FOOTNOTE:

[1] Inter-tribal feuds during the period of the monarchy may underlie

the events mentioned in 1 Kings xvi. 9 sq., 21 sq.; 2 Kings xv. 10,

14.

EPHTHALITES, or WHITE HUNS. This many-named and enigmatical tribe was

of considerable importance in the history of India and Persia in the 5th

and 6th centuries, and was known to the Byzantine writers, who call them

[Greek: Ephthalitoi, Euthagitoi,] [Greek: Nephthalitoi] or [Greek:

Abdeloi]. The last of these is an independent attempt to render the

original name, which was probably something like Aptal or Haptal, but

the initial [Nu] of the third is believed to be a clerical error. They

were also called [Greek: Leukoi Ounnoi] or [Greek: Chounoi], White (that

is fair-skinned) Huns. In Arabic and Persian they are known as Haital

and in Armenian as Haithal, Idal or Hepthal. The Chinese name Yetha

seems an attempt to represent the same sound. In India they were called

Hunas. Ephthalite is the usual orthography, but Hephthalite is perhaps

more correct.

Our earliest information about the Ephthalites comes from the Chinese

chronicles, in which it is stated that they were originally a tribe of

the great Yue-Chi (q.v.), living to the north of the Great Wall, and in

subjection to the Jwen-Jwen, as were also the Turks at one time. Their

original name was Hoa or Hoa-tun; subsequently they styled themselves

Ye-tha-i-li-to after the name of their royal family, or more briefly

Ye-tha. Before the 5th century A.D. they began to move westwards, for

about 420 we find them in Transoxiana, and for the next 130 years they

were a menace to Persia, which they continually and successfully

invaded, though they never held it as a conquest. The Sassanid king,

Bahram V., fought several campaigns with them and succeeded in keeping

them at bay, but they defeated and killed Peroz (Firuz), A.D. 484. His

son Kavadh I. (Kobad), being driven out of Persia, took refuge with the

Ephthalites, and recovered his throne with the assistance of their khan,

whose daughter he had married, but subsequently he engaged in prolonged

hostilities with them. The Persians were not quit of the Ephthalites

until 557 when Chosroes Anushirwan destroyed their power with the

assistance of the Turks, who now make their first appearance in western

Asia.

The Huns who invaded India appear to have belonged to the same stock as

those who molested Persia. The headquarters of the horde were at Bamian

and at Balkh, and from these points they raided south-east and

south-west. Skandagupta repelled an invasion in 455, but the defeat of

the Persians in 484 probably stimulated their activity, and at the end

of the 5th century their chief Toromana penetrated to Malwa in central

India and succeeded in holding it for some time. His son Mihiragula (c.

510-540) made Sakala in the Punjab his Indian capital, but the cruelty

of his rule provoked the Indian princes to form a confederation and

revolt against him about 528. He was not, however, killed, but took

refuge in Kashmir, where after a few years he seized the throne and then

attacked the neighbouring kingdom of Gandhara, perpetrating terrible

massacres. About a year after this he died (c. 540), and shortly

afterwards the Ephthalites collapsed under the attacks of the Turks.

They do not appear to have moved on to another sphere, as these nomadic

tribes often did when defeated, and were probably gradually absorbed in

the surrounding populations. Their political power perhaps continued in

the Gurjara empire, which at one time extended to Bengal in the east and

the Nerbudda in the south, and continued in a diminished form until A.D.

1040. These Gurjaras appear to have entered India in connexion with the

Hunnish invasions.

Our knowledge of the Indian Hunas is chiefly derived from coins, from a

few inscriptions distributed from the Punjab to central India, and from

the account of the Chinese pilgrim Hsuan Tsang, who visited the country

just a century after the death of Mihiragula. The Greek monk Cosmas

Indicopleustes, who visited India about 530, describes the ruler of the

country, whom he calls Gollas, as a White Hun king, who exacted an

oppressive tribute with the help of a large army of cavalry and war

elephants. Gollas no doubt represents the last part of the name

Mihiragula or Mihirakula.

The accounts of the Ephthalites, especially those of the Indian Hunas,

dwell on their ferocity and cruelty. They are represented as delighting

in massacres and torture, and it is said that popular tradition in India

still retains the story that Mihiragula used to amuse himself by rolling

elephants down a precipice and watching their agonies. Their invasions

shook Indian society and institutions to the foundations, but, unlike

the earlier Kushans, they do not seem to have introduced new ideas into

India or have acted as other than a destructive force, although they may

perhaps have kept up some communication between India and Persia. The

first part of Mihiragula seems to be the name of the Persian deity

Mithra, but his patron deity was Siva, and he left behind him the

reputation of a ferocious persecutor of Buddhism. Many of his coins bear

the Nandi bull (Siva's emblem), and the king's name is preceded by the

title _sahi_ (shah), which had previously been used by the Kushan

dynasty. Toramana's coins are found plentifully in Kashmir, which,

therefore, probably formed part of the Huna dominions before

Mihiragula's time, so that when he fled there after his defeat he was

taking refuge, if not with his own subjects, at least with a kindred

clan.

Greek writers give a more flattering account of the Ephthalites, which

may perhaps be due to the fact that they were useful to the East Roman

empire as enemies of Persia and also not dangerously near. Procopius

says that they were far more civilized than the Huns of Attila, and the

Turkish ambassador who was received by Justin is said to have described

them as [Greek: astikoi], which may merely mean that they lived in the

cities which they conquered. The Chinese writers say that their customs

were like those of the Turks; that they had no cities, lived in felt

tents, were ignorant of writing and practised polyandry. Nothing

whatever is known of their language, but some scholars explain the names

Toramana and Jauvla as Turkish.

For the possible connexion between the Ephthalites and the European Huns

see HUNS. The Chinese statement that the Hoa or Ye-tha were a section of

the great Yue-Chi, and that their customs resembled those of the Turks

(Tu-Kiue), is probably correct, but does not amount to much, for the

relationship did not prevent them from fighting with the Yue-Chi and

Turks, and means little more than that they belonged to the warlike and

energetic section of central Asian nomads, which is in any case certain.

They appear to have been more ferocious and less assimilative than the

other conquering tribes. This may, however, be due to the fact that

their contact with civilization was so short; the Yue-Chi and Turks had

had some commerce with more advanced races before they played any part

in political history, but the Ephthalites appear as raw barbarians, and

were annihilated as a nation in little more than a hundred years. Like

the Yue-Chi they have probably contributed to form some of the physical

types of the Indian population, and it is noticeable that polyandry is a

recognized institution among many Himalayan tribes, and is also said to

be practised secretly by the Jats and other races of the plains.

Among original authorities may be consulted Procopius, Menander

Protector, Cosmas Indicopleustes (trans. McCrindle, Hakluyt Society,

1897), the Kashmir chronicle _Rajatarangini_ (trans. Stein, 1900, and

Yuan Chwang). See also A. Stein, _White Huns and Kindred Tribes_

(1905); O. Franke, _Beitrage aus chinesischen Quellen zur Kenntnis der

Turkvolker und Skythen_ (1904); Ujfalvy, _Memoire sur les Huns Blancs_

(1898); Drouin, _Memoire sur les Huns Ephthalites_ (1895); and various

articles by Vincent Smith, Specht, Drouin, and E.H. Parker in the

_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, _Journal asiatique_, _Revue

numismatique_, _Asiatic Quarterly_, &c. (C. El.)

EPI, the French architectural term for a light finial, generally of

metal, but sometimes of terra-cotta, forming the termination of a spire

or the angle of a roof.

EPICENE (from the Gr. [Greek: epikoinos], common), a term in Greek and

Latin grammar denoting nouns which, possessing but one gender, are used

to describe animals of either sex. In English grammar there are no true

epicene nouns, but the term is sometimes used instead of _common

gender_. In figurative and literary language, epicene is an adjective

applied to persons having the characteristics of both sexes, and hence

is occasionally used as a synonym of "effeminate."

EPICHARMUS (c. 540-450 B.C.), Greek comic poet, was born in the island

of Cos. Early in life he went to Megara in Sicily, and after its

destruction by Gelo (484) removed to Syracuse, where he spent the rest

of his life at the court of Hiero, and died at the age of ninety or

(according to a statement in Lucian, _Macrobii_, 25) ninety-seven. A

brazen statue was set up in his honour by the inhabitants, for which

Theocritus composed an inscription (_Epigr._ 17). Epicharmus was the

chief representative of the Sicilian or Dorian comedy. Of his works 35

titles and a few fragments have survived. In the city of tyrants it

would have been dangerous to present comedies like those of the Athenian

stage, in which attacks were made upon the authorities. Accordingly, the

comedies of Epicharmus are of two kinds, neither of them calculated to

give offence to the ruler. They are either mythological travesties

(resembling the satyric drama of Athens) or character comedies. To the

first class belong the _Busiris_, in which Heracles is represented as a

voracious glutton; the _Marriage of Hebe_, remarkable for a lengthy list

of dainties. The second class dealt with different classes of the

population (the sailor, the prophet, the boor, the parasite). Some of

the plays seem to have bordered on the political, as _The Plunderings_,

describing the devastation of Sicily in the time of the poet. A short

fragment has been discovered (in the Rainer papyri) from the [Greek:

Odysseus automolos], which told how Odysseus got inside Troy in the

disguise of a beggar and obtained valuable information. Another feature

of his works was the large number of excellent sentiments expressed in a

brief proverbial form; the Pythagoreans claimed him as a member of their

school, who had forsaken the study of philosophy for the writing of

comedy. Plato (_Theaetetus_, 152 E) puts him at the head of the masters

of comedy, coupling his name with Homer and, according to a remark in

Diogenes Laertius, Plato was indebted to Epicharmus for much of his

philosophy. Ennius called his didactic poem on natural philosophy

_Epicharmus_ after the comic poet. The metres employed by Epicharmus

were iambic trimeter, and especially trochaic and anapaestic tetrameter.

The plot of the plays was simple, the action lively and rapid; hence

they were classed among the _fabulae motoriae_ (stirring, bustling), as

indicated in the well-known line of Horace (_Epistles_, ii. 1. 58):

"Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi."

Epicharmus is the subject of articles in Suidas and Diogenes Laertius

(viii. 3). See A.O. Lorenz, _Leben und Schriften des Koers E._ (with

account of the Doric drama and fragments, 1864); J. Girard, _Etudes

sur la poesie grecque_ (1884); Kaibel in Pauly-Wissowa's

_Realencyclopadie_, according to whom Epicharmus was a Siceliot; for

the papyrus fragment, Blass in _Jahrbucher fur Philologie_, cxxxix.,

1889.

EPIC POETRY, or EPOS (from the Gr. [Greek: epos], a story, and [Greek:

epikos], pertaining to a story), the names given to the most dignified

and elaborate forms of narrative poetry. The word _epopee_ is also, but

more rarely, employed to designate the same thing, [Greek: epopoios] in

Greek being a maker of epic poetry, and [Greek: epopoiia] what he makes.

It is to Greece, where the earliest literary monuments which we possess

are of an epical character, that we turn for a definition of these vast

heroic compositions, and we gather that their subject-matter was not

confined, as Voltaire and the critics of the 18th century supposed, to

"narratives in verse of warlike adventures." When we first discover the

epos, hexameter verse has already been selected for its vehicle. In this

form epic poems were composed not merely dealing with war and personal

romance, but carrying out a didactic purpose, or celebrating the

mysteries of religion. These three divisions, to which are severally

attached the more or less mythical names of Homer, Hesiod and Orpheus

seem to have marked the earliest literary movement of the Greeks. But,

even here, we must be warned that what we possess is not primitive;

there had been unwritten epics, probably in hexameters, long before the

composition of any now-surviving fragment. The saga of the Greek nation,

the catalogue of its arts and possessions, the rites and beliefs of its

priesthood, must have been circulated, by word of mouth, long before any

historical poet was born. We look upon Homer and Hesiod as records of

primitive thought, but Professor Gilbert Murray reminds us that "our

_Iliad, Odyssey_, _Erga_ and _Theogony_ are not the first, nor the

second, nor the twelfth of such embodiments." The early epic poets,

Lesches, Linus, Orpheus, Arctinus, Eugammon are the veriest shadows,

whose names often betray their symbolic and fabulous character. It is

now believed that there was a class of minstrels, the Rhapsodists or

Homeridae, whose business it was to recite poetry at feasts and other

solemn occasions. "The real bards of early Greece were all nameless and

impersonal." When our tradition begins to be preserved, we find

everything of a saga-character attributed to Homer, a blind man and an

inhabitant of Chios. This gradually crystallized until we find Aristotle

definitely treating Homer as a person, and attributing to him the

composition of three great poems, the _Iliad_, the _Odyssey_ and the

_Margites_, now lost (see HOMER). The first two of these have been

preserved and form for us the type of the ancient epic; when we speak of

epic poetry, we unconsciously measure it by the example of the _Iliad_

and the _Odyssey_. It is quite certain, however, that these poems had

not merely been preceded by a vast number of revisions of the mythical

history of the country, but were accompanied by innumerable poems of a

similar character, now entirely lost. That antiquity did not regard

these other epics as equal in beauty to the _Iliad_ seems to be certain;

but such poems as _Cypria_, _Iliou Persis_ (Sack of Ilion) and

_Aethiopis_ can hardly but have exhibited other sides of the epic

tradition. Did we possess them, it is almost certain that we could speak

with more assurance as to the scope of epic poetry in the days of oral

tradition, and could understand more clearly what sort of ballads in

hexameter it was which rhapsodes took round from court to court. In the

4th century B.C. it seems that people began to write down what was not

yet forgotten of all this oral poetry. Unfortunately, the earliest

critic who describes this process is Proclus, a Byzantine neo-Platonist,

who did not write until some 800 years later, when the whole tradition

had become hopelessly corrupted. When we pass from Homer and Hesiod,

about whose actual existence critics will be eternally divided, we reach

in the 7th century a poet, Peisander of Rhodes, who wrote an epic poem,

the _Heracleia_, of which fragments remain. Other epic writers, who

appear to be undoubtedly historic, are Antimachus of Colophon, who wrote

a _Thebais_; Panyasis, who, like Peisander, celebrated the feats of

Heracles; Choerilus of Samos; and Anyte, of whom we only know that she

was an epic poetess, and was called "The female Homer." In the 6th and

5th centuries B.C. there was a distinct school of philosophical epic,

and we distinguish the names of Xenophanes, Parmenides and Empedocles as

the leaders of it.

From the dawn of Latin literature epic poetry seems to have been

cultivated in Italy. A Greek exile, named Livius Andronicus, translated

the _Odyssey_ into Latin during the first Punic War, but the earliest

original epic of Rome was the lost _Bellum Punicum_ of Naevius, a work

to which Virgil was indebted. A little later, Ennius composed, about 172

B.C., in 18 books, an historical epic of the _Annales_, dealing with the

whole chronicle of Rome. This was the foremost Latin poem, until the

appearance of the _Aeneid_; it was not imitated, remaining, for a

hundred years, as Mr Mackail has said, "not only the unique, but the

satisfying achievement in this kind of poetry." Virgil began the most

famous of Roman epics in the year 30 B.C., and when he died, nine years

later, he desired that the MS. of the _Aeneid_ should be burned, as it

required three years' work to complete it. Nevertheless, it seems to us,

and seemed to the ancient world, almost perfect, and a priceless

monument of art; it is written, like the great Greek poems on which it

is patently modelled, in hexameters. In the next generation, the

_Pharsalia_ of Lucan, of which Cato, as the type of the republican

spirit, is the hero, was the principal example of Latin epic. Statius,

under the Flavian emperors, wrote several epic poems, of which the

_Thebaid_ survives. In the 1st century A.D. Valerius Flaccus wrote the

_Argonautica_ in 8 books, and Silius Italicus the _Punic War_, in 17

books; these authors show a great decline in taste and merit, even in

comparison with Statius, and Silius Italicus, in particular, is as

purely imitative as the worst of the epic writers of modern Europe. At

the close of the 4th century the style revived with Claudian, who

produced five or six elaborate historical and mythological epics of

which the _Rape of Proserpine_ was probably the most remarkable; in his

interesting poetry we have a valuable link between the Silver Age in

Rome and the Italian Renaissance. With Claudian the history of epic

poetry among the ancients closes.

In medieval times there existed a large body of narrative poetry to

which the general title of Epic has usually been given. Three principal

schools are recognized, the French, the Teutonic and the Icelandic.

Teutonic epic poetry deals, as a rule, with legends founded on the

history of Germany in the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries, and in particular

with such heroes as Ermanaric, Attila and Theodoric. But there is also

an important group in it which deals with English themes, and among

these _Beowulf_, _Waldere_, _The Lay of Maldon_ and _Finnesburh_ are

pre-eminent. To this group is allied the purely German poem of

_Hildebrand_, attributed to c. 800. Among these _Beowulf_ is the only

one which exists in anything like complete form, and it is of all

examples of Teutonic epic the most important. With all its trivialities

and incongruities, which belong to a barbarous age, _Beowulf_ is yet a

solid and comprehensive example of native epic poetry. It is written,

like all old Teutonic work of the kind, in alliterative unrhymed rhythm.

In Iceland, a new heroic literature was invented in the middle ages, and

to this we owe the Sagas, which are, in fact, a reduction to prose of

the epics of the warlike history of the North. These Sagas took the

place of a group of archaic Icelandic epics, the series of which seems

to have closed with the noble poem of _Atlamal_, the principal surviving

specimen of epic poetry as it was cultivated in the primitive literature

of Iceland. The surviving epical fragments of Icelandic composition are

found thrown together in the _Codex Regius_, under the title of _The

Elder Edda_, a most precious MS. discovered in the 17th century. The

Icelandic epics seem to have been shorter and more episodical in

character than the lost Teutonic specimens; both kinds were written in

alliterative verse. It is not probable that either possessed the organic

unity and vitality of spirit which make the Sagas so delightful. The

French medieval epics (see CHANSONS DE GESTE) are late in comparison

with those of England, Germany and Iceland. They form a curious

transitional link between primitive and modern poetry; the literature of

civilized Europe may be said to begin with them. There is a great

increase of simplicity, a great broadening of the scene of action. The

Teutonic epics were obscure and intense, the French _chansons de geste_

are lucid and easy. The existing masterpiece of this kind, the

magnificent _Roland_, is doubtless the most interesting and pleasing of

all the epics of medieval Europe. Professor Ker's analysis of its merits

may be taken as typical of all that is best in the vast body of epic

which comes between the antique models, which were unknown to the

medieval poets, and the artificial epics of a later time which were

founded on vast ideal themes, in imitation of the ancients. "There is

something lyrical in _Roland_, but the poem is not governed by lyrical

principles; it requires the deliberation and the freedom of epic; it

must have room to move in before it can come up to the height of its

argument. The abruptness of its periods is not really an interruption of

its even flight; it is an abruptness of detail, like a broken sea with a

larger wave moving under it; it does not impair or disguise the grandeur

of the movement as a whole." Of the progress and decline of the chansons

de geste (q.v.) from the ideals of _Roland_ a fuller account is given

elsewhere. _To the Nibelungenlied_ (q.v.) also, detailed attention is

given in a separate article.

What may be called the artificial or secondary epics of modern Europe,

founded upon an imitation of the _Iliad_ and the _Aeneid_, are more

numerous than the ordinary reader supposes, although but few of them

have preserved much vitality. In Italy the _Chanson de Roland_ inspired

romantic epics by Luigi Pulci (1432-1487), whose _Morgante Maggiore_

appeared in 1481, and is a masterpiece of burlesque; by M.M. Boiardo

(1434-1494), whose _Orlando Innamorato_ was finished in 1486; by

Francesco Bello (1440?-1495), whose _Mambriano_ was published in 1497;

by Lodovico Ariosto (q.v.), whose _Orlando Furioso_, by far the greatest

of its class, was published in 1516, and by Luigi Dolce (1508-1568), as

well as by a great number of less illustrious poets. G.G. Trissino

(1478-1549) wrote a _Deliverance of Italy from the Goths_ in 1547, and

Bernardo Tasso (1493-1569) an _Amadigi_ in 1559; Berni remodelled the

epic of Boiardo in 1541, and Teofilo Folengo (1491-1544), ridiculed the

whole school in an _Orlandino_ of 1526. An extraordinary feat of

mock-heroic epic was _The Bucket_ (1622) of Alessandro Tassoni

(1565-1638). The most splendid of all the epics of Italy, however, was,

and remains, the _Jerusalem Delivered_ of Torquato Tasso (q.v.),

published originally in 1580, and afterwards rewritten as _The Conquest

of Jerusalem_, 1593. The fantastic _Adone_ (1623) of G.B. Marini

(1569-1625) and the long poems of Chiabrera, close the list of Italian

epics. Early Portuguese literature is rich in epic poetry. Luis Pereira

Brandao wrote an _Elegiada_ in 18 books, published in 1588; Jeronymo

Corte-Real (d. 1588) a _Shipwreck of Sepulveda_ and two other epics;

V.M. Quevedo, in 1601, an _Alphonso of Africa_, in 12 books; Sa de

Menezes (d. 1664) a _Conquest of Malacca_, 1634; but all these, and many

more, are obscured by the glory of Camoens (q.v.), whose magnificent

_Lusiads_ had been printed in 1572, and forms the summit of Portuguese

literature. In Spanish poetry, the _Poem of the Cid_ takes the first

place, as the great national epic of the middle ages; it is supposed to

have been written between 1135 and 1175. It was followed by the

_Rodrigo_, and the medieval school closes with the _Alphonso XI._ of

Rodrigo Yanez, probably written at the close of the 12th century. The

success of the Italian imitative epics of the 15th century led to some

imitation of their form in Spain. Juan de la Cueva (1550?-1606)

published a _Conquest of Betica_ in 1603; Cristobal de Virues

(1550-1610) a _Monserrate_, in 1588; Luis Barahona de Soto continued

Ariosto in a _Tears of Angelica_; Gutierrez wrote an _Austriada_ in

1584; but perhaps the finest modern epic in Spanish verse is the

_Araucana_ (1569-1590) of Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga (1533-1595), "the

first literary work of merit," as Mr Fitzmaurice-Kelly remarks,

"composed in either American continent." In France, the epic never

flourished in modern times, and no real success attended the _Franciade_

of Ronsard, the _Alaric_ of Scudery, the _Pucelle_ of Chapelain, the

_Divine Epopee_ of Soumet, or even the _Henriade_ of Voltaire. In

English literature _The Faery Queen_ of Spenser has the same claim as

the Italian poems mentioned above to bear the name of epic, and Milton,

who stands entirely apart, may be said, by his isolated _Paradise Lost_,

to take rank with Homer and Virgil, as one of the three types of the

mastery of epical composition.

See Bossu, _Traite du poeme epique_ (1675); Voltaire, _Sur la poesie

epique_; Fauviel, _L'Origine de l'epopee chevaleresque_ (1832); W.P.

Ker, _Epic and Romance_ (1897), and _Essays in Medieval Literature_

(1905); Gilbert Murray, _History of Ancient Greek Literature_ (1897);

W. von Christ, _Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur_ (1879); Gaston

Paris, _La Litterature francaise au moyen age_ (1890); Leon Gautier,

_Les Epopees francaises_ (1865-1868). For works on the Greek epics see

also GREEK LITERATURE and CYCLE. (E. G.)

EPICTETUS (born c. A.D. 60), Greek philosopher, was probably a native

of Hierapolis in south-west Phrygia. The name Epictetus is merely the

Greek for "acquired" (from [Greek: epiktasthai]); his original name is

not known. As a boy he was a slave in the house of Epaphroditus, a

freedman and courtier of the emperor Nero. He managed, however, to

attend the lectures of the Stoic Musonius Rufus, and subsequently became

a freedman. He was lame and of weakly health. In 90 he was expelled with

the other philosophers by Domitian, who was irritated by the support and

encouragement which the opposition to his tyranny found amongst the

adherents of Stoicism. For the rest of his life he settled at Nicopolis,

in southern Epirus, not far from the scene of the battle of Actium.

There for several years he lived, and taught by close earnest personal

address and conversation. According to some authorities he lived into

the time of Hadrian; he himself mentions the coinage of the emperor

Trajan. His contemporaries and the next generation held his character

and teaching in high honour. According to Lucian, the earthenware lamp

which had belonged to the sage was bought by an antiquarian for 3000

drachmas. He was never married. He wrote nothing; but much of his

teaching was taken down with affectionate care by his pupil Flavius

Arrianus, the historian of Alexander the Great, and is preserved in two

treatises, of the larger of which, called the _Discourses of Epictetus_

([Greek: Epiktetou Diatribai]), four books are still extant. The other

treatise is a shorter and more popular work, the _Encheiridion_

("Handbook"). It contains in an aphoristic form the main doctrines of

the longer work.

The philosophy of Epictetus is intensely practical, and exhibits a high

idealistic type of morality. He is an earnest, sometimes stern and

sometimes pathetic, preacher of righteousness, who despises the mere

graces of style and the subtleties of an abstruse logic. He has no

patience with mere antiquarian study of the Stoical writers. The problem

of how life is to be carried out well is the one question which throws

all other inquiries into the shade. True education lies in learning to

wish things to be as they actually are; it lies in learning to

distinguish what is our own from what does not belong to us. But there

is only one thing which is fully our own,--that is, our will or purpose.

God, acting as a good king and a true father, has given us a will which

cannot be restrained, compelled or thwarted. Nothing external, neither

death nor exile nor pain nor any such thing, can ever force us to act

against our will; if we are conquered, it is because we have willed to

be conquered. And thus, although we are not responsible for the ideas

that present themselves to our consciousness, we are absolutely and

without any modification responsible for the way in which we use them.

Nothing is ours besides our will. The divine law which bids us keep fast

what is our own forbids us to make any claim to what is not ours; and

while enjoining us to make use of whatever is given to us, it bids us

not long after what has not been given. "Two maxims," he says, "we must

ever bear in mind--that apart from the will there is nothing either good

or bad, and that we must not try to anticipate or direct events, but

merely accept them with intelligence." We must, in short, resign

ourselves to whatever fate and fortune bring to us, believing, as the

first article of our creed, that there is a god, whose thought directs

the universe, and that not merely in our acts, but even in our thoughts

and plans, we cannot escape his eye. In the world the true position of

man is that of member of a great system, which comprehends God and men.

Each human being is in the first instance a citizen of his own nation or

commonwealth; but he is also a member of the great city of gods and men,

whereof the city political is only a copy in miniature. All men are the

sons of God, and kindred in nature with the divinity. For man, though a

member in the system of the world, has also within him a principle which

can guide and understand the movement of all the members; he can enter

into the method of divine administration, and thus can learn--and it is

the acme of his learning--the will of God, which is the will of nature.

Man, said the Stoic, is a rational animal; and in virtue of that

rationality he is neither less nor worse than the gods, for the

magnitude of reason is estimated not by length nor by height but by its

judgments. Each man has within him a guardian spirit, a god within him,

who never sleeps; so that even in darkness and solitude we are never

alone, because God is within, our guardian spirit. The body which

accompanies us is not strictly speaking ours; it is a poor dead thing,

which belongs to the things outside us. But by reason we are the masters

of those ideas and appearances which present themselves from without; we

can combine them, and systematize, and can set up in ourselves an order

of ideas corresponding with the order of nature.

The natural instinct of animated life, to which man also is originally

subject, is self-preservation and self-interest. But men are so ordered

and constituted that the individual cannot secure his own interests

unless he contribute to the common welfare. We are bound up by the law

of nature with the whole fabric of the world. The aim of the philosopher

therefore is to reach the position of a mind which embraces the whole

world in its view,--to grow into the mind of God and to make the will of

nature our own. Such a sage agrees in his thought with God; he no longer

blames either God or man; he fails of nothing which he purposes and

falls in with no misfortune unprepared; he indulges in neither anger nor

envy nor jealousy; he is leaving manhood for godhead, and in his dead

body his thoughts are concerned about his fellowship with God.

The historical models to which Epictetus reverts are Diogenes and

Socrates. But he frequently describes an ideal character of a missionary

sage, the perfect Stoic--or, as he calls him, the Cynic. This missionary

has neither country nor home nor land nor slave; his bed is the ground;

he is without wife or child; his only mansion is the earth and sky and a

shabby cloak. He must suffer stripes, and must love those who beat him

as if he were a father or a brother. He must be perfectly unembarrassed

in the service of God, not bound by the common ties of life, nor

entangled by relationships, which if he transgresses he will lose the

character of a man of honour, while if he upholds them he will cease to

be the messenger, watchman and herald of the gods. The perfect man thus

described will not be angry with the wrong-doer; he will only pity his

erring brother; for anger in such a case would only betray that he too

thought the wrong-doer gained a substantial blessing by his wrongful

act, instead of being, as he is, utterly ruined.

The best editions of the works of Epictetus are by J. Schweighauser (6

vols., Leipzig, 1799-1800) and H. Schenkl (Leipzig, 1894, 1898).

English translations by Elizabeth Carter (London, 1758); G. Long

(London, 1848, ed. 1877, 1892, 1897); T.W. Higginson (Boston, 1865,

new ed. 1890); of the _Encheiridion_ alone by H. Talbot (London,

1881); T.W.H. Rolleston (London, 1881). See A. Bonhoffer, _Epiktet und

die Stoa_ (Stuttgart, 1890) and _Die Ethik des Stoikers Epiktet_

(1894): E.M. Schranka, _Der Stoiker Epiktet und seine Philosophie_

(Frankfort, 1885); T. Zahn, _Der Stoiker Epiktet und sein Verhaltnis

zum Christentum_ (2nd ed. Erlangen, 1895). See also STOICS and works

quoted. (W. W.; X.)

EPICURUS (342-270 B.C.), Greek philosopher, was born in Samos in the end

of 342 or the beginning of 341 B.C., seven years after the death of

Plato. His father Neocles, a native of Gargettos, a small village of

Attica, had settled in Samos, not later than 352, as one of the cleruchs

sent out after the victory of Timotheus in 366-365. At the age of

eighteen he went to Athens, where the Platonic school was flourishing

under the lead of Xenocrates. A year later, however, Antipater banished

some 12,000 of the poorer citizens, and Epicurus joined his father, who

was now living at Colophon. It seems possible that he had listened to

the lectures of Nausiphanes, a Democritean philosopher, and Pamphilus

the Platonist, but he was probably, like his father, merely an ordinary

teacher. Stimulated, however, by the perusal of some writings of

Democritus, he began to formulate a doctrine of his own; and at

Mitylene, Colophon and Lampsacus, he gradually gathered round him

several enthusiastic disciples. In 307 he returned to Athens, which had

just been restored to a nominal independence by Demetrius Poliorcetes,

and there he lived for the rest of his life. The scene of his teaching

was a garden which he bought for about L300 (80 _minae_). There he

passed his days as the loved and venerated head of a remarkable, and up

to that time unique, society of men and women. Amongst the number were

Metrodorus (d. 277), his brother Timocrates, and his wife Leontion

(formerly a hetaera), Polyaenus, Hermarchus, who succeeded Epicurus as

chief of the school, Leonteus and his wife Themista, and Idomeneus,

whose wife was a sister of Metrodorus. It is possible that the relations

between the sexes--in this prototype of Rabelais's Abbey of

Theleme--were not entirely what is termed Platonic. But there is on the

other hand scarcely a doubt that the tales of licentiousness circulated

by opponents are groundless. The stories of the Stoics, who sought to

refute the views of Epicurus by an appeal to his alleged antecedents and

habits, were no doubt in the main, as Diogenes Laertius says, the

stories of maniacs. The general charges, which they endeavoured to

substantiate by forged letters, need not count for much, and in many

cases they only exaggerated what, if true, was not so heinous as they

suggested. Against them trustworthy authorities testified to his general

and remarkable considerateness, pointing to the statues which the city

had raised in his honour, and to the numbers of his friends, who were

many enough to fill whole cities.

The mode of life in his community was plain. The general drink was

water and the food barley bread; half a pint of wine was held an ample

allowance. "Send me," says Epicurus to a correspondent, "send me some

Cythnian cheese, so that, should I choose, I may fare sumptuously."

There was no community of property, which, as Epicurus said, would imply

distrust of their own and others' good resolutions. The company was held

in unity by the charms of his personality, and by the free intercourse

which he inculcated and exemplified. Though he seems to have had a warm

affection for his countrymen, it was as human beings brought into

contact with him, and not as members of a political body, that he

preferred to regard them. He never entered public life. His kindliness

extended even to his slaves, one of whom, named Mouse, was a brother in

philosophy.

Epicurus died of stone in 270 B.C. He left his property, consisting of

the garden ([Greek: Kepoi Epikourou]), a house in Melite (the south-west

quarter of Athens), and apparently some funds besides, to two trustees

on behalf of his society, and for the special interest of some youthful

members. The garden was set apart for the use of the school; the house

became the house of Hermarchus and his fellow-philosophers during his

lifetime. The surplus proceeds of the property were further to be

applied to maintain a yearly offering in commemoration of his departed

father, mother and brothers, to pay the expenses incurred in celebrating

his own birthday every year on the 7th of the month Gamelion, and for a

social gathering of the sect on the 20th of every month in honour of

himself and Metrodorus. Besides similar tributes in honour of his

brothers and Polyaenus, he directed the trustees to be guardians of the

son of Polyaenus and the son of Metrodorus; whilst the daughter of the

last mentioned was to be married by the guardians to some member of the

society who should be approved of by Hermarchus. His four slaves, three

men and one woman, were left their freedom. His books passed to

Hermarchus.

_Philosophy._--The Epicurean philosophy is traditionally divided into

the three branches of logic, physics and ethics. It is, however, only as

a basis of facts and principles for his theory of life that logical and

physical inquiries find a place at all. Epicurus himself had not

apparently shared in any large or liberal culture, and his influence was

certainly thrown on the side of those who depreciated purely scientific

pursuits as one-sided and misleading. "Steer clear of all culture" was

his advice to a young disciple. In this aversion to a purely or mainly

intellectual training may be traced a recoil from the systematic

metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle, whose tendency was to subordinate

the practical man to the philosopher. Ethics had been based upon logic

and metaphysics. But experience showed that systematic knowledge of

truth is not synonymous with right action. Hence, in the second place,

Plato and Aristotle had assumed a perfect state with laws to guide the

individual aright. It was thus comparatively easy to show how the

individual could learn to apprehend and embody the moral law in his own

conduct. But experience had in the time of Epicurus shown the temporary

and artificial character of the civic form of social life. It was

necessary, therefore, for Epicurus to go back to nature to find a more

enduring and a wider foundation for ethical doctrine, to go back from

words to realities, to give up reasonings and get at feelings, to test

conceptions and arguments by a final reference to the only touchstone of

truth--to sensation. There, and there only, one seems to find a common

and a satisfactory ground, supposing always that all men's feelings give

the same answer. Logic must go, but so also must the state, as a

specially-privileged and eternal order of things, as anything more than

a contrivance serving certain purposes of general utility.

To the Epicureans the elaborate logic of the Stoics was a superfluity.

In place of logic we find canonic, the theory of the three tests of truth

and reality. (1) The only ultimate canon of reality is sensation;

whatever we feel, whatever we perceive by any sense, that we know on the

most certain evidence we can have to be real, and in proportion as our

feeling is clear, distinct and vivid, in that proportion are we sure of

the reality of its object. But in what that vividness ([Greek: enargeia])

consists is a question which Epicurus does not raise, and which he would

no doubt have deemed superfluous quibbling over a matter sufficiently

settled by common sense. (2) Besides our sensations, we learn truth and

reality by our preconceptions or ideas ([Greek: prolepseis]). These are

the fainter images produced by repeated sensations, the "ideas" resulting

from previous "impressions"--sensations at second-hand as it were, which

are stored up in memory, and which a general name serves to recall. These

bear witness to reality, not because we feel anything now, but because we

felt it once; they are sensations registered in language, and again, if

need be, translatable into immediate sensations or groups of sensation.

(3) Lastly, reality is vouched for by the imaginative apprehensions of

the mind ([Greek: phantastikai epibolai]), immediate feelings of which

the mind is conscious as produced by some action of its own. This last

canon, however, was of dubious validity. Epicureanism generally was

content to affirm that whatever we effectively feel in consciousness is

real; in which sense they allow reality to the fancies of the insane, the

dreams of a sleeper, and those feelings by which we imagine the existence

of beings of perfect blessedness and endless life. Similarly, just

because fear, hope and remembrance add to the intensity of consciousness,

the Epicurean can hold that bodily pain and pleasure is a less durable

and important thing than pain and pleasure of mind. Whatever we feel to

affect us does affect us, and is therefore real. Error can arise only

because we mix up our opinions and suppositions with what we actually

feel. The Epicurean canon is a rejection of logic; it sticks fast to the

one point that "sensation is sensation," and there is no more to be made

of it. Sensation, it says, is unreasoning ([Greek: alogos]); it must be

accepted, and not criticized. Reasoning can come in only to put

sensations together, and to point out how they severally contribute to

human welfare; it does not make them, and cannot alter them.

_Physics._--In the Epicurean physics there are two parts--a general

metaphysic and psychology, and a special explanation of particular

phenomena of nature. The method of Epicurus is the argument of analogy.

It is an attempt to make the phenomena of nature intelligible to us by

regarding them as instances on a grand scale of that with which we are

already familiar on a small scale. This is what Epicurus calls

explaining what we do not see by what we do see.

In physics Epicurus founded upon Democritus, and his chief object was to

abolish the dualism between mind and matter which is so essential a

point in the systems of Plato and Aristotle. All that exists, says

Epicurus, is corporeal ([Greek: to pan esti soma]); the intangible is

non-existent, or empty space. If a thing exists it must be felt, and to

be felt it must exert resistance. But not all things are intangible

which our senses are not subtle enough to detect. We must indeed accept

our feelings; but we must also believe much which is not directly

testified by sensation, if only it serves to explain phenomena and does

not contravene our sensations. The fundamental postulates of

Epicureanism are atoms and the void ([Greek: atoma kai kenon]). Space is

infinite, and there is an illimitable multitude of indestructible,

indivisible and absolutely compact atoms in perpetual motion in this

illimitable space. These atoms, differing only in size, figure and

weight, are perpetually moving with equal velocities, but at a rate far

surpassing our conceptions; as they move, they are for ever giving rise

to new worlds; and these worlds are perpetually tending towards

dissolution, and towards a fresh series of creations. This universe of

ours is only one section out of the innumerable worlds in infinite

space; other worlds may present systems very different from that of our

own. The soul of man is only a finer species of body, spread throughout

the whole aggregation which we term his bodily frame. Like a warm

breath, it pervades the human structure and works with it; nor could it

act as it does in perception unless it were corporeal. The various

processes of sense, notably vision, are explained on the principles of

materialism. From the surfaces of all objects there are continually

flowing thin filmy images exactly copying the solid body whence they

originate; and these images by direct impact on the organism produce (we

need not care to ask how) the phenomena of vision. Epicurus in this way

explains vision by substituting for the apparent action of a body at a

distance a direct contact of image and organ. But without following the

explanation into the details in which it revels, it may be enough to say

that the whole hypothesis is but an attempt to exclude the occult

conception of action at a distance, and substitute a familiar

phenomenon.

_The Gods._--This aspect of the Epicurean physics becomes clearer when

we look at his mode of rendering particular phenomena intelligible. His

purpose is to eliminate the common idea of divine interference. That

there are gods Epicurus never dreams of denying. But these gods have not

on their shoulders the burden of upholding and governing the world. They

are themselves the products of the order of nature--a higher species

than humanity, but not the rulers of man, neither the makers nor the

upholders of the world. Man should worship them, but his worship is the

reverence due to the ideals of perfect blessedness; it ought not to be

inspired either by hope or by fear. To prevent all reference of the more

potent phenomena of nature to divine action Epicurus rationalizes the

processes of the cosmos. He imagines all possible plans or hypotheses,

not actually contradicted by our experience of familiar events, which

will represent in an intelligible way the processes of astronomy and

meteorology. When two or more modes of accounting for a phenomena are

equally admissible as not directly contradicted by known phenomena, it

seems to Epicurus almost a return to the old mythological habit of mind

when a savant asserts that the real cause is one and only one.

"Thunder," he says, "may be explained in many other ways; only let us

have no myths of divine action. To assign only a single cause for these

phenomena, when the facts familiar to us suggest several, is insane, and

is just the absurd conduct to be expected from people who dabble in the

vanities of astronomy." We need not be too curious to inquire how these

celestial phenomena actually do come about; we can learn how they might

have been produced, and to go further is to trench on ground beyond the

limits of human knowledge.

Thus, if Epicurus objects to the doctrine of mythology, he objects no

less to the doctrine of an inevitable fate, a necessary order of things

unchangeable and supreme over the human will. The Stoic doctrine of

Fatalism seemed to Epicurus no less deadly a foe of man's true welfare

than popular superstition. Even in the movement of the atoms he

introduces a sudden change of direction, which is supposed to render

their aggregation easier, and to break the even law of destiny. So, in

the sphere of human action, Epicurus would allow of no absolutely

controlling necessity. In fact, it is only when we assume for man this

independence of the gods and of fatality that the Epicurean theory of

life becomes possible. It assumes that man can, like the gods, withdraw

himself out of reach of all external influences, and thus, as a sage,

"live like a god among men, seeing that the man is in no wise like a

mortal creature who lives in undying blessedness." And this present life

is the only one. With one consent Epicureanism preaches that the death

of the body is the end of everything for man, and hence the other world

has lost all its terrors as well as all its hopes.

The attitude of Epicurus in this whole matter is antagonistic to

science. The idea of a systematic enchainment of phenomena, in which

each is conditioned by every other, and none can be taken in isolation

and explained apart from the rest, was foreign to his mind. So little

was the scientific conception of the solar system familiar to Epicurus

that he could reproach the astronomers, because their account of an

eclipse represented things otherwise than as they appear to the senses,

and could declare that the sun and stars were just as large as they

seemed to us.

_Ethics._--The moral philosophy of Epicurus is a qualified hedonism,

the heir of the Cyrenaic doctrine that pleasure is the good thing in

life. Neither sect, it may be added, advocated sensuality pure and

unfeigned--the Epicurean least of all. By pleasure Epicurus meant both

more and less than the Cyrenaics. To the Cyrenaics pleasure was of

moments; to Epicurus it extended as a habit of mind through life. To the

Cyrenaics pleasure was something active and positive; to Epicurus it was

rather negative--tranquillity more than vigorous enjoyment. The test of

true pleasure, according to Epicurus, is the removal and absorption of

all that gives pain; it implies freedom from pain of body and from

trouble of mind. The happiness of the Epicurean was, it might almost

seem, a grave and solemn pleasure--a quiet unobtrusive ease of heart,

but not exuberance and excitement. The sage of Epicureanism is a

rational and reflective seeker for happiness, who balances the claims of

each pleasure against the evils that may possibly ensue, and treads the

path of enjoyment cautiously. Prudence is, therefore, the only real

guide to happiness; it is thus the chief excellence, and the foundation

of all the virtues. It is, in fact, says Epicurus--in language which

contrasts strongly with that of Aristotle on the same topic--"a more

precious power than philosophy." The reason or intellect is introduced

to balance possible pleasures and pains, and to construct a scheme in

which pleasures are the materials of a happy life. Feeling, which

Epicurus declared to be the means of determining what is good, is

subordinated to a reason which adjudicates between competing pleasures

with the view of securing tranquillity of mind and body. "We cannot live

pleasantly without living wisely and nobly and righteously." Virtue is

at least a means of happiness, though apart from that it is no good in

itself, any more than mere sensual enjoyments, which are good only

because they may sometimes serve to secure health of body and

tranquillity of mind. (See further ETHICS.)

_The Epicurean School._--Even in the lifetime of Epicurus we hear of the

vast numbers of his friends, not merely in Greece, but in Asia and

Egypt. The crowds of Epicureans were a standing enigma to the adherents

of less popular sects. Cicero pondered over the fact; Arcesilaus

explained the secession to the Epicurean camp, compared with the fact

that no Epicurean was ever known to have abandoned his school, by saying

that, though it was possible for a man to be turned into a eunuch, no

eunuch could ever become a man. But the phenomenon was not obscure. The

doctrine has many truths, and is attractive to many in virtue of its

simplicity and its immediate relation to life. The dogmas of Epicurus

became to his followers a creed embodying the truths on which salvation

depended; and they passed on from one generation to another with

scarcely a change or addition. The immediate disciples of Epicurus have

been already mentioned, with the exception of Colotes of Lampsacus, a

great favourite of Epicurus, who wrote a work arguing "that it was

impossible even to live according to the doctrines of the other

philosophers." In the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. Apollodorus, nicknamed

[Greek: kepotyrannos] ("Lord of the Garden"), and Zeno of Sidon (who

describes Socrates as "the Attic buffoon": Cic. _De nat. deor._ i, 21,

33, 34) taught at Athens. About 150 B.C. Epicureanism established itself

at Rome. Beginning with C. Amafinius or Amafanius (Cic. _Acad._ i. 2,

_Tusc._ iv. 3), we find the names of Phaedrus (who became scholarch at

Athens c. 70 B.C.) and Philodemus (originally of Gadara in Palestine) as

distinguished Epicureans in the time of Cicero. But the greatest of its

Roman names was Lucretius, whose _De rerum natura_ embodies the main

teaching of Epicurus with great exactness, and with a beauty which the

subject seemed scarcely to allow. Lucretius is a proof, if any were

needed, that Epicureanism is compatible with nobility of soul. In the

1st century of the Christian era, the nature of the time, with its

active political struggles, naturally called Stoicism more into the

foreground, yet Seneca, though nominally a Stoic, draws nearly all his

suavity and much of his paternal wisdom from the writings of Epicurus.

The position of Epicureanism as a recognized school in the 2nd century

is best seen in the fact that it was one of the four schools (the others

were the Stoic, Platonist, and Peripatetic) which were placed on a

footing of equal endowment when Marcus Aurelius founded chairs of

philosophy at Athens. The evidence of Diogenes proves that it still

subsisted as a school a century later, but its spirit lasted longer than

its formal organization as a school. A great deal of the best of the

Renaissance was founded on Epicureanism, and in more recent times a

great number of prominent thinkers have been Epicureans in a greater or

less degree. Among these may be mentioned Pierre Gassendi, who revived

and codified the doctrine in the 17th century; Moliere, the comte de

Gramont, Rousseau, Fontenelle and Voltaire. All those whose ethical

theory is in any degree hedonistic are to some extent the intellectual

descendants of Epicurus (see HEDONISM).

_Works._--Epicurus was a voluminous writer ([Greek: polygraphotatos],

Diog. Laert. x. 26)--the author, it is said, of about 300 works. He had

a style and vocabulary of his own. His chief aim in writing was

plainness and intelligibility, but his want of order and logical

precision thwarted his purpose. He pretended to have read little, and to

be the original architect of his own system, and the claim was no doubt

on the whole true. But he had read Democritus, and, it is said,

Anaxagoras and Archelaus. His works, we learn, were full of repetition,

and critics speak of vulgarities of language and faults of style. None

the less his writings were committed to memory and remained the

text-books of Epicureanism to the last. His chief work was a treatise on

nature ([Greek: Peri physeos]), in thirty-seven books, of which

fragments from about nine books have been found in the rolls discovered

at Herculaneum, along with considerable treatises by several of his

followers, and most notably Philodemus. An epitome of his doctrine is

contained in three letters preserved by Diogenes.

AUTHORITIES.--The chief ancient accounts of Epicurus are in the tenth

book of Diogenes Laertius, in Lucretius, and in several treatises of

Cicero and Plutarch. Gassendi, in his _De vita, moribus, et doctrina

Epicuri_ (Lyons, 1647), and his _Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri_,

systematized the doctrine. The _Volumina Herculanensia_ (1st and 2nd

series) contain fragments of treatises by Epicurus and members of his

school. See also H. Usener, _Epicurea_ (Leipzig, 1887) and _Epicuri

recogniti specimen_ (Bonn, 1880); _Epicuri physica et meteorologica_

(ed. J.G. Schneider, Leipzig, 1813); Th. Gomperz in his _Herkulanische

Studien_, and in contributions to the Vienna Academy

(_Monatsberichte_), has tried to evolve from the fragments more

approximation to modern empiricism than they seem to contain. For

criticism see W. Wallace, _Epicureanism_ (London, 1880), and

_Epicurus; A Lecture_ (London, 1896); G. Trezza, _Epicuro e

l'Epicureismo_ (Florence, 1877; ed. Milan, 1885); E. Zeller,

_Philosophy of the Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics_ (Eng. trans. O.J.

Reichel, 1870; ed. 1880); Sir James Mackintosh, _On the Progress of

Ethical Philosophy_ (4th ed.); J. Watson, _Hedonistic Theories_

(Glasgow, 1895); J. Kreibig, _Epicurus_ (Vienna, 1886); A.

Goedeckemeyer, _Epikurs Verhaltnis zu Demokrit in der Naturphil._

(Strassburg, 1897); Paul von Gizycki, _Uber das Leben und die

Moralphilos. des Epikur (Halle, 1879), and Einleitende Bemerkungen zu

einer Untersuchung uber den Werth der Naturphilos. des Epikur_

(Berlin, 1884); P. Cassel, _Epikur der Philosoph_ (Berlin, 1892); M.

Guyau, _La Morale d'Epicure et ses rapports avec les doctrines

contemporaines_ (Paris, 1878; revised and enlarged, 1881); F. Picavet,

_De Epicuro novae religionis sectatore_ (Paris, 1889); H. Sidgwick,

_History of Ethics_ (5th ed., 1902). (W. W.; X.)

EPICYCLE (Gr. [Greek: epi], upon, and [Greek: kyklos], circle), in

ancient astronomy, a small circle the centre of which describes a larger

one. It was especially used to represent geometrically the periodic

apparent retrograde motion of the outer planets, Mars, Jupiter and

Saturn, which we now know to be due to the annual revolution of the

earth around the sun, but which in the Ptolemaic astronomy were taken to

be real.

EPICYCLOID, the curve traced out by a point on the circumference of a

circle rolling externally on another circle. If the moving circle rolls

internally on the fixed circle, a point on the circumference describes a

"hypocycloid" (from [Greek: hypo], under). The locus of any other

carried point is an "epitrochoid" when the circle rolls externally, and

a "hypotrochoid" when the circle rolls internally. The epicycloid was so

named by Ole Romer in 1674, who also demonstrated that cog-wheels having

epicycloidal teeth revolved with minimum friction (see MECHANICS:

_Applied_); this was also proved by Girard Desargues, Philippe de la

Hire and Charles Stephen Louis Camus. Epicycloids also received

attention at the hands of Edmund Halley, Sir Isaac Newton and others;

spherical epicycloids, in which the moving circle is inclined at a

constant angle to the plane of the fixed circle, were studied by the

Bernoullis, Pierre Louis M. de Maupertuis, Francois Nicole, Alexis

Claude Clairault and others.

In the annexed figure, there are shown various examples of the curves

named above, when the radii of the rolling and fixed circles are in

the ratio of 1 to 3. Since the circumference of a circle is

proportional to its radius, it follows that if the ratio of the radii

be commensurable, the curve will consist of a finite number of cusps,

and ultimately return into itself. In the particular case when the

radii are in the ratio of 1 to 3 the epicycloid (curve a) will

consist of three cusps external to the circle and placed at equal

distances along its circumference. Similarly, the corresponding

epitrochoids will exhibit three loops or nodes (curve b), or assume

the form shown in the curve c. It is interesting to compare the

forms of these curves with the three forms of the cycloid (q.v.). The

hypocycloid derived from the same circles is shown as curve d, and

is seen to consist of three cusps arranged internally to the fixed

circle; the corresponding hypotrochoid consists of a three-foil and is

shown in curve e. The epicycloid shown is termed the "three-cusped

epicycloid" or the "epicycloid of Cremona."

[Illustration]

The cartesian equation to the epicycloid assumes the form

_____

x = (a + b) cos[theta] - b cos(a + b / b)[theta],

_____

y = (a + b) sin[theta] - b sin(a + b / b)[theta],

when the centre of the fixed circle is the origin, and the axis of x

passes through the initial point of the curve (i.e. the original

position of the moving point on the fixed circle), a and b being the

radii of the fixed and rolling circles, and [theta] the angle through

which the line joining the centres of the two circles has passed. It

may be shown that if the distance of the carried point from the centre

of the rolling circle be mb, the equation to the epitrochoid is

_____

x = (a + b) cos[theta] - mb cos(a + b / b)[theta],

_____

y = (a + b) sin[theta] - mb sin(a + b / b)[theta].

The equations to the hypocycloid and its corresponding trochoidal

curves are derived from the two preceding equations by changing the

sign of b. Leonhard Euler (_Acta Petrop._ 1784) showed that the same

hypocycloid can be generated by circles having radii of 1/2(a [+-] b)

rolling on a circle of radius a; and also that the hypocycloid formed

when the radius of the rolling circle is greater than that of the

fixed circle is the same as the epicycloid formed by the rolling of a

circle whose radius is the difference of the original radii. These

propositions may be derived from the formulae given above, or proved

directly by purely geometrical methods.

The tangential polar equation to the epicycloid, as given above, is

______

p = (a + 2b) sin(a / a + 2b)[psi], while the intrinsic equation is

______

s = 4(b/a)(a + b) cos(a / a + 2b)[psi] and the pedal equation is

_____

r^2 = a^2 + (4b.a + b)p^2 / (a + 2b)^2. Therefore any epicycloid or

hypocycloid may be represented by the equations p = A sin B[psi] or p

= A cos B[psi], s = A sin B[psi] or s = A cos B[psi], or r^2 = A +

Bp^2, the constants A and B being readily determined by the above

considerations.

If the radius of the rolling circle be one-half of the fixed circle,

the hypocycloid becomes a diameter of this circle; this may be

confirmed from the equation to the hypocycloid. If the ratio of the

radii be as 1 to 4, we obtain the four-cusped hypocycloid, which has

the simple cartesian equation x^(2/3) + y^(2/3) = a^(2/3). This curve

is the envelope of a line of constant length, which moves so that its

extremities are always on two fixed lines at right angles to each

other, i.e. of the line x/[alpha] + y/[beta] = 1, with the condition

[alpha]^2 + [beta]^2 = 1/a, a constant. The epicycloid when the radii

of the circles are equal is the cardioid (q.v.), and the corresponding

trochoidal curves are limacons (q.v.). Epicycloids are also examples

of certain caustics (q.v.).

For the methods of determining the formulae and results stated above

see J. Edwards, _Differential Calculus_, and for geometrical

constructions see T.H. Eagles, _Plane Curves_.

EPIDAURUS, the name of two ancient cities of southern Greece.

1. A maritime city situated on the eastern coast of Argolis, sometimes

distinguished as [Greek: he hiera Epidauros], or Epidaurus the Holy. It

stood on a small rocky peninsula with a natural harbour on the northern

side and an open but serviceable bay on the southern; and from this

position acquired the epithet of [Greek: distomos], or the two-mouthed.

Its narrow but fertile territory consisted of a plain shut in on all

sides except towards the sea by considerable elevations, among which the

most remarkable were Mount Arachnaeon and Titthion. The conterminous

states were Corinth, Argos, Troezen and Hermione. Its proximity to

Athens and the islands of the Saronic gulf, the commercial advantages of

its position, and the fame of its temple of Asclepius combined to make

Epidaurus a place of no small importance. Its origin was ascribed to a

Carian colony, whose memory was possibly preserved in Epicarus, the

earlier name of the city; it was afterwards occupied by Ionians, and

appears to have incorporated a body of Phlegyans from Thessaly. The

Ionians in turn succumbed to the Dorians of Argos, who, according to the

legend, were led by Deiphontes; and from that time the city continued to

preserve its Dorian character. It not only colonized the neighbouring

islands, and founded the city of Aegina, by which it was ultimately

outstripped in wealth and power, but also took part with the people of

Argos and Troezen in their settlements in the south of Asia Minor. The

monarchical government introduced by Deiphontes gave way to an

oligarchy, and the oligarchy degenerated into a despotism. When Procles

the tyrant was carried captive by Periander of Corinth, the oligarchy

was restored, and the people of Epidaurus continued ever afterwards

close allies of the Spartan power. The governing body consisted of 180

members, chosen from certain influential families, and the executive was

entrusted to a select committee of _artynae_ (from [Greek: artynein], to

manage). The rural population, who had no share in the affairs of the

city, were called [Greek: konipodes] ("dusty-feet"). Among the objects

of interest described by Pausanias as extant in Epidaurus are the image

of Athena Cissaea in the Acropolis, the temple of Dionysus and Artemis,

a shrine of Aphrodite, statues of Asclepius and his wife Epione, and a

temple of Hera. The site of the last is identified with the chapel of St

Nicolas; a few portions of the outer walls of the city can be traced;

and the name Epidaurus is still preserved by the little village of

Nea-Epidavros, or Pidhavro.

[Illustration: Map--Epidaurus Hieron of Asclepius.]

The _Hieron_ (sacred precinct) of Asclepius, which lies inland about 8

m. from the town of Epidaurus, has been thoroughly excavated by the

Greek Archaeological Society since the year 1881, under the direction of

M. Kavvadias. In addition to the sacred precinct, with its temples and

other buildings, the theatre and stadium have been cleared; and several

other extensive buildings, including baths, gymnasia, and a hospital for

invalids, have also been found. The sacred road from Epidaurus, which is

flanked by tombs, approaches the precinct through a gateway or

propylaea. The chief buildings are grouped together, and include temples

of Asclepius and Artemis, the Tholos, and the Abaton, or portico where

the patients slept. In addition to remains of architecture and

sculpture, some of them of high merit, there have been found many

inscriptions, throwing light on the cures attributed to the god. The

chief buildings outside the sacred precinct are the theatre and the

stadium.

The temple of Asclepius, which contained the gold and ivory statue by

Thrasymedes of Paros, had six columns at the ends and eleven at the

sides; it was raised on stages and approached by a ramp at the eastern

front. An inscription has been found recording the contracts for

building this temple; it dates from about 460 B.C. The sculptor

Timotheus--one of those who collaborated in the Mausoleum--is mentioned

as undertaking to make the acroteria that stood on the ends of the

pediments, and also models for the sculpture that filled one of them.

Some of this sculpture has been found; the acroteria are Nereids mounted

on sea-horses, and one pediment contained a battle of Greeks and

Amazons. The great altar lay to the south of the temple, and a little to

the east of it are what appear to be the remains of an earlier altar,

built into the corner of a large square edifice of Roman date, perhaps a

house of the priests. Just to the south of this are the foundations of a

small temple of Artemis. The Tholos lay to the south-west of the temple

of Asclepius; it must, when perfect, have been one of the most beautiful

buildings in Greece; the exquisite carving of its mouldings is only

equalled by that of the Erechtheum at Athens. It consisted of a circular

chamber, surrounded on the outside by a Doric colonnade, and on the

inside by a Corinthian one. The architect was Polyclitus, probably to be

identified with the younger sculptor of that name. In the inscription

recording the contracts for its building it is called the Thymele; and

this name may give the clue to its purpose; it was probably the

idealized architectural representative of a primitive pit of sacrifice,

such as may still be seen in the Asclepianum at Athens. The foundations

now visible present a very curious appearance, consisting of a series of

concentric walls. Those in the middle are thin, having only the pavement

of the cella to support, and are provided with doors and partitions that

make a sort of subterranean labyrinth. There is no evidence for the

statement sometimes made that there was a well or spring below the

Tholos. North of the Tholos is the long portico described in

inscriptions as the Abaton; it is on two different levels, and the lower

or western portion of it had two storeys, of which the upper one was on

a level with the ground in the eastern portion. Here the invalids used

to sleep when consulting the god, and the inscriptions found here record

not only the method of consulting the god, but the manner of his cures.

Some of the inscriptions are contemporary dedications; but those which

give us most information are long lists of cases, evidently compiled by

the priests from the dedications in the sanctuary, or from tradition.

There is no reason to doubt that most of the records have at least a

basis of fact, for the cases are in accord with well-attested phenomena

of a similar nature at the present day; but there are others, such as

the miraculous mending of a broken vase, which suggest either invention

or trickery.

In early times, though there is considerable variety in the cases

treated and the methods of cure, there are certain characteristics

common to the majority of the cases. The patient consulting the god

sleeps in the Abaton, sees certain visions, and, as a result, comes

forth cured the next morning. Sometimes there seem to be surgical cases,

like that of a man who had a spear-head extracted from his jaw, and

found it laid in his hands when he awoke in the morning, and there are

many examples resembling those known at the present day at Lourdes or

Tenos, where hysterical or other similar affections are cured by the

influence of imagination or sudden emotion. It is, however, difficult to

make any scientific use of the records, owing to the indiscriminate

manner in which genuine and apocryphal cases are mingled, and

circumstantial details are added. We learn the practice of later times

from some dedicated inscriptions. Apparently the old faith-healing had

lost its efficacy, and the priests substituted for it elaborate

prescriptions as to diet, baths and regimen which must have made

Epidaurus and its visitors resemble their counterparts in a modern spa.

At this time there were extensive buildings provided for the

accommodation of invalids, some of which have been discovered and

partially cleared; one was built by Antoninus Pius. They were in the

form of great courtyards surrounded by colonnades and chambers.

Between the precinct and the theatre was a large gymnasium, which was

in later times converted to other purposes, a small odeum being built

in the middle of it. In a valley just to the south-west of the

precinct is the stadium, of which the seats and goal are well

preserved. There is a gutter round the level space of the stadium,

with basins at intervals for the use of spectators or competitors, and

a post at every hundred feet of the course, thus dividing it into six

portions. The goal, which is well preserved at the upper end, is

similar to that at Olympia; it consists of a sill of stone sunk level

with the ground, with parallel grooves for the feet of the runners at

starting, and sockets to hold the posts that separated the spaces

assigned to the various competitors, and served as guides to them in

running. For these were substituted later a set of stone columns

resembling those in the proscenium of a theatre. There was doubtless a

similar sill at the lower end for the start of the stadium, this upper

one being intended for the start of the diaulos and longer races.

The theatre still deserves the praise given it by Pausanias as the

most beautiful in Greece. The auditorium is in remarkable

preservation, almost every seat being still _in situ_, except a few

where the supporting walls have given way on the wings. The whole plan

is drawn from three centres, the outer portion of the curves being

arcs of a larger circle than the one used for the central portion; the

complete circle of the orchestra is marked by a sill of white

limestone, and greatly enhances the effect of the whole. There are

benches with backs not only in the bottom row, but also above and

below the diazoma. The acoustic properties of the theatre are

extraordinarily good, a speaker in the orchestra being heard

throughout the auditorium without raising his voice. The stage

buildings are not preserved much above their foundations, and show

signs of later repairs; but their general character can be clearly

seen. They consist of a long rectangular building, with a proscenium

or column front which almost forms a tangent to the circle of the

orchestra; at the middle and at either end of this proscenium are

doors leading into the orchestra, those at the end set in projecting

wings; the top of the proscenium is approached by a ramp, of which the

lower part is still preserved, running parallel to the parodi, but

sloping up as they slope down. The proscenium was originally about 14

ft. high and 12 ft. broad; so corresponding approximately to the Greek

stage as described by Vitruvius. M. Kavvadias, who excavated the

theatre, believes that the proscenium is contemporary with the rest of

the theatre, which, like the Tholos, was built by Polyclitus (the

younger); but Professor W. Dorpfeld maintains that it is a later

addition. In any case, the theatre at Epidaurus ranks as the most

typical of Greek theatres, both from the simplicity of its plan and

the beauty of its proportions.

See Pausanias i. 29; _Expedition de la Moree_, ii.; Curtius,

_Peloponnesus_, ii.; _Transactions of Roy. Soc. of Lit._, 2nd series,

vol. ii.; Weclawski, _De rebus Epidauriorum_ (Posen, 1854).

The excavations at the Hieron have been recorded as they went on in

the [Greek: Praktika] of the Greek Archaeological Society, especially

for 1881-1884 and 1889, and also in the [Greek: Ephemeris

Archaiologike], especially for 1883 and 1885; see also Kavvadias, Les

_Fouilles d'Epidaure_ and [Greek: To Hieron tou Asklepiou en Epidauro

kai he therapeia ton asthenon]; Defrasse and Lechat, _Epidaure_. A

museum was completed in 1910.

2. A city of Peloponnesus on the east coast of Laconia, distinguished by

the epithet of Limera (either "The Well-havened" or "The Hungry"). It

was founded by the people of Epidaurus the Holy, and its principal

temples were those of Asclepius and Aphrodite. It was abandoned during

the middle ages; its inhabitants took possession of the promontory of

Minoa, turned it into an island, and built and fortified thereon the

city of Monembasia, which became the most flourishing of all the towns

in the Morea, and gave its name to the well-known Malmsey or Malvasia

wine. The ruins of Epidaurus are to be seen at the place now called

Palaea Monemvasia.

A third Epidaurus was situated in Illyricum, on the site of the present

Ragusa Vecchia; but it is not mentioned till the time of the civil wars

of Pompey and Caesar, and has no special interest. (E. Gr.)

EPIDIORITE, in petrology, a typical member of a family of rocks

consisting essentially of hornblende and felspar, often with epidote,

garnet, sphene, biotite, or quartz, and having usually a foliated

structure. The term is to some extent synonymous with "amphibolite" and

"hornblende-schist." These rocks are metamorphic, and though having a

mineral constitution somewhat similar to that of diorite, they have been

produced really from rocks of more basic character, such as diabase,

dolerite and gabbro. They occur principally among the schists, slates

and gneisses of such districts as the Scottish Highlands, the north-west

of Ireland, Brittany, the Harz, the Alps, and the crystalline ranges of

eastern N. America. Their hornblende in microscopic section is usually

dark green, rarely brownish; their felspar may be clear and

recrystallized, but more frequently is converted into a turbid aggregate

of epidote, zoisite, quartz, sericite and albite. In the less complete

stages of alteration, ophitic structure may persist, and the original

augite of the rock may not have been entirely replaced by hornblende.

Pink or brownish garnets are common and may be an inch or two in

diameter. The iron oxides, originally ilmenite, are usually altered to

sphene. Biotite, if present, is brown; epidote is yellow or colourless;

rutile, apatite and quartz all occur with some frequency. The essential

minerals, hornblende and felspar, rarely show crystalline outlines, and

this is generally true also of the others. The rocks may be fine

grained, so that their constituents are hardly visible to the unaided

eye; or may show crystals of hornblende an inch in length. Their

prevalent colour is dark green and they weather with brown surfaces. In

many parts of the world epidiorites and the quartz veins which sometimes

occur in them have proved to be auriferous. As they are tough, hard

rocks, when fresh, they are well suited for use as road-mending stones.

(J. S. F.)

EPIDOSITE, in petrology, a typical member of a family of metamorphic

rocks composed mainly of epidote and quartz. In colour they are pale

yellow or greenish yellow, and they are hard and somewhat brittle. They

may occur in more than one way and are derived from several kinds of

rock. Some have been epidotic grits and sandstones; others are

limestones which have undergone contact-alteration; probably the

majority, however, are allied to epidiorite and amphibolite, and are

local modifications of rocks which were primarily basic intrusions or

lavas. The sedimentary epidosites occur with mica-schists, sheared grits

and granulitic gneisses; they often show, on minute examination, the

remains of clastic structures. The epidosites derived from limestones

may contain a great variety of minerals such as calcite, augite, garnet,

scapolite, &c., but their source may usually be inferred from their

close association with calc-silicate rocks in the field. The third group

of epidosites may form bands, veins, or irregular streaks and nodules in

masses of epidiorite and hornblende-schist. In microscopic section they

are often merely a granular mosaic of quartz and epidote with some iron

oxides and chlorite, but in other cases they retain much of the

structure of the original rock though there has been a complete

replacement of the former minerals by new ones. Epidosites when streaked

and variegated have been cut and polished as ornamental stones. They are

translucent and hard, and hence serve for brooch stones, and the simpler

kinds of jewelry. These rocks occasionally carry gold in visible yellow

specks. (J. S. F.)

EPIDOTE, a mineral species consisting of basic calcium, aluminium and

iron orthosilicate, Ca2(AlOH)(Al, Fe)2(SiO4)3, crystallizing in the

monoclinic system. Well-developed crystals are of frequent occurrence:

they are commonly prismatic in habit, the direction of elongation being

perpendicular to the single plane of symmetry. The faces lettered M, T

and r in the figure are often deeply striated in the same direction: M

is a direction of perfect cleavage, and T of imperfect cleavage:

crystals are often twinned on the face T. Many of the characters of the

mineral vary with the amount of iron present (Fe2O3, 5-17%), for

instance, the colour, the optical constants, and the specific gravity

(3.3-3.5). The hardness is 6-1/2. The colour is green, grey, brown or

nearly black, but usually a characteristic shade of yellowish-green or

pistachio-green. The pleochroism is strong, the pleochroic colours being

usually green, yellow and brown. The names thallite (from [Greek:

thallos], "a young shoot") and pistacite (from [Greek: pistakia],

"pistachio nut") have reference to the colour. The name epidote is one

of R.J. Hauy's crystallographic names, and is derived from [Greek:

epidosis], "increase," because the base of the primitive prism has one

side longer than the other. Several other names (achmatite, bucklandite,

escherite, puschkinite, &c.) have been applied to this species.

Withamite is a carmine-red to straw-yellow, strongly pleochroic variety

from Glencoe in Scotland. Fouqueite and clinozoisite are white or pale

rose-red varieties containing very little iron, thus having the same

chemical composition as the orthorhombic mineral zoisite (q.v.).

[Illustration]

Epidote is an abundant rock-forming mineral, but one of secondary

origin. It occurs in crystalline limestones and schistose rocks of

metamorphic origin; and is also a product of weathering of various

minerals (felspars, micas, pyroxenes, amphiboles, garnets, &c.)

composing igneous rocks. A rock composed of quartz and epidote is known

as epidosite. Well-developed crystals are found at many localities, of

which the following may be specially mentioned: Knappenwand, near the

Gross-Venediger in the Untersulzbachthal in Salzburg, as magnificent,

dark green crystals of long prismatic habit in cavities in

epidote-schist, with asbestos, adularia, calcite, and apatite; the Ala

valley and Traversella in Piedmont; Arendal in Norway (arendalite); Le

Bourg d'Oisans in Dauphine (oisanite and delphinite); Haddam in

Connecticut; Prince of Wales Island in Alaska, here as large, dark

green, tabular crystals with copper ores in metamorphosed limestone.

The perfectly transparent, dark green crystals from the Knappenwand and

from Brazil have occasionally been cut as gem-stones.

Belonging to the same isomorphous group with epidote are the species

piedmontite and allanite, which may be described as manganese and cerium

epidotes respectively.

Piedmontite has the composition Ca2(AlOH)(Fe, Mn)2(SiO4)3; it occurs as

small, reddish-black, monoclinic crystals in the manganese mines at San

Marcel, near Ivrea in Piedmont, and in crystalline schists at several

places in Japan. The purple colour of the Egyptian _porfido rosso

antico_ is due to the presence of this mineral.

Allanite has the same general formula R2"(R'"OH)R2'"(SiO4)3, where R"

represents calcium and ferrous iron, and R'" aluminium, ferric iron and

metals of the cerium group. In external appearance it differs widely

from epidote, being black or dark brown in colour, pitchy in lustre, and

opaque in the mass; further, there is little or no cleavage, and

well-developed crystals are rarely met with. The crystallographic and

optical characters are similar to those of epidote; the pleochroism is

strong with reddish-, yellowish-, and greenish-brown colours. Although

not a common mineral, allanite is of fairly wide distribution as a

primary accessory constituent of many crystalline rocks, e.g. gneiss,

granite, syenite, rhyolite, andesite, &c. It was first found in the

granite of east Greenland and described by Thomas Allan in 1808, after

whom the species was named. Allanite is a mineral readily altered by

hydration, becoming optically isotropic and amorphous: for this reason

several varieties have been distinguished, and many different names

applied. Orthite, from [Greek: orthos], "straight," was the name given

by J.J. Berzelius in 1818 to a hydrated form found as slender prismatic

crystals, sometimes a foot in length, at Finbo, near Falun in Sweden.

(L. J. S.)

EPIGONI ("descendants"), in Greek legend, the sons of the seven heroes

who fought against Thebes (see ADRASTUS). Ten years later, to avenge

their fathers, the Epigoni undertook a second expedition, which was

completely successful. Thebes was forced to surrender and razed to the

ground. In early times the war of the Epigoni was a favourite subject of

epic poetry. The term is also applied to the descendants of the

Diadochi, the successors of Alexander the Great.

EPIGONION (Gr. [Greek: epigoneion]), an ancient stringed instrument

mentioned in Athenaeus 183 C, probably a psaltery. The epigonion was

invented, or at least introduced into Greece, by Epigonus, a Greek

musician of Ambracia in Epirus, who was admitted to citizenship at

Sicyon as a recognition of his great musical ability and of his having

been the first to pluck the strings with his fingers, instead of using

the plectrum.[1] The instrument, which Epigonus named after himself, had

forty strings.[2] It was undoubtedly a kind of harp or psaltery, since

in an instrument of so many strings some must have been of different

lengths, for tension and thickness only could hardly have produced forty

different sounds, or even twenty, supposing that they were arranged in

pairs of unisons. Strings of varying lengths require a frame like that

of the harp, or of the Egyptian cithara which had one of the arms

supporting the cross bar or zugon shorter than the other,[3] or else

strings stretched over harp-shaped bridges on a sound-board in the case

of a psaltery. Juba II., king of Mauretania, who reigned from 30 B.C.,

said (ap. Athen. l.c.) that Epigonus brought the instrument from

Alexandria and played upon it with the fingers of both hands, not only

using it as an accompaniment to the voice, but introducing chromatic

passages, and a chorus of other stringed instruments, probably citharas,

to accompany the voice. Epigonus was also a skilled citharist and played

with his bare hands without plectrum.[4] Unfortunately we have no record

of when Epigonus lived. Vincenzo Galilei[5] has given us a description

of the epigonion accompanied by an illustration, representing his

conception of the ancient instrument, an upright psaltery with the

outline of the clavicytherium (but no keyboard). (K. S.)