnasia Eros was the personification of devoted friendship and love between youths and men; the friendship which proved itself active and helpful in battle and bold adventure. This was the reason why the Spartans and Cretans sacrificed to Eros before a battle, and the sacred band of youths at Thebes was dedicated to him; why a festival of freedom (Eleutheria) was held at Samos in his honour, as the god who bound men and youths together in the struggle for bonour and freedom; and why at Athens he was worshipped as the liberator of the city, in memory of Harmodius and Aristogiton. In works of art Eros was usually represented as a beautiful boy, close upon the age of youth. In later times be also appears as a child with the attributes of a bow and arrows, or burning torches, and in a great variety of situations. The most celebrated statues of this god were by Lysippus, Scopas, and Praxiteles, whose Eros at Thespiae was regarded as a master-piece, and unsurpassable. The famous torso in the Vatican, in which the god wears a dreamy, lovelorn air, is popularly, but probably erroneously, traced to an original by Praxiteles (fig. 1). The Eros trying his bow, in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, is supposed to be the copy of a work by Lysippus (fig. 2). The Roman god Amor or Cupido was a mere adaptation of the Greek Eros, and was never held in great honour.
ERYSICHTHON	Son of the Athenian Cecrops.
ERYSICHTHON	Son of Triopas in Thessaly. For desecrating the sacred enclosure of Demeter, and felling an oak consecrated to the goddess, be was punished with insatiable hunger. Having consumed all that he had, he was supported by his daughter Mestra, to whom her lover Poseidon had given the power of transferring herself into any shape that she liked. In various forms she continually got herself sold, and then returned to her father with the proceeds. At last Erysichthon was reduced to devouring his own limbs.
ERYTHEIA	One of the Hesperides.
ERYX	Son of Poseidon (or, according to another account, of Butes) and Aphrodite, who was worshipped on Eryx, a mountain in Sicily. He was king of the Elymi in the neighbourhood of the mountain. Eryx was a powerful boxer, but was slain in a fight with Heracles about a bull, which had run away from the latter, and which Eryx had appropriated.
ETEOCLES	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Son of CEdipus king of Thebes and Iocaste, brother of Polynices and Antigone. He broke the agreement he had made with his brother to give him the kingdom of Thebes for one year. Polynices accordingly organized tha campaign of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes, and fell in single combat with Eteocles. (See CEDIPUS and SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.)
EUADNE	Daughter of Iphis, wife of Capaneus. Her husband fell before Thebes, and at his funeral she threw herself into the flames of the pyre and was consumed with the corpse.
EUBULUS	A Greek poet of the Middle Comedy, who flourished about 370 B.C. His plays were mainly on mythical subjects, and parodied the earlier tragedians, especially Euripidos. One hundred and four pieces were attributed to him, of which only a few fragments have been preserved written in pure and well chosen language.
EUCLIDES	A philosopher of Megara, a disciple of Socrates, and the founder of the Megarian school.
EUCLIDES	A Greek mathematician who taught at Alexandria about 30O B.C. All that is known of his life is that he was held in much esteem, and won the high regard of king Ptolemy I. His labours in putting the discoveries of former mathematicians into order, completing them, and expounding them with matchless clearness and conciseness, won him the position of the founder of mathematical literature. We still possess his Elements of Mathematics (Stoicheia) which have been used until quite lately as the foundation of all geometrical textbooks. These are in 15 books; the 13th and 14th, however, are said to have been added by Hypsicles of Alexandria about 160 B.C. Besides this, we have what are called his Data, or 5 geometrical propositions as an introduction to geometrical analysis, an astronomical work entitled Phaenomena, and a musical work on the division of the canon. Some other treatises, probably from the hands of other authors, have been attributed to Euclid. Such are the Elements of Optics and Catoptrics, and the Introduction to Music.
EUDEMUS	A Greek philosopher, native of Rhodes. After Theophrastus he was the chief of Aristotle's disciples, and was the author of the seven books of Eudemian Ethics, which have come down to us among his writings.
EUMAEUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The faithful swineherd of Odysseus, who gave his master a friendly welcome on his return home in the guise of a beggar, and aided him in the slaughter of the suitors. (See ODYSSEUS.)
EUMENIUS	One of the Roman writers of panegyrics on the emperors. He was born about 250 A.D. at Augustodunum (Autun) in Gaul; was tutor to Constantius Chlorus, and for a long time accompanied him on his campaigns. Later on, he settled in his native city, where he gave instruction in rhetoric. In 296 he delivered an oration on behalf of the restoration of schools (Pro Restaurandis Scholis). Besides this, three other speeches are attributed to him. These are panegyrics on Constantius Chlorus and Constantine, spoken at Treves in 296, 310, and 311 A.D. His tact and cleverness distinguish him from the other panegyrical writers of that age.
EUNAPIUS	A Greek rhetorician, born at Sardis in 347 A.D. In 405 he wrote biographies of twenty-three older and contemporary philosophers and sophists. In spite of its bad style and its superficiality, this book is our chief authority for the history of the Neo-Platonism of that age. We have also several fragments of his continuation of the chronicle of Herennius Dexippus. This continuation, in fourteen books, covered the period from 268 to 404 A.D., and was much used by Zosimus.
EUPATRIDAE	The members of the ancient noble families of Attica. After the abolition of royal power they found themselves in exclusive possession of political rights, and distinguished from the Geomori or agriculturists, and the Demiurgi or mechanics. The constitution of Solon deprived them of this privilege. But their landed property, and the priestly dignities which they had possessed of old, assured them a certain influence for a considerable time.
EUPHORION	A Greek poet and writer of the Alexandrian age and in the Alexandrian style. He was born about 276 B.C., at Chalcis in Eubaea, and died holding the post of librarian at the court of Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. Besides works [on mythology and history] in prose, he wrote epics, elegies, and epigrams in obscure and unfamiliar language. His poems were much valued by the Romans. Cornelius Gallus, in particular, thought very highly of them, and took him as his model in his own elegies.
EUPHORION	Son of Aeschylus, the great tragedian. He flourished about 450 B.C., and after his father's death put on the stage four of his pieces, which had not yet been performed, and gained the prize. He also exhibited tragedies of his own, not without success.
EUPHRANOR	A Greek artist, born at Corinth about 360 B.C. He was equally distinguished as a painter, and as a sculptor in bronze and marble. He also wrote a treatise on symmetry and form. Among his statues one of the most celebrated was the Paris, in which it was easy to recognise the threefold character: the judge of divine beauty, the lover of Helen, and the slayer of Achilles. In his paintings, if we may believe the ancients, he was the first who gave true expression to the grandeur and dignity of divine and heroic form. [Pliny, N. H. xxxiv 27, xxxv 128.]
EUPOLIS	Eupolis is coupled with Aristophanes as a chief representative of the Old Attic Comedy. He was born about 446 B.C., and died before the end of the Pelponnesian War. He made his first appearance as a dramatist in his seventeenth year, and carried off the prize seven times. According to a badly attested story, he was drowned in the sea by Alcibiades in revenge for his treatment of him in one of his plays. We still have the titles, and some fragments, of fifteen of his pieces. He was at first on terms of intimate friendship with his contemporary Aristophanes, but an estrangement afterwards set in, and the two poets attacked each other with great bitterness. Eupolis is praised by the ancients for the splendour of his imagination, the coherence with which his plots are developed, the high quality of his patriotism, the grace and majesty of his language, and the telling character of his wit. The fragments that remain show great mastery of form. Like Aristophanes, he made an attempt to stem the current of moral degeneracy setting in at his time.
EUPOMPUS	A Greek painter, native of Sicyon, who flourished about 400 B.C. He was the founder of the Sicyonian school of painting, which laid great emphasis on professional knowledge. [Pliny, N.H. xxxv 75.]
EURIPIDES	The third of the three great Attic tragedians. He was born in the island of Salamis, in 480 B.C., on the very day of the great battle. His father Mnesarchus is said to have been a tradesman or tavern-keeper, his mother Clito a seller of herbs. His parents, however, must have had some means, judging by the fact that they gave him a careful gymnastic education to fit him for the athletic contests. This was because they had misinterpreted an oracle given them before his birth which promised the child crowns of victory. Euripides is said in his boyhood really to have gained the prize in a public contest of this kind, but in fact lie was destined to win victories in a very different arena. He associated much with the philosophers Anaxagoras and Socrates, with the latter of whom he enjoyed an intimate friendship during the whole of his life. He also had instruction from the sophists Protagoras and Prodicus. Thus he received the best of education in philosophy and rhetoric. It was in his twenty-fifth year (B.C. 455) that he first put a tetralogy on the stage. He did not win a prize till his forty-third year, and seems indeed to have been victorious only four times in all; but he was none the less indefatigable in writing tragedies. He took a lively interest in the important events and the public questions of the time; but personally be kept aloof from public life, avoided society, and lived mostly in the enjoyment of an excellent library, amid his studies and poetical creations. He was twice unfortunate in his marriage, a fact which may have encouraged him in his surly, unsociable ways. His first wife, Chaerile, he had to divorce for infidelity. She bore him three daughters, the youngest of whom, who was named after her mother, put several of her father's tragedies on the stage after his death. His second wife, Melito, parted from him at her own desire. In 409, at the age of 71, he left Athens; it was said to get away from the ceaseless attacks of the comedians, and from his domestic troubles. He went to Magnesia in Thessaly, where he was received as a guest of the city. Thence he went on to Pella to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia, who had gathered round him a number of poets and artists, and who treated him with great respect. Here he spent the last two years of his life and died B.C. 405. According to a story for which there is little authority, he was torn to pieces by a pack of hounds when returning from a nocturnal festivity. The number of his tragedies is variously given as seventy-five, seventy-eight, and ninety-two. Eighteen have come down to us: the Alcestis, Andromache, Bacchae (or the arrival of Dionysus at Thebes and the murder of Pentheus), Hecuba, Helena, Electra, the Heraclidae (or Demophoon of Athens protecting the descendants of Heracles against the persecution of Eurystheus); Heracles in Madness, the Suppliants (or the mothers of the Seven Chiefs who had fallen before Thebes, at whose prayers Theseus compelled the Thebans to bury the dead heroes); Hippolytus, Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia among the Tauri, Ion, Medea, Orestes, Rhesus, the Troades (or the royal house of Troy after the conquest of the city); the Phoenissae (so called after the chorus of Phoenician maidens, an incident in the story of Eteocles and POlynices); and a satyric drama, the Cyclops, the only example of this style of composition which has survived. The earliest of these pieces in point of time is the Alcestis, performed in B.C. 438. It is also noticeable because, although not a satyric drama in the proper sense, it has comic features towards the end, and was actually performed at the end of a tetralogy in place of a satyric drama. The Bacchae, on the other hand, was written in Macedonia in the poet's last years, and performed after his death at the same time as the Iphigenia at Aulis. The genuineness of the Rhesus was doubted even in antiquity. A great number of fragments have survived from about sixty pieces, and in particular from the Phaethon. The tragedies of Euripides are of very unequal merit. Some of them, for instance lofty style of Sophocles, others approach it, as the Medeaand Iphigenia in Tauris. But others, as for instance the Andromache and Electra, are very carelessly put together. His strong point is not artistic composition, well contrived disposition, or the coherent design which gives the inner motive of the action. It is sufficient, in support of this statement, to call attention to his habit of prefixing to every piece a prologue, explaining the story to the spectators, and connected loosely (if at all) with the play; to the very slight connexion between the chorus and the action, and to his liking for bringing in a deus ex machina to cut a difficult knot. On the other hand, it must be allowed that Euripides is a master in the art of devising pathetic situations, and shows extraordinary power in representing human passion, especially the resistless might of love in the case of women. In his religious views be differs essentially from Aeschylus and Sophocles. With Euripides the gods are not moral powers, and fate is not so much the result of a higher dispensation as a perverseness of accident. The lack of grandeur is also a point which distinguishes him from his great predecessors. Instead of their sublime ideas he gives us maxims of worldly wisdom, often to all appearance dragged in without occasion. The motives of action are not so pure as in Aeschylus and Sophocles, and the characters of the heroes are not raised above the level of ordinary life, but brought down to it. So fond is he of giving prominence to the faults of women, that he has been called a woman-hater. He pays more attention to the course of politics than his predecessors, and is indeed influenced by political considerations in his sketches of character. In deference to the democratic leanings of his public, he makes his kings cruel tyrants, without dignity or majesty, and the heroes of the Peloponnese, in particular, he treats with unconcealed dislike. His dialogues are often overloaded with rhetoric and sophistical dialectic. But, in spite of all these faults, for which the spirit of the age is mainly responsible, be is a great poetical genius. He was very popular with his contemporaries, and has been still more so with succeeding generations. The tragedians of the next age made him their model and pattern without qualification, and the Roman poets preferred paraphrasing his dramas to those of the other tragedians.
EUROPE	A figure in Greek mythology. In Homer she is the daughter of Phoenix, in the later story of the Phoenician Agenor, and sister of Cadmus. Zeus, in the shape of a bull, carried her over the sea to Crete, where she bore him Minos, Rhadamanthys, and according to the later legend, Sarpedon also. Zeus left her with Asterion, king of Crete, who brought up her sons and left them his kingdom. She was worshipped in Crete under the name of Hellotis, especially at Gortyn, where she was supposed to have been wedded with Zeus, and to have borne him her sons. A festival called Hellotia was held in her honour, at which her bones were carried in a wreath of myrtle.
EURYALUS	Son of Mecisteus, one of the Epigoni, and with Sthenelus, the companion of Diomedes before Troy.
EURYCLEA	The nurse of Odysseus, who brought up his son Telemachus. When her master had returned home in the disguise of a beggar, she recognised him by a scar while bathing his feet. On a hint from him she kept silence, and afterwards was the first who brought to Penelope the news of her husband's return and of the slaughter of the suitors.
EURYPYLUS	Son of Poseidon and Astypalaea, king of the Meropes of Cos. He was slain by Heracles, who had been driven on to the coast on his return from Troy. The struggle was a hard one, but Heracles was assisted by Zeus. The daughter of Eurypylus, Chalciope, became mother of Thessalus by Heracles.
EURYPYLUS	Son of Telephus and Astyoche. Astyoche, bribed by her brother Priam with the present of a golden vine, persuaded Eurypylus to bring the last succour to the Trojans shortly before the fall of the city. After performing deeds of bravery, he fell at the hand of Neoptolemus.
EURYPYLUS	Son of Euaemon, king of Ormenion in Thessaly, one of the suitors of Helen. He was among the bravest of the Greek heroes who fought before Troy, and of his own accord offered to engage Hector in single combat. In the later story he appears in connexion with the worship of Dionysus. At the division of the Trojan spoil he received an image of Dionysus, made by Hephaestus, and presented to Dardanus. This bad been kept in a chest as a Palladium. When Eurypylus opened the chest and beheld the image he fell into a madness. The Delphic oracle promised that he should be healed if he dedicated the image in a spot where men offered barbaric sacrifices. Accordingly he dedicated it at Aroe in Achaia, where an offering of the fairest youth and fairest virgin was made annually to Artemis. The bloody act was abolished, and the gentle service of Dionysus introduced in its place.
EURYSACES	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Son of Ajax and Tecmessa. See AJAX (2).
EURYSTHEUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Son of Sthenelus and Nioippe. (See PERSEUS.) He was king of Mycenae, and through the cunning of Hera got power over Heracles, and imposed upon him the celebrated twelve labours. In pursuing the children of Heracles, and attempting to bring about by force their expulsion from Attica, he was defeated and slain in his flight by Hyllus. (See HYLLUS.)
EURYTUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Son of Melaneus, father of Iphitus and of Iole, king of CEchalia in Thessaly or Messenia. According to a later story he dwelt in Eubaea. He was one of the most famous archers in antiquity. According to Homer he ventured to challenge Apollo to a contest of skill, and was slain in his youth for his presumption. In the later story he and his son Iphitus are slain by Heracles, his former disciple in archery, for having insolently refused him his daughter Iole in marriage. (See HERACLES.) Iphitus gave his bow to Odysseus, who slew the suitors with it.
EURYTUS	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 One of the Molionidae (see MOLIONIDAe).
EUSEBIUS	The father of ecclesiastical history. He was born at Caesarea in Phoe nicia in 264 A.D. In 315 he became bishop of that city, and died in 340. He was one of the most learned men of his time, and holds a high position both among the historians and the apologists of Christianity, His greatest work is his Church History. This work is in ten books, beginning with the rise of Christianity, and coming down to 314 A.D. It was much used by later writers, and was, about 403 A.D., translated into Latin by Tyrannius Rufinus of Aquileia, who continued it down to the death of Theodosius (A.D. 395). The apologetic writings of Eusebius are the Praeparatio Evangelica in fifteen books, and the Demonstratio Evangelica in twenty. They are both, but especially the former, a rich storehouse of information on antiquity, particularly on the philosophy and religion of the Greeks. Of still greater importance is his Chronicle (Chronicon), a work founded upon extracts from the now lost writings of previous historians. Its first book, the Chronographia, contains a general ethnographical history of the world, arranged from the creation to 325 A.D. The second, called the Chronological Canon, consisted of parallel chronological tables of the names of rulers and the most important events since 2017 B.C. Only fragments of the original work remain; but we have both books in an Armenian translation, and the second in the Latin version of Hieronymus. Among the other works of Eusebius we may mention: (1) A sketch of the topography of Palestine, in two books. The second alone survives, both in the original and in the translation of Hieronymus. (2) A biography, in four books, of the emperor Constantine, who had shown favour to Eusebius and had been baptized by him. This work is strongly coloured by personal feeling. (3) A panegyric on Constantine.
EUSTATHIUS	Eustathius Macrembolita, a Greek writer of romance. He was a native of Constantinople, and belonged to the upper class. His floruit is perhaps to be assigned to the 9th century A.D. He was the author of a rather tasteless love story, in eleven books, about Hysminias and Hysmine.
EUSTATHIUS	Eustathius of Constantinople, appointed archbishop of Thessalonica, in 1160 A.D. Previously to this he had been a deacon, and professor of rhetoric in his native city, and had written a comprehensive commentary on the Homeric poems. The commentary, which is characterized by learning remarkable for that age, is made up of extracts from older writers, and is therefore of great value. A commentary by the same author on Dionysius Periegetes, and a preface to a commentary on Pindar, have also survived.
EUTHYNA	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 All officials at Athens without exception were bound, at the expiration of their term of office, to give an account of their administration. The authorities to whom it was given were the Logistae, supported by ten Euthyni. (See LOGISTAe.) Within thirty days after the term of office had come to an end, these functionaries issued, to all whom it might concern, a public notice to lay before them any complaints they might have to make against the retiring officials. In case such complaints were made, the matter was brought to an issue by legal procedure. No official was allowed to leave the country, or take any measure affecting his property, or take another office, before his account was given [Aristotle, Const. of Athens, 48].
EUTROPIUS	A Roman historian who took part in the expedition of Julian against the Parthians in 363 A.D. In 378, under Valentinian, he wrote and dedicated to this emperor a sketch of Roman history (Breviarium ab Urbe Condita) in ten books, from the earliest times to the death of Jovian in 364. The language is simple, and the narrative intelligent and impartial. The work was useful and concise, and became very popular. Succeeding writers down to the Middle Ages, and especially Hieronymus and Orosius, used it a great deal. It was several times turned into Greek, indeed as early as 380 by Paeanios, whose translation has been preserved almost entire. The work of Eutropius was enlarged and continued by Paulus Diaconus, who, in the last part of the 8th century A.D., added six books to it. It was also used in the Historia Miscella, or Collective History, and has continued to be a favourite school book down to our own day.
EVANDER	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 a figure in Latin mythology. He was said to be the son of Hermes and an Arcadian nymph. Sixty years before the Trojan War he led a Pelasgian colony to Latium from Pallantion in Arcadia, and founded a city Pallanteum near the Tiber, on the hill which was afterwards named after it the Palatine. Further it was said that he taught the rude inhabitants of the country writing, music, and other arts; and introduced from Arcadia the worship of certain gods, in particular of Pan, whom the Italians called Faunus, with the festival of the Lupercalia which was held in his honour. Evander was worshipped at Rome among the heroes of the country (see INDIGITES), and had an altar on the Aventine hill. But the whole story is evidently an invention of Greek scholars, who derived the Lupercalia from the Arcadian Lycaea. The name Euandros is a mere translation of the Italian Faunus, while Carmenta is an ancient Italian goddess. Pallas, the son of Evander, is in like manner a creation of the poets. In Vergil he marches, at the command of his father, to assist Aeneas, and falls in single combat with Turnus.
EVENTUS	In Roman religion, a god of rural prosperity, like the Greek Agathodaemon, whose image was in later times transferred to the Italian deity. In the course of time Bonus Eventus gained the more general meaning of the friendly fortune which secures a lucky issue to undertakings. The god had a temple of his own on the Campus Martius, in the neighbourhood of the Pantheon.
EVOCATI	The term applied in the Roman army to soldiers who had served their time and obtained their dismissal, but who, on the general summoning them by name, returned to the service on condition of receiving certain privileges. These were, exemption from all service except in battle, a rank and pay equal to those of the centurions, and prospect of advancement. The enlistment of evocati was especially common in the civil wars. Sometimes they were distributed in the legion, sometimes they formed a special and select troop, divided into centuriae. We sometimes find them, in isolated instances, under the early Empire. On the difference between them and the veterani, see VETERANI.
EVOCATIO	The term for the solemn summons given to the tutelary gods of a besieged city to leave it, and to migrate to Rome. The Romans always vowed, at the same time, to build them a temple at Rome. An example of a deity "evoked" in this way was Juno Regina, who was originally worshipped at Veii, but afterwards had a temple in Rome on the Aventine.
EXEDRA	An alcove, or semi-circular extension of the colonnade in a Greek gymnasium. It was furnished with seats on which the philosophers usually sat to talk with their disciples. In private houses the exedra was a room intended for conversation, fitted with a bench running round the wall.
EXILIUM	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Greek. Among the Greeks exile was the legal punishment for homicide (see EPHETAe). It was also, at times, a political measure, adopted especially in times of civil disturbance, and might carry with it atimia and loss of property, except in the case of ostracism (see OSTRACISIM.)
EXILIUM	Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Roman. Among the Romans there was, originally, no such thing as a direct expulsion from the city. But a man might be cut off from fire and water, the symbol of civic communion, which of course practically forced him to leave the country. This interdictio aquoe et ignis was originally inflicted by the comitia centuriata, and later by the permanent judicial commissions appointed to try certain serious offences, as, for instance, treason, arson, and poisoning. In case of the capital charge the accused was always free to anticipate an unfavourable verdict, or the interdictio aguoe et ignis, by withdrawing into voluntary exile. The exilium involved the lesser deminutio capitis, or loss of citizenship, if the banished person became citizen of another state; or if the people declared the banishment to be deserved; or if the interdictio aquoe et ignis was pronounced after he had gone into exile. It was only in very serious cases that a man's property was also confiscated. Real banishment was first inflicted under the Empire. (See DEPORTATIO and RELEGATIO.)
EXODIUM	A play of a lively character acted on the Roman stage at the end of a serious piece. It corresponded in character to the satyric drama of the Greeks. The place of the exodium was originally taken by the dramatic satura, and later by the Atellana and Mimus.
Back to Dictionary Browse