The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 191

EUGUBINE TABLES, seven bronze tablets discovered in 1441 near Eugubium, in Italy, containing inscriptions which supply a key to the original tongues of Italy prior to Latin.

EUHEMERISM, the theory that the G.o.ds of antiquity are merely deified men, so called from Euhemeros, the Greek who first propounded the theory, and who lived 316 B.C.

EULENSPIEGEL (i. e. Owl-gla.s.s), the hero of a popular German tale, which relates no end of pranks, fortunes, and misfortunes of a wandering mechanic born in a village in Brunswick; buried in 1350 at Molln, in Lauenburg, where they still show his tombstone sculptured with an owl and a gla.s.s.

EULER, LEONHARD, a celebrated mathematician, born at Basel; professor in St. Petersburg successively of Physics and Mathematics; came to reside in Berlin in 1741 at the express invitation of Frederick the Great; returned to St. Petersburg in 1746, where he died; besides many works issued in his lifetime, he left 200 MSS., which were published after his death (1707-1783).

EUMENIDES (i. e. the Well-meaning), a name given to the ERINNYES (q. v.) or Furies, from a wholesome and prudent dread of calling them by their true name.

EUMOLPUS, the founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries, alleged to have been a priest of Demeter or Ceres.

EUNOMIANS, an ultra-Arian sect of the 4th century, which soon dwindled away after breaking from the orthodox Church; called after EUNOMIUS (q. v.).

EUNOMIUS, an Arian divine, born in Cappadocia; head of a sect who maintained that the Father alone was G.o.d, that the Son was generated from Him, and the Spirit from the Son; was bishop of Cyzic.u.m, a post he by-and-by resigned; _d_. 394.

EUPATORIA (13), a Russian town on the Crimean coast, in the government of Taurida, 40 m. NW. of Simferopol; has a fine Tartar mosque, and does a large export trade in hides and cereals; during the Crimean War was an important military centre of the Allies.

EUPHEMISM, is in speech or writing the avoiding of an unpleasant or indelicate word or expression by the use of one which is less direct, and which calls up a less disagreeable image in the mind. Thus for "he died"

is subst.i.tuted "he fell asleep," or "he is gathered to his fathers"; thus the Greeks called the "Furies" the "Eumenides," "the benign G.o.ddesses,"

just as country people used to call elves and fairies "the good folk neighbours."

EUPHRATES, a river in West Asia, formed by the junction of two Armenian streams; flows SE. to Kurnah, where it is joined by the Tigris.

The combined waters--named the Shat-el-Arab--flow into the Persian Gulf; is 1700 m. long, and navigable for 1100 m.

EUPHROSYNE, the cheerful one, or life in the exuberance of joy, one of the three Graces. See GRACES.

EUPHUISM, an affected bombastic style of language, so called from "Euphues," a work of Sir John Lyly's written in that style.

EURE (349), a dep. of France, in Normandy, so called from the river Eure which traverses it.

EURE-ET-LOIR (285), a dep. of France lying directly S. of the preceding; chief rivers the Eure in the N. and the Loir in the S.

EUREKA (i. e. I have found it), the exclamation of Archimedes on discovering how to test the purity of the gold in the crown of HIERO (q. v.); he discovered it, tradition says, when taking a bath.

EURIPIDES, a famous Greek tragic dramatist, born at Salamis, of wealthy parents; first trained as an athlete, and then devoted himself to painting, and eventually to poetry; he brought out his first play at the age of 25, and is reported to have written 80 plays, of which only 18 are extant, besides fragment of others; of these plays the "Alcestes,"

"Bacchae," "Iphigenia at Aulis," "Electra," and "Medea" may be mentioned; he won the tragic prize five times; tinged with pessimism, he is nevertheless less severe than his great predecessors Sophocles and aeschylus, surpa.s.sing them in tenderness and artistic expression, but falling short of them in strength and loftiness of dramatic conception; Sophocles, it is said, represented men as they ought to be, and Euripides as they are; he has been called the Sophist of tragic poets (480-406 B.C.).

EUROPA, a maiden, daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, whom Zeus, disguised as a white bull, carried off to Crete, where she became by him the mother of MINOS, RHADAMANTHUS, and SARPEDON (q. v.).

EUROPE (361,000), the most important, although the second smallest, of the five great land divisions of the globe; is, from a geographical point of view, a peninsula of Asia; the Caspian Sea, Ural River and mountains, form its Asiatic boundary, while on the other three sides it is washed by the Mediterranean on the S., Atlantic on the W., and Arctic Ocean on the N.; its coast-line is so highly developed that to every 190 sq. m. of surface there is 1 m. of coast; this advantage, combined with the varied adaptability of its land, rivers, and inland seas, and its central position, has made it the centre of civilisation and the theatre of the main events of the world's history. Its greatest length is 3370 m.

from Cape St. Vincent to the Urals, and its greatest breadth 2400 m. from Cape Matapan to Nordkyn, while its area is about 3,800,000 sq. m.; it is singularly free from wild animals, has a fruitful soil richly cultivated, and possesses in supreme abundance the more useful metals. Its peoples belong to the two great ethnological divisions, the Caucasian and Mongolian groups; to the former belong the Germanic, Romanic, Slavonic, and Celtic races, and to the latter the Finns, Magyars, and Turks.

Christianity is professed throughout, except amongst the Jews, of whom there are about six millions, and in Turkey, where Mohammedanism claims about seven millions; of Catholics there are about 155 millions, of Protestants 85, and of the Greek Church 80. Amongst the 18 countries the form of government most prevailing is the hereditary monarchy, resting more and more on a wide representation of the people.

EUROTAS, the cla.s.sic name of the Iri, a river of Greece, which flows past Sparta and discharges into the Gulf of Laconia, 30 m. long.

EURUS, the G.o.d of the withering east wind.

EURYDICE. See ORPHEUS.

EURYSTHEUS, the king of Mycenae, at whose command, as subject to him by fate, Hercules was required to perform his 12 labours, on the achievement of which depended his admission to the rank of an immortal.

EUSEBIUS PAMPHILI, a distinguished early Christian writer, born in Palestine, bishop of Caesarea in 313; headed the moderate Arians at the Council of Nice, who shrank from disputing about a subject so sacred as the nature of the Trinity; wrote a history of the world to A.D. 328; his "Ecclesiastical History" is the first record of the Christian Church up to 324; also wrote a Life of Constantine, who held him in high favour; many extracts of ancient writers no longer extant are found in the works of Eusebius (about 264-340).

EUSTACHIO, BARTOLOMMEO, an Italian physician of the 16th century; settled at Rome, made several anatomical discoveries, among others those of the _tube_ from the middle ear to the mouth, and a _valve_ on the wall of the right auricle of the heart, both called _Eustachian_ after him.

EUSTATHIUS, archbishop of Thessalonica, a Greek commentator of Homer, born in Constantinople; a man of wide cla.s.sical learning, and his work on Homer of value for the extracts of writings that no longer exist; _d_. 1198.

EUTERPe, the Muse of lyric poetry, represented in ancient works of art with a flute in her hand.

EUTROPIUS, FLAVIUS, a Roman historian, secretary to the Emperor Constantine; wrote an epitome of Roman history, which from its simplicity and accuracy still retains its position as a school-book; _d_. about 370.

EUTYCHES, a Byzantine heresiarch, who, in combating NESTORIANISM (q. v.), fell into the opposite extreme, and maintained that in the incarnation the human nature of Christ was absorbed in the divine, a doctrine which was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon in 448 (378-454).

EUTYCHIANISM. See SUPRA.

EUXINE, a Greek name for the BLACK SEA (q. v.).