Part 3 (1/2)
EUPEN (oi'pen), a town and district of Belgium, formerly part of Rhenish Prussia, 7 miles S.S.W. of Aix-la-Chapelle. It has manufactures of woollen and linen cloth, hats, soap, leather, and chemicals; paper, flax, and worsted mills; and an important trade. The town was ceded to Prussia at the Peace of Paris in 1814. On 26th May, 1919, Eupen was occupied by Belgian troops, and by the Treaty of Versailles Eupen and Malmedy were handed over to Belgium. Pop. 13,540.
EUPHO'NIUM, a bra.s.s ba.s.s instrument, generally introduced into military bands, and frequently met with in the orchestra as a subst.i.tute for the superseded ophicleide. It is one of the saxhorn family of instruments. It is tuned in C or in B flat, and is furnished with three or four valves or pistons.
EUPHORBIA. See _Spurge_.
EUPHORBIA'CEae, the spurgeworts, a nat. ord. of herbaceous plants, shrubs, or very large trees, which occur in all regions of the globe. Most of them have an acrid milky juice, and diclinous or monoecious flowers. The fruit is dry or slightly fleshy, and three-lobed. Among the genera are: Euphorbia, which yields an oil used as a powerful cathartic; Croton, affording croton-oil; the _Ric[)i]nus comm[)u]nis_, or castor-oil plant; the _Buxus sempervirens_, or box-wood plant; the _Manihot utilissima_, which yields the food known as tapioca or ca.s.sava. In most members of the genera the milky juice contains caoutchouc.
EUPHOR'BIUM, a yellowish-white body, which is the solidified juice of certain plants of the genus Euphorbia, either exuding naturally or from incisions made in the bark. It is a powerfully acrid substance, virulently purgative and emetic.
EUPHRA'TES, or EL FRAT, a celebrated river of Western Asia, Mesopotamia, having a double source in two streams rising in the Anti-Taurus range. Its total length is about 1750 miles, and the area of its basin 260,000 sq.
miles. It flows mainly in a south-easterly course through the great alluvial plains of Babylonia and Chaldaea till it falls into the Persian Gulf by several mouths, of which only one in Persian territory is navigable. About 100 miles from its mouth it is joined by the Tigris, when the united streams take the name of Shatt-el-Arab. It is navigable for about 1200 miles, but navigation is somewhat impeded by rapids and shallows. The melting of snow in the Taurus and Anti-Taurus causes a flooding in spring. The water is highest in May and June, when the current, which rarely exceeds 3 miles an hour, rises to 5. In the Bible (_Gen._ XV, 18) the Euphrates is _The River_, or _The Great River_.
EU'PHUISM (Gr. _euphues_, well endowed by nature), an affected style of speech which distinguished the conversation and writings of many of the wits of the court of Queen Elizabeth. The name and the style were derived from _Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit_ (about 1580), and _Euphues and his England_ (about 1582), both written by John Lyly (1554-1606). A well-known euphuist in fiction is Sir Piercie Shafton in Scott's _Monastery_. Scott, however, had not studied Lyly sufficiently, and Sir Piercie raves bombastically rather than talks euphuistically. The chief characteristics of genuine euphuism were extreme artificiality and numerous allusions to natural history embellished by imagination.
EU'POLIS, an Athenian comic poet, who flourished about 429 B.C. Neither the date of his birth nor that of his death is known with certainty. He belongs, like Aristophanes and Cratinus, to the Old Comedy. His works are all lost except small fragments. According to Suidas, he produced seventeen plays, seven of which won the first prize. His best-known plays are the _Kolakes_ (Flatterers), in which he attacked the prodigal Callias, and the _Baptae_ (Dippers), in which he attacked Alcibiades and the exotic ritual practised at his clubs.
EURA'SIANS (syncopated from European-Asians), a name euphemistically given to the 'half-castes' of India, the offspring of European fathers and Indian mothers. They are particularly common in the three presidential capitals--Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. Belonging strictly to neither race, Eurasians are not infrequently ostracized by both; and their anomalous position often exerts a baneful influence upon their character. They generally receive a European education, and the young men are often engaged in Government or mercantile offices. The girls, in spite of their dark tint, are generally very pretty and often marry Europeans.
EURE (_eu_r), a river of North-West France, which rises in the department of the Orne, and falls into the Seine after a course of 124 miles, being navigable for about half the distance. It gives its name to a department in the north-west of France, forming part of Normandy; area, 2330 sq. miles.
The surface consists of an extensive plain, intersected by rivers, chief of which is the Seine. It is extensively cultivated; apples, pears, plums, and cherries form important crops, and a little wine is produced. The mining and manufacturing industries are extensive, and the department has a considerable trade in woollen cloth, linen and cotton fabrics, carpets, leather, paper, gla.s.s. Evreux is the capital. Pop. 303,092.
EURE-ET-LOIR (_eu_r-[.e]-lwar), a department in the north-west of France, forming part of the old provinces of Orleannais and ile-de-France; area, 2293 sq. miles. A ridge of no great height divides the department into a north and a south basin, traversed respectively by the Eure and the Loire.
The soil is extremely fertile, and there is scarcely any waste land. A considerable portion is occupied by orchards and vineyards, but the greater part is devoted to cereal crops. The department is essentially agricultural, and has few manufactures. The capital is Chartres. Pop.
251,259.
EURE'KA (Gr. _heur[=e]ka_, I have found it), the exclamation of Archimedes when, after long study, he discovered a method of detecting the amount of alloy in King Hiero's crown. Hence the word is used as an expression of triumph at a discovery or supposed discovery.
EURHYTHMICS, a general term, but usually used to denote a system of education evolved by emile Jaques-Dalcroze of Geneva. This form of training bears on all art, but especially on the art of music. Eurhythmics is essentially an original contribution to education. It aims at training musical sense on the broadest lines, using the body as an instrument of expression. Breaking away from preconceived ideas of music as a phenomenon of sound only, M. Dalcroze claims that music is innate. From this standpoint it follows that musicality as such is capable of cultivation apart from instrumental performance. Rhythm, not being a quality confined to music, but found common to all art, and fundamental to life, can, therefore, be developed from within the human being. This the Dalcroze system claims to do. Rhythm of sound plays a leading part in that it is allied to movement. Exercises at the piano are played to which the pupil listens, and to which he responds in movement--movement so closely allied to the music that it is a form of musical imagery. The technique is developed on simple lines to serve this end only. The system is progressive, starting from elementary rhythmic structure, and ending with complete musical form. It is far-reaching in educative purpose. It claims to free innate rhythm, to develop it for individual self-expression; to bring mind and body into closer unity, and in their interaction to give poise to both; to train accurate musical listening, ready a.s.similation of musical language and its spontaneous translation into terms of movement; to give musical experiences which shall be heard and felt; to cultivate musical expression and creation (in movement); to blend self-discipline with emotion.
EURIP'IDES, the last of the three great Greek writers of tragedies, was born about 480 B.C., and died 406 B.C. Tradition declares that he was born at Salamis, on the very day of the Greek naval victory there. He was, as far as we can tell, of good birth; at any rate, he was well educated, and was able to live a life of ease and leisure, and to collect one of the largest libraries of the time. The comic poets, especially Aristophanes, delighted to say that his mother, Cleito, was a cabbage-woman, but there is probably little or no truth in this statement. Euripides was originally trained as an athlete, but conceived an intense dislike for that occupation. Greatly daring, he expressed his view openly (Fragment 284).
Like a popular modern dramatist, his recreation was probably 'anything except sport'. He then took to painting, but abandoned it in favour of writing tragedies. His first play (not preserved), the _Peliades_, was produced when he was twenty-five years of age. He is said to have written ninety-two dramas, eight of which were satyr-plays. Ancient critics allow seventy-five of these to have been genuine. During his long career he only won the first prize five times. Euripides did not take any part in public life, but devoted himself entirely to a life of speculation and to writing plays. There is a tradition, not, however, on a very firm basis, that he was twice married, and that both marriages were failures. He is represented by Aristophanes as a woman-hater, but indeed he portrays women more sympathetically than aeschylus or Sophocles. The women had little cause to congratulate themselves on securing Aristophanes as a champion, for his scorpions are far more stinging then Euripides' whips. Euripides left Athens about 409 B.C., and went to the court of King Archelaus in Macedonia. There he died in 406 B.C.; according to some accounts, he was killed by savage dogs which were set on him by some of his rivals at the king's court.
Seventeen tragedies and one satyr-play have been preserved to us. The latter (_The Cyclops_) is interesting as being the only example of a satyr-play which we possess. In itself it is not amusing. It has been admirably translated by Sh.e.l.ley. The seventeen tragedies in the order of their production are: _Alcestis_, _Medea_, _Hippolytus_, _Hecuba_, _Andromache_, _Ion_, _Suppliants_, _Heracleidae_, _Hercules Furens_, _Iphigenia among the Tauri_, _Trojan Women_, _Helena_, _Phoenissae_, _Electra_, _Orestes_, _Iphigenia at Aulis_, and _The Bacchae_. The _Rhesus_, a feeble production long attributed to Euripides, is almost certainly not his work.
The work of Euripides still retains the power of arousing strong likes and dislikes. He has had st.u.r.dy supporters and fanatical detractors. The truth is that if the tragedies of aeschylus and Sophocles are looked upon as models for all Greek tragedy, Euripides falls far short of his models.
Euripides, however, though he died shortly before Sophocles, belonged to a younger and quite different generation, and held different views about art, morality, religion, and almost everything of importance. His aim was rather different from that of the earlier poets, and he must be judged, not by their standards, but on his own merits. His own merits are amply sufficient to justify the high opinion held of him in the ancient world, and supported by many of the greatest of the moderns. The dethroning of Euripides was the result of a German conspiracy, carried out with much energy by Niebuhr, and with even more by Schlegel. They enjoyed themselves while pulling Euripides to pieces much as schoolboys who have detected a flaw in the armour of their master. Many proofs can be adduced that Euripides was not a sophistical trifler; but one glance at his bust is enough to a.s.sure anyone of unbiased judgment that he was a man of remarkable breadth of mind and intellectual gifts. The fact remains, however, that the extant plays of Euripides are of very unequal merit. The _Helena_ is not a good play; it was ridiculed by Aristophanes, but he did not succeed in making it much more absurd than it was already. The _Hecuba_ and the _Heracleidae_ are not well constructed, and the _Electra_ and _Orestes_ challenge too directly the masterpieces of the earlier tragedians. In his greatest plays, however, Euripides can bear comparison with any poet. The _Medea_ is a play which still never fails to please; the _Hippolytus_ and the _Ion_ are admirable dramas and admirably constructed; above all, the _Bacchae_ is a masterpiece, more picturesque than any other Greek tragedy, a play not unworthy to be set near _The Tempest_ and _Cymbeline_.
Euripides has been accused by his detractors of degrading his art, because he opened his plays with a prologue and ended them with the intervention of a G.o.d. Both devices, if not desirable, are quite pardonable. Possible plots were becoming more and more scarce; Euripides did not wish to adopt trite themes, and so went into the by-ways of mythology, or adopted a less well-known alternative version of a well-known legend. He could not count on his audience already possessing enough knowledge of the story to enable them to understand his plays without a prologue. The _deus ex machina_, as the G.o.d who ends some of the plays is called, was often warranted or required by the plot which called for a conventional ending. Euripides has also been accused, by Aristophanes and by many less entertaining writers, of taking away all the dignity of tragedy. It is quite true that he is a realist. Sophocles represented men as they ought to be, Euripides represented them as they were. This was an unforgiveable offence in the eyes of the 'men of Marathon' at Athens. The tragic heroes were not mere stage characters, they considered; they were often ancestors or national heroes, and it was impious to represent them as speaking ordinary language, or sharing the weaknesses of ordinary men. Euripides did do this, did it intentionally, and did it excellently. He came at an awkward transition period, and the lack of success of some of his work is owing to the impossibility of pouring new wine into old bottles. The old tragedy was too tightly bound by convention to suit Euripides, who wished to portray living men and women, and to have an exciting plot. The new comedy--the romantic comedy of Menander--had not yet been invented. Had it been, Euripides would surely have written comedies. The comic poets of the next century turned to him for a model, and it was one of them, Philemon, who said that if he were quite sure that dead men retained their perception he would hang himself to see Euripides. Euripides is, in fact, the earliest writer of romantic plays, a fact well ill.u.s.trated by his _Alcestis_, which is one of his best plays. In it tragedy and comedy are harmoniously blended, and it has a happy ending.
For better and for worse Euripides is a very modern poet, and makes a special appeal to the present generation. But his pathos, his wide sympathies, and his wonderful poetry have appealed to the best judges in all ages. Theocritus, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Milton, and Browning have been among his admirers; his detractors include a few Teutonic professors, and a few who honour the memory of aeschylus and Sophocles on the other side idolatry.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. W. Verrall, _Euripides the Rationalist_; G. G. A. Murray, _Euripides and his Age_ (Home University Library); W. B.
Donne, _Euripides_ (Ancient Cla.s.sics for English Readers); Sir J. P.
Mahaffy, Euripides: _an Account of his Life and Works_; N. J. Patin, _etude sur Euripide_; P. Masqueray, _Euripide et ses idees_. There is a complete verse translation by A. S. Way, and verse translations of several plays by G. G. A. Murray. There is a 'transcript' of the _Alcestis_ in Browning's _Balaustion's Adventure_, and of the _Hercules Furens_ in his _Aristophanes' Apology_.
EURIPUS ([=u]-r[=i]'pus), in ancient geography, the strait between the Island of Euboea and Boeotia in Greece.
EUROC'LYDON, a tempestuous wind of the Levant, which was the occasion of the s.h.i.+pwreck of the vessel in which St. Paul sailed, as narrated in _Acts_, XXVII, 14-44. The north-east wind is the wind evidently meant in the narrative; and an alternative reading adopted in the revised version is _euraculon_ (euraquilo) or north-easter.
EURO'PA, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ag[=e]nor, King of the Phoenicians, and the sister of Cadmus. The fable relates that she was abducted by Jupiter, who for that occasion had a.s.sumed the form of a white bull, and swam with his prize to the Island of Crete. Here Europa bore to him Minos, Sarp[=e]don, and Rhadamanthus.
EUROPE, the smallest of the great continents, but the most important in the history of civilization for the last two thousand years. It forms a huge peninsula projecting from Asia, and is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean; on the west by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus Range; on the east by the Caspian Sea, the Ural River, and the Ural Mountains. The most northerly point on the mainland is Cape Nordkyn, in Lapland, in lat. 71 6'; the most southerly points are Punta da Tarifa, lat. 36 N., in the Strait of Gibraltar, and Cape Matapan, lat. 36 17', which terminates Greece. The most westerly point is Cape Roca in Portugal, in long. 9 28' W., while Ekaterinburg is in long. 60 36' E. From Cape Matapan to North Cape is a direct distance of 2400 miles, from Cape St. Vincent to Ekaterinburg, north-east by east, 3400 miles; area of the continent, about 3,865,000 sq.
miles. Great Britain and Ireland, Iceland, Novaya Zemlya, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Crete, the Ionian and the Balearic Islands are the chief islands of Europe. The sh.o.r.es are very much indented, giving Europe an immense length of coast-line (estimated at nearly 50,000 miles). The chief seas or arms of the sea are: the White Sea on the north; the North Sea on the west, from which branches off the great gulf or inland sea known as the Baltic; the English Channel, between England and France; the Mediterranean, communicating with the Atlantic by the Strait of Gibraltar (at one point only 19 miles wide); the Adriatic and Archipelago, branching off from the Mediterranean: and the Black Sea, connected with the Archipelago through the h.e.l.lespont, Sea of Marmora, and Bosporus.