EUR 
83 
EUR 
rendered fo uncomfortable at Athens, that in advanced 
age he accepted the invitation of Archelaus, the fpicn- 
did king of Macedon. In his court, Euripides was treated 
with the diftindtion due to his great reputation; but, ac¬ 
cording to traditional dories, lie did not there efcape the 
malice of petty jealoufy. To the confequences of a quar¬ 
rel from this caufe is imputed his tragical death. As he 
was walking in a wood, the king’s hounds, let loofe, it 
is fald, on purpofe, fell upon him, and tore him in pieces. 
He was then in his feventy-fifth year. Archelaus caufed 
Jyim to be interred with great magnificence, and a public 
mourning took place at Athens on the news of the fatal 
event. 
The merits of this early tragedian, fingly, and in com¬ 
panion with thofe of Sophocles, have been difeuffed by 
many critics, ancient and modern. The general opinion 
fee ms to be, that will lefs pomp of didtion, lefs force 
and elevation of charadter, and lefs knowledge of drama¬ 
tic effedt than Sophocles, he more excels in tendernefs, 
fuavity, and moral fentiment. The laft quality of fen- 
tentioufnefs probably gave him his great popularity, 
and rendered his compolitions fuch favourites among the 
Greeks ; for no application of poetry is found fo durably 
to imprefs the mind, as the happy exprefiion of moral 
maxims, or the genuine feelings of the heart. He is faid 
to have painted more from nature and reality than his ri¬ 
val, and to have reprefented mankind as they are, rather 
than as they ought to be. Hence the Athenians, w 7 ho 
were very nice on ethical topics, fometimes found fault 
with fentiments in his plays as they heard them uttered 
upon the ftage, without flaying to confider their perfonal 
propriety, as belonging to peculiar charadters. Ariflo- 
tle has called him the mofl tragical of all the poets; an 
equivocal term, by which he is l’uppofed by fome to mean 
the mofl fkilftil in the drama, by others the moll pathe¬ 
tic. The latter is probably the true meaning, fince Eu¬ 
ripides, in general, is not a tragedian of the mofl con¬ 
trivance, and has been charged with anticipating the 
event in his prologues fo as to injure the force of the ca- 
taflrophe. He feems to have entertained an elevated no¬ 
tion of the preceptive office of the theatre ; for being 
once defned by the auditors to retrench a paflage in one 
of his plays, he flept forward on the ftage, and laid, “ I 
do not w'rite in order to learn from you, but to teach 
you.” Nineteen only of his pieces are prelerved. Of 
thefe, both fingly and colledlively, there are many edi¬ 
tions. The befl are thofe of Bafil, 1551 ; of Pluntin, 
1571 ; of Commelin, 1597; of Paul Stephens, 1604, 
16115 of Barnes, Camb. 1694, and of Mufgrave, Oxf. 
1778. 
EVREU'X, a town of France, and capital of the de¬ 
partment of the Eure : before the revolution, the fee 
of a bifhop, futfragan of Rouen, and containing eight 
parifhes. Its commerce con (ids in woollen and linen 
cloth, lace, grain, wine, and cider: fix pefts fouth of 
Rouen, and twelve and a half weft of Paris. Lat. 49. 2. 
N. Ion. 18. 48. E. Ferro. ■ 
EURIPUS, in ancient geography, a narrow (trait 
which feparates the illand of ZEuboea from the coaft of 
Bcectia. Its flux and reflux, which continued regular 
during eighteen or nineteen days, and was unfettled the 
reft of the month, was a matter of deep inquiry among 
the ancients, and it is faid that Ariftotle threw himfelf 
into it, becaufe he was unable to find out the cables of 
that phenomenon. Livy. 
EURI PUS, f. [from Euripus Euboicus , the narrow fea, 
(juft mentioned) that ebbs and flows feveral times in a day. ] 
Perpetual fluctuation.—They have ordained, that the 
provifipn of [his eflablilhment might be as ftable as the 
earth on which it Hands, and ftiould not fluctuate with 
the Euripus of funds and adtions. Burke. 
EUROC'LYDON, f. [Evpo;, eaft wind, and xt.vfrwv, 
wave.] A fpecies of wind mentioned only in AdL xvii. 
1.4, and concerning the nature of which critics have been 
much divided. Bochart, Grotius, Bentley, and others. 
fubftitute another reading, fupported by the Alexandrian 
MS. and the Vulgate, viz. ~Eiyaxv>.uv, or Euro-aqui/o; but 
Dr. Bryant defends the common reading, and confiders 
the Eitroclydon, i. e. Evpo; x}.v£uv, as an eaft-wind that 
caufes a deep and raging fea.—There arofe againft it a 
tempeftuous wind called euroclydon. //dihxxvii. 14. 
EVRO'N, a town of France, and principal place of a 
diftridt, in the department of the Mayenne : five leagues 
eaft-north-eaft of Laval, and four fouth-fouth-eaft of May¬ 
enne. 
EURO'PA, in fabulous hiftory, the daughter of Age- 
nor, king of Phoenicia and Telephaffa. She was lo beau¬ 
tiful that Jupiter became enamoured of her; and the 
better to fecure her, be aflunied the ftiape of a bull, and 
mingled with the herds of Agenor, while Europa, with 
her female attendants were gathering flowers in the mea¬ 
dows. Europa carefled the beautiful animal, and'at lad 
had the courage to fit upon his back. The god took ad¬ 
vantage of her (ituation ; and with precipitous fteps, re¬ 
tiring towards the fltore, flew acrofs the fea with Europa 
on his back, and arrived-fafe in Crete. Here lie aflumed 
his original ftiape, and declared his love. The nymph 
confented, though flm had once made vows of perpetual 
celibacy ; and (he became mother of Minos, Sarpedon, 
and Rhadamanthus. After this diflinguiftied amour with 
Jupiter, (he married Afterius king of Crete. This mo¬ 
narch, feeing himfelf without ifllie by Europa, carefled 
the fruit of her amours with Jupiter, and adopted Mi¬ 
nos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus, as his own children. 
Writers have attempted to explain this (lory of Europa 
as follows : that the (hip wherein flie was carried was 
Tauri-formis, i. e. in the form of a bnli ; others, that the 
name of the mailer of the (hip was Taurus ; and others, 
that Taurus, or a bull, was the figure at the head of the 
fhip; or that file was ftolen away by a company of men, 
who carried the inlignia of a bull in their flag. 
EU'ROPE, l Europa, Lat. fuppofed to have received 
this name from Europa, who, according to the above 
legend, was brought over to this continent by Jupiter.] 
One of the four grand divifions of the world ; and 
the fmallefl in extent, yielding confiderably even to 
Africa. From Cabo di Rocco, ftyled by our mariner 
the Rock of I.ifbon, in the weft, to the Uralian mouti 
tains in the eaft, the length may be about 3300 Britilh 
miles; and the breadth from Cape Nord, in Danilh Lap- 
land, to Cape Matapan, the fouthern extremity of Greece, 
may be about 2330. The contents in fquare miles have 
been eftimated with fuch diverfity of opinion, fuch efti- 
mates being, in truth, arbitrary and only comparative, 
that it is fufficient to take the medial number of about 
two millions and a half. More than a third .part of Eu¬ 
rope, towards the north and eaft, has only been known 
with precision in modern times. On the fouth it is limited 
by the Mediterranean fea ; on the weft by the Atlantic, 
which contains the furtheft European ille, that of Ice¬ 
land, Greenland being now regarded by molt geographers 
as a part of North America. On the north,- the boundary 
is the Arctic Ocean, embracing the remote ifles of Spitz- 
bergen, and Nova Zembla. Toward the eaft, according 
to Mr. Pinkerton, the boundaries require fome regula¬ 
tion. The Uralian mountains, a grand natural limit, 
not extending to the Ardtic Ocean, the river Cara, which 
flows into the fea of Katfkoye, is admitted as a bounda¬ 
ry. The Uralian limit extends to about fifty-fix degrees 
of north latitude ; to the fouth of which the grand con¬ 
fines of Europe and Afia are fought in the petty diftinc— 
tions of Ruffian governments. More natural limits might 
be afeertained by tracing the river Oufa, from its fource 
to its jundtion with the'Belaia. Thence along the Kama 
to the Volga, which would conftitute a drifting natural 
divifion, to the town of Sarepta ; w hence a fliort ideal 
line, the only one admitted in this delineation, will lead 
due weft to the river Don, which would complete the 
unafeertained boundary ; that on the north and welt of 
the Euxine being clear and precife. 
The 
