E R I 
ef t!ie fitters, had the cnriofity to open the balket, for 
which the goddefs punifhed her indifcretion by making 
her jealous of her fitter Herfe. Erichthon was young 
when he afcended the throne of Athens. He reigned 
fifty years, and died B. C. 1437. The invention of cha¬ 
riots is attributed to him, and the manner of harnetting 
Jhorfes to draw them. He was made a conftellation after 
death under the name of Bootes. Virgil. 
E'RTCU,/i in botany. See Asclepias. 
ERICU'SA, one of the Lipari ifles, now Allcudi. 
ERI'DANUS, one of the largeft rivers of Italy, rifing 
in the Alpsand falling intothe Adriatic by feveral mouths ; 
now called the Po. It was in its neighbourhood that the 
Heliades, the fitters of Phaeton, were changed into pop¬ 
lars, according to Ovid. Virgil calls it the king of all 
rivers, and Lucan compares it to the Rhine and Danube. 
ERI'DANUS, the River, a conftellation of the fouthern 
hemifphere, and one of the forty-eight old afterifms. The 
ftars in this conftellation, in Ptolemy’s catalogue, are 
thirty-four, in Tyche’s nineteen, and in the Britifh cata¬ 
logue eighty-four. 
ERI'E, an Indian nation, formerly poffefling the banks 
of lake Erie, called by the French du Chat, or Cat-nation. 
They were extirpated by the Iroquois about the year 1655. 
ERI'E, a lake of the fourth magnitude in North Ame¬ 
rica, and through which runs the line between the United 
States and Upper Canada. D’Etroir river on the weft 
brings the waters of the great lakes with which lake 
Erie has a communication on the north-weft, and Niagara 
riveron theeaft, forms its communication with the waters 
of lake Ontario and the river St. Lawrence, Itisfituated 
between 41. and 43. N. lat. and between 78. 48. and 83. 
W.lon. Its form is elliptical. Its length is about 225 
miles; and its medium breadth about 40. It affords good 
navigation for (hipping of any burden. The coaft on both 
fides of the lake is generally favourable for the paffage of 
batteaux and canoes. Its banks in many places have a 
flat Tandy (bore, particularly to the eaftward of the penin- 
fula called Long Point, which runs upwards of eighteen 
miles into the lake, and being compofed of hand is very 
convenient to haul boats out of the furf upon it, when 
the lake is too rough for failing and rowing ; yet in fome 
places, chiefly on the fouth fide towardsboth ends of the 
lake, it would be dangerous to approach and impoflibleto 
land, by reafon of the perpendicular height of the rocks. 
Some of thefe, (as at Crayahoga,) are magnificent beyond 
defcription, and muft alfo infpire dread in the boldeft 
heart, when viewed from the water. Lake Erie has a 
great variety of fine fifli, fuch as fturgeon, eel, trout, 
perch, &c. Lakes Huron and Michigan afford commu¬ 
nication with lake Erie, by veffels of eight feet draught. 
There are portages into the waters of lake Erie from the 
Wabalh, Great Miami, Mufkingum, and Alleghany, from 
two to fixteen miles. The portage between the Ohio and 
Potowmack about twenty miles. Some of thefe rivers 
are connected in a moft Angular manner with others, 
which run in a courfe totally different. For inftance, after 
palling over the lakes Erie, St. Clair, and Michiligan, to 
the head of Puan’s Bay, we reach Fox River ; from hence 
there is a portage of three miles only to Ouifconfing Ri¬ 
ver, which empties itfelf into the Mifliflippi ; and, in the 
fall of the year, when the waters are high, and the rivers 
overflow, it is oftentimes poftible to pafs. from Fox River 
to Ouifconfing River, without ever getting out of a canoe. 
Thus, excepting a portage of three miles only at the moft, 
it is poftible to go the whole way by water from Prefque 
Ifle, on Lake Erie, to New Orleans, at the mouth of the 
Mifliflippi, a diftance of near four thoufand miles. 
ERI'E FORT, a ftrong fortification in Upper Canada, 
nutated on the north lhore of lake Erie, and on the weft 
bank of Niagara river, twenty.feven miles fouth by eaft 
of Niagara Fort, and eighteen above the carrying place at 
the Fails of Niagara. Lat. 42. 59. N. Ion. 78 . 20. 30. W. 
The fort and furrounding houfes built on the rocky fhore, 
the veliels lying at anchor, the verdant meads, the diftaat 
£ R I 89.9 
hills on the oppofite fide of the lake, and the vaft lake 
itfelf, extending to the fartheft boundary of the horizon, 
forms an interefting, contemplative, and captivating feene. 
ERIEU'X, a river of France, which runs into the 
Rhone, at Beattchaftel. 
ERI'GENA (John Scotus), an eminent philofopher in 
the ninth century, fuppofed to have been a native of 
Scotland, though fome writers affert that he was a native 
of Hereford (hire, and others of Ireland. He was pofleff- 
ed of an ardent third for literature ; and, finding few ad¬ 
vantages in his native country, is laid to have travelled 
into foreign parts, and to have ftudied at Athens, and 
other places, where he acquired a knowledge of the 
Greek, Chaldaic, and Arabic, languages, and became 
more intimately converfant in the Grecian philofophy 
than any of his contemporaries in that dark age. From 
the extent of his erudition he obtained the name of 
Scotus the Wife. He was alfo diftinguilhed by the liveli- 
nefs of his wit, and his pleafing manners, as well as his ex¬ 
traordinary acquirements. His fame having reached the 
court of Charles the Bald, king of France, the greateft 
patron of literature in that period, he received an invita¬ 
tion from that prince to vifit him ; which he accepted, 
and lived for feveral years in habits of the utmoft inti¬ 
macy and familiarity with hisroyal patron, who gave him 
the direction of the univerfity of Paris. While Erigena. 
refided at the court of France, he compofed a variety of 
works, fome in refutation of tranfubftantiation, which 
procured him a number of admirers, and alfo many ene¬ 
mies. Erigena tranllated the treatifes of Dionyfius the 
Areopagite, “ On the celeftial Monarchy “ On the 
Ecclefiaftical Hierarchy “ On Divine Names and 
“ On Myftic Theology.” This tranflation was received 
with great eagernefs by the weftern churches ; but as it 
contained many things contrary to the faith of the church 
of Rome, pope Nicholas I. was highly difpleafed, and 
wrote a threatening letter to the French king, command¬ 
ing that Erigena (hould be baniflied from the univerfity of 
Paris, and lent to Rome. Charles, how’ever, had too 
great a regard for Erigena, and, accordingly advifed him 
to withdraw to England. The principal work of Erigena 
was his treatife “ On the Divifion of Nature, or the Na¬ 
tures of Things,” which, after long lying in MS. in un- 
difturbed repofe, was publifhed at Oxford, in 16S1, by 
Dr. Thomas Gale, under the title of Joannis Scoti Erigena 
de Divijione Natures Libri quinque, diu defiderati. This work 
is an object of literary cnriofity, as furnifhing us with an 
extraordinary example of metaphyfical fubtlety and acute- 
nefs, for the age in which the author lived, which he ac¬ 
quired by ftudying the writings of the Greek philofophers. 
By the application of it to theological fubjeCts, he became 
the father of that fcholaftic divinity, whicli made fo dif- 
tinguifhed a figure in the middle ages, and fo long obftruCt- 
ed the progrefs of genuine fcience. According to Cave and 
Tanner, Erigena took refuge in England in t lie year 877, and 
was employed by king Alfred in the reftoration of learn¬ 
ing at the univerfity of Oxford. Tanner aflerts, that he 
was appointed profeffor of mathematics and aftronomy in 
that univerfity in the year 789. After continuing to teach 
there for three years, fome differences took place in the 
univerfity, which occafioned himtoquit his fituation, and 
retire to the abbey of Malmfbury in Wiltfhire, where he 
opened a fchool. In this place, according to the accounts 
of the generality of Englifti writers, he was murdered by 
his fcholars, in the year 883. But Dr. Henry, in the fe- 
cond volume of his Hiftory of Britain, gives it as the moft 
probable opinion that he died in France. 
ERI'GERON, f [of Pliny, Theophraftus, and Diof- 
corides; from ■/)%, fpring, and yapuv, Gr. old man ; be- 
caufe it is hoary in the fpring.J In botany, a genus of the 
clafs fyngenefia, order polygamia ftiperflua, natural order 
of compofitae difeoidae, (corymbiferm, JujJ.) The gene¬ 
ric characters are—Calyx : common, oblong, cylindric, 
imbricate ; lcales fubulate, upright, gradually longer, 
nearly equal. Corolla : co/npound, rayed; corollets her¬ 
maphrodite 3 
