EPIMETHEUS EPISODE. 



69 



branch from the olive cousecrated to Minerva. There 

 is a story of his having slept in a cavern, according 

 to some, forty years, and according to others, a still 

 longer period. On awaking, he found, to his asto- 

 nishment, everything changed in his native town. 

 We died in his native country, at an advanced age. 

 This story is the ground-work of Goethe's poem, the 

 Waking of Epimenides, for the anniversary of the 

 battle of Leipsic. 



EPIMETHEUS, in Greek mythology; a son of 

 Japetus and Clymene ; he married Pandora, by 

 whom he had Pyrrha, the wife of Deucalion. 

 (Apollod. i. 7, 2.) It was Epimetheus who had the 

 curiosity to open the box which Pandora had brought 

 with her, and from which issued a train of evils, 

 that have ever since afflicted the human race. Hope 

 alone remained in the bottom of the box, Pandora 

 having shut it before she could escape, that she 

 might comfort mortals after they had expiated their 

 sins. It is to be remarked, that in this Greek tradi- 

 tion, curiosity and disobedience are made the origin 

 of evil, as in the Mosaic account of the fall. See 

 Pandora. 



- EPIN AY, LOUISE (madame d'). This accomplished 

 lady, celebrated for her connexion with Rousseau, 

 was the daughter of M. Tardieu Desclavelles, who 

 lost his life in Flanders, in the service of Louis XV., 

 and left his family in very moderate circumstances. 

 This, and the favour which Desclavelles had enjoyed 

 at court, excited an interest for the daughter, and she 

 was married to M. Delalive de Bellegarde, who 

 received the office of farmer-general. But the extra- 

 vagance of the young man soon disturbed the happi- 

 ness which had been expected from this union. 

 During the earlier part of her life, she formed an 

 acquaintance with the philosopher of Geneva, who, 

 quick and susceptible in all his feelings, devoted 

 himself to the fascinating and accomplished woman 

 with an ardour, the depth and strength of which he 

 describes himself in his Confessions. She was not 

 insensible to the homage of her bear, as she used to 

 call him, on account of his eccentricities. She did 

 all that was in her power to place him in a situation 

 corresponding to his wishes. She gave him a cottage 

 (the hermitage, since so famous) in her park of 

 Chevrette, in the vale of Montmorency. Here the 

 author of the Nouvelle Heloise passed many days, 

 rendered happy by his romantic attachment to 

 madame d'Epinay; until he became jealous of baron 

 Grimm, whom he had himself introduced to his 

 mistress ; and in consequence of this feeling, which 

 he took no pains to conceal, a coolness, and finally 

 an aversion took place between him and the lady, 

 which is but too plainly expressed in his Confessions. 

 A defence of the later conduct of madame d'Epinay 

 towards Rousseau may be found in Grimm's Corres- 

 pondence, where an account is also given of some 

 works written by her, of which the most celebrated 

 is Les Conversations d'Emilie. In this the authoress, 

 in a rather cold, but neat style, sets forth the prin- 

 ciples of moral instruction for children, with equal 

 elegance and depth of thought. It obtained, in 

 1783, the prize offered by Monthion (then chancellor 

 to the count d'Artois) for useful works of this kind, 

 in preference to the Adele et Theodore of madame 

 de Genlis. She also wrote Lettres d mon Fils, and 

 Mes Moments heureux. An abridgment of her highly 

 interesting memoirs, and her correspondence, show- 

 ing her relations with Duclos, Rousseau, Grimm, 

 Holbach, Lambert, &c. , appeared in Paris, in three 

 vols., in 1818. They give a true picture of the 

 refined but corrupt manners which prevailed among 

 the higher classes in France during the government 

 of Louis XV. Madame d'Epinay died in 1783. 

 EPIPHANY ; a festival, otherwise called the 



manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, observed on the 

 6th of January, in honour of the appearance of our 

 Saviour to the three magi, or wise men, who came to 

 adore him, and bring him presents. The festival of 

 Epiphany is caUed by the Greeks, the feast of tig/its, 

 because our Saviour is said to have been baptized on 

 this day; the baptism is by them called illumination. 

 The feast of Epiphany is also called, in Germany, 

 the festival of the three holy kings. The primitive 

 church also gave this name to the birth-day of our 

 Saviour. The Greek church calls the same feast 

 Theophany (appearance of God.) 



EPIPHORA. This figure of rhetoric is the em- 

 phatic repetition of a word at the end of several sen 

 tences, or stanzas, as the anaphora is the repetition 

 of it at the beginning. Thus, in Byron's song, z 

 P.O. aa.t ayatvu, these words are repeated at the end of 

 every stanza; and in the Spanish Romance muy 

 doloroso (translated by Byron), the words Ay de mi } 

 Alhama. 



EPIRUS ; a province bordering on Greece, and 

 often included in it ; the most southerly part oi 

 modern Albania (q. v.). The oracle of Dodona, the 

 oldest in Greece, was in Epirus, in a temple of Jupiter, 

 which was built according to the direction of a black 

 pigeon, or rather of an Egyptian priestess. There are 

 no traces remaining of that celebrated city, nor has the 

 grove of oaks, with the never-failing fountains, been 

 yet discovered. Mythology probably derived from 

 this country the infernal rivers of Acheron and 

 Cocytus; and here, too, the poisonous vapours ex- 

 haled from Avernus (now called Vail dell'Orso). The 

 country is mountainous, but, along the sea-coast, 

 pleasant and fertile. In ancient times, the Chaonians 

 were the most powerful tribe. Several Greek colo- 

 nies settled among them. The most celebrated of 

 the kings of Epirus was Pyrrhus, who made war 

 upon the Romans. Being delivered from the Mace- 

 donian yoke by the Romans, when they conquered 

 Philip il., the Epirots gradually became so powerful, 

 that they assisted Antiochus and Perseus against the 

 Romans, but thereby only hastened their own down- 

 fall. Paulus ^Emilius (q. v.) subdued them, and gave 

 up their towns to pillage. Seventy towns were 

 destroyed, and 150,000 men sold into slavery. 

 Epirus, from this time, shared the fortunes of the 

 Roman empire, till it was conquered by the Turks, 

 under Amurath II., in 1432. Castriot (Scanderbeg, 

 q. v.), the last of the royal family in Epirus, and 

 educated at the Ottoman court, threw off the Turkish 

 yoke; but, after his death, his country was again 

 conquered by Mahomet II., 1466. It is principally 

 inhabited by Arnauts. 



EPISCEN1UM, in modern theatres, the front part 

 of the stage ; in ancient theatres, the upper part of 

 the scene.. 



EPISCOPACY. See England, Church of, and 

 Roman Catholic Church. 



EPISODE. (Latin episodium, from the Greek 

 i-rifftitov) is employed by Aristotle, in two significa- 

 tions. Sometimes it denotes those parts of a play 

 which are between the choruses, and sometimes an 

 incidental narrative, or digression in a poem, which 

 the poet has connected with the main plot, but which 

 is not essential to it. In modern times, it lias been 

 used in the latter sense only. With the best poets, 

 the episode is not a mere patch or piece to fill out 

 the poem, not an unnecessary appendage, serving 

 merely to swell the size of the work, but it is closely 

 connected with the subject, points out important con- 

 sequences, or developes hidden causes. Of this kind 

 is the narrative of the destruction of Troy, in Virgil's 

 ^Eneid. This was the cause of the hero's leaving 

 his country, and wandering over the sea ; but the 

 poet does not commence with it, because he wishes 



