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EUBDLUS——EUMOLPUS.
Eubftlns. A Greek poet of the Middle Comedy, who nourished about 370 b.c. His plays were mainly on mythical subjects, and parodied the earlier tragedians, especially Euripides. One hundred and four pieces were attributed to him, of which only a few fragments have been preserved written in pure and well chosen language.
Euclides (Eukleides). (1) A philosopher of Mfigira, a disciple of Socrates, and the founder of the Megarian school.
(2) A Greek mathematician who taught at Alexandria about 300 b.c. All that is known of his life is that he was held in much esteem, and won the high regard of king Ptolemy I. His labours in putting the discoveries of former mathematicians into order, completing them, and expounding them with matchless clearness and conciseness, won him the position of the founder of mathematical literature. We still possess his Elements of Mathematics (Stoicheia) which have been used until quite lately as the foundation of all geometrical text books. These are in 15 books; the 13th and 14th, however, are said to have been added by Hypslcles of Alexandria about 160 b.c. Besides this, we have what are called his Data, or 95 geometrical propositions as an introduction to geometrical analysis, an astronomical work entitled Phcendmena, and a musical work on the division of the canon. Some other treatises, probably from the hands of other authors, have been attributed to Euclid. Such are the Elements of Optics and Catoptrics, and the Introduction to Music.
Endemus. A Greek philosopher, native of Rhodes. After Theophrastus he was the chief of Aristotle‘s disciples, and was the author of the seven books of Eudemian Ethics, which have come down to us among his writings.
Enhemgrus. A Greek writer, who flourished about 300 b.c. Under the title of HWra Anagrctphe, or Sacred History, he wrote a work which purported to explain the whole mythology, on the theory of the apotheosis of men who by their bravery and cleverness had deserved well of mankind. Zeus, for instance, his kinsfolk and children, he represented as in reality an ancient family of Cretan kings. To prove his assertion he appealed to a representation of the whole primitive history of the world, from the time of Uranus onwards, given on a golden pillar in the temple of Zeus on the island of Panchaea. This, he said, he had discovered in the neighbourhood of India, when
sailing round the coast of Arabia on the commission of king Cassander. The work of Euhemerus, of which only fragments now remain, was well known in Rome, where it was translated and adapted by Ennius. The method of rationalizing or analysing mythology into the history of human kings, heroes and adventurers, is called Euhemerism, after its founder.
EuI5s. See dionysus.
Eumaeus. The faithful swineherd of Odysseus, who gave his master a friendly welcome on his return home in the guise of a beggar, and aided him in the slaughter of the suitors. (See odysseus.)
Eumelus. See epos (1).
Enm8nld&s. See erinyes.
Eumenlus. One of the Roman writers of panegyrics on the emperors. He was born about 250 a.d. at Augustfidunum (Autun) in Gaul; was tutor to Constantius Chlorus, and for a long time accompanied him on his campaigns. Later on, he settled in his native city, where he gave instruction in rhetoric. In 296 he delivered an oration on behalf of the restoration of schools (Pro Bestaurandls SchOUs). Besides this, three other speeches are attributed to him. These are panegyrics on Constantius Chlorus and Constantine, spoken at Treves in 296, 310, and 311 a.d. His tact and cleverness distinguish him from the other panegyrical writers of that age.
Eumolpus. In Greek mythology, the son of PSseidon and Chlfing, the daughter of B6reas and Orithyia. After his birth he was thrown by his mother into the sea, but his father rescued him and brought him to ^Ethiopia, to his daughter Bentheslkyme. When he was grown up, Endius, the husband of Benthesikyme, gave him one of his daughters in marriage, but he desired the other as well, and was accordingly banished, and came with his son Ismarus or Imma-radus to the Thracian king TSgyrius in Boeotia. As successor to this king he marched to the assistance of his friends the Eleusinians against the Athenian Erech-theus, but was slain with his sou. (Set erechtheus.) According to another story, Immaradus and Erechtheus both fell, and the contending parties agreed that the Eleusinians should submit to the Athenians, but should retain the exclusive superintendence of the mysteries of Eleusis, of which Eumolpus was accounted the founder. He was also spoken of as a writer of conse-crational hymns, and as having discovered the art of cultivating the vines and trees in
