EPHIALTES EPIC. 



edly destroyed by war and earthquakes, it was soon 

 rebuilt. It was famous for its temple of Diana, 

 called Artemision, and situated between the town 

 and the harbour, the chief architect of which was 

 Cheresiphon, or Ctesiphon. It was of the Ionic order. 

 The nations of all Asia Minor were employed 220 

 years on this edifice, which was 425 feet long, and 

 200 broad, and was adorned with 127 pillars, each 

 60 feet high. Still more worthy of notice were the 

 numerous statues and paintings of the most celebrat- 

 ed Grecian masters, to be seen there. It had been 

 destroyed seven or eight times before Pliny wrote, 

 particularly by the notorious Erostratus, 350 B. C., 

 whose only object in burning the temple, was to 

 perpetuate his name. The temple, however, was 

 rebuilt with more magnificence than ever, by the 

 Ephesians, whose women contributed their trinkets 

 to the general fund raised for this purpose. Its ruins 

 are now the residence of cowherds and their cattle, 

 and the once splendid city is a poor village, called 

 Aiaioluk. Hirt has written on the temple of Ephesus. 



EPHIALTES ; the same as incubus, q. v. 



EPHIALTES. See Aloides. 



EPHORI ; magistrates of Sparta, established, as 

 some think, by Theopompus, 745 B. C., or accord- 

 ing to others, by Lycurgus, to conduct the internal 

 administration, particularly the judicial business, 

 during the absence of the kings. They had an espe- 

 cial superintendence over the education of youth. 

 They were five in number, chosen from the people, and 

 held their office only a year ; but soon began to lessen 

 the power of the kings, and favoured oligarchy. 



EPHRAIMITES. Frederic the Great, in the 

 seven years' war, established a mint at Leipsic, 

 which he let to the Jews Ephraim, Itsig, and com- 

 pany. The amount of rent, increasing from year to 

 year, rose at last to 7,000,000 dollars of the bad 

 money coined there. The Jewish contractors struck 

 off a vast quantity of eight groschen pieces, which 

 depreciated in value every year, so that the fine 

 mark, in 1761, rose to thirty-five dollars, and the old 

 Augustus and Frederic d'or passed for twenty dol- 

 lars. To impose on the public, the number of the 

 year 1753 was put upon these small coins. The 

 people gave these eight groschen pieces the name 

 of Kpkraximtet. At the end of the war, they were 

 redeemed by the Saxon government. 



EPHRATA; an irregular village of America, 

 built and occupied by a society of Seventh-day 

 Baptists, on the Cocalico creek, in Lancaster county, 

 Pennsylvania, sixty miles from the city of Philadel- 

 phia. This society, usually denominated the Dun- 

 kers, was founded by Conrad Beissel, a German of 

 much intelligence and piety, who had received a 

 regular education at Halle, and took orders as a Cal- 

 vinistic minister; but, being persecuted for his 

 opinions on some points of theology, which he could 

 not reconcile to his mind, he left Europe, and 

 retired to this place about the year 1720, and soon 

 formed a little colony, called Ephrata, in allusion to 

 the Hebrews who used to sing psalms on the borders 

 of the Euphrates. It contains several very ancient 

 and singular buildings, the principal of which are a 

 brother and a sister nouse. The two houses for the 

 brethren and sisters are very large, and are four 

 stories high : each contains a chapel, and is divided 

 into small apartments, so that six dormitories, which 

 are barely large enough to contain a cot (in former 

 times, a bench and block for the head), a closet and 

 an hour glass, surround a common room, in which 

 each mess have their meals and pursue their respec- 

 tive avocations. This people are remarkable for 

 their rigid adherence to the precepts and ordinances 

 of the New Testament, even to the washing of the 

 feet before administering the sacrament ; and do not 



admit of any innovations whatever on the established 

 forms and ceremonies of Christ. They are very 

 observant of the Sabbath (the seventh day.) The 

 dress of the brethren and sisters is that of the Fran- 

 ciscans or White Friars. The members of the society 

 are now much dispersed ; a large body of them now 

 live in community at the Antietam in Franklin 

 county, Pennsylvania. At one period, about sixty 

 or seventy years since, they were very numerous, 

 exceeding 500 in the cloister. The few that remain 

 in the convent, and the members in the adjacent 

 country, differ in no respect from their neigh- 

 bours hi dress or manners, though they live in 

 the faith of their fathers, and are remarked for their 

 exemplary lives and deportment. The ancient com- 

 munity entertained some opinions, which, in the pre- 

 sent day, are deemed visionary, and the product of 

 enthusiasm and speculation. They are much misre- 

 presented, however, by those writers who assort, that 

 they live chiefly upon roots and other vegetables, the 

 rules of the society not allowing them flesh, except 

 on particular occasions ; that they consider future 

 happiness to be attained only by penance and out- 

 ward mortification in this life ; and that they disclaim 

 violence, even in cases of self-defence, and sutler 

 themselves to be defrauded or wronged rather than 

 go to law. These writers are also in error when 

 they state that they allow no intercourse between the 

 brethren and sisters, not even by marriage. On the 

 contrary, whenever two wish to engage in the bonds 

 of wedlock, they are aided by the society, though 

 they consider celibacy a virtue. They are peaceful, 

 and their manner of living is temperate ; but they 

 enjoy in moderation the same temporal goods and 

 comforts as their fellow men. They are distinguished 

 for their music, which is peculiar, composed and 

 arranged by themselves. 



EPI ; a Greek preposition (ia-J), having a number 

 of significations on, upon, in, over, above, under, 

 before, &c. This was the reason of its being com- 

 pounded with many words which passed over into 

 Latin, and thence into English, as a number of the 

 following articles will show. 



EPIC ; a poem of the narrative kind. This is all 

 that is properly signified by the word, although we 

 generally understand by it a poem of an elevated 

 character, describing the exploits of heroes. With- 

 out entering into the various theories of epic com- 

 position, we shall state the views of one of the most 

 distinguished critics of our age A. W. von Schle- 

 gel on this subject. As action is the object of the 

 drama, so narration is that of the epic. But as the 

 event related is something already past, the epic is 

 less stirring than the drama, which represents an 

 action as just happening, and therefore fills the mind 

 with a lively excitement ; hence the more quiet tone 

 of the epic, and the pauses which may be allowed in 

 the interest of the description, whilst the character 

 of the drama is to set before the spectator a rapid 

 succession of actions, and completely engross him in 

 the exhibition ; hence, too, the poet is allowed to 

 introduce passages of philosophical reflections (the 

 frequency and propriety of which, of course, must be 

 regulated by the taste and judgment of the writer) ; 

 nay, the very epithets by which the persons and 

 events of the epic poem are designated, are of a de- 

 scriptive character, and indicate the poet's observa- 

 tion of what is going on ; whilst, in the drama, he 

 must not make himself visible at all. The epic is 

 not a hasty journey, in which we hurry towards a 

 certain end, but an excursion, on which we take 

 time to view many objects on the road, which the 

 art of the poet presents to amuse us. Jean Paul 

 Richter, in his Vorschule der Aesthetik (Introduc. 

 tion to ^Esthetics), says on this point: "The epic 



