=Ete´ocles.= A king of Thebes, son of OEdipus and Jocasta. After his
father's death it was agreed between him and his brother Polynices that
they should reign a year each alternately. Eteocles first ascended the
throne, but at the end of the year he refused to resign the crown. Thus
treated, Polynices implored assistance from Adrastus, king of Argos,
whose daughter he married, and who placed an army at his disposal.
Eteocles marshalled his forces, and several skirmishes took place
between the hostile hosts, when it was agreed on that the brothers
should decide the contest by single combat. They fought with inveterate
fury, and both were killed.
=Eucli´des.= A famous mathematician of Alexandria, who lived B.C. 300. He
wrote fifteen books on the elements of mathematics. Euclid was so much
respected that King Ptolemy became one of his pupils.
=Eu´menes.= A Greek officer in the army of Alexander. He was the most
worthy of all Alexander's generals to succeed him after his death. He
conquered Paphlagonia and Cappadocia, of which he obtained the
government, till the power of Antigonus obliged him to retire.
Eventually, after many vicissitudes of fortune, he was put to death in
prison by order of Antigonus.
=Eumen´ides.= A name given to the Furies. They sprang from the drops of
blood which flowed from a wound which Coelus received from Saturn.
According to some writers they were daughters of the Earth, and sprung
from the blood of Saturn. Others make them to be daughters of Acheron
and Night, or Pluto and Proserpine. According to the generally received
opinion they were three in number--Tisiphone, Megara, and Alecto, to
which some add Nemesis.
=Euphor´bus.= A famous Trojan. He wounded Patroclus, whom Hector killed.
He died by the hand of Menelaus.
=Euphra´tes.= A large river in Asia which flowed through the middle of the
city of Babylon.
=Eurip´ides.= A celebrated tragic poet born at Salamis. He studied
eloquence under Prodicus, ethics under Socrates, and philosophy under
Anaxagoras. He often retired to a solitary cave, where he wrote his
tragedies. It is said that he met his death by being attacked and torn
in pieces by dogs, 407 years before the Christian era, in the
seventy-eighth year of his age. He is accredited with the authorship of
seventy-five tragedies, of which only nineteen are extant. One of his
plays, "Ion," has become familiarized in name to general readers by the
exquisite play thus called written by the late Judge Talfourd, and first
acted at Covent Garden theater, May 26, 1836.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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