E

Echo - the Roman version of the myth of Echo was written by Ovid who said Echo was a nymph assigned by Zeus to talk incessantly to Hera distracting her from Zeus amorous affairs with mortals and gods; Hera discovered the ruse and punished Echo by making her repeat what others said; Echo fell in love with the mortal Narcissus whose vanity caused him to stare at his reflection in a pool of water until he died; overcome with grief, Echo pined for her lost love and faded away leaving only her voice behind to echo the voices of others; the Greek version of the myth of Echo says that Echo was a musical nymph who could sing and play many instruments; her musical skills attracted the jealousy and hatred of many including the god Pan; Pan had his shepherds kill Echo and tear her apart scattering her pieces; the goddess Gaia (mother earth) took the pieces of Echo into her bosom; Echo's voice and talents were thus scattered all over the earth and that is why she is heard imitating sounds and voices in all corners of the world.

ecphrasis - a long description of something included in a text; for example in the Aeneid, there is a long ekphrasis of Dido’s walls detailing the Trojan War; in both the Iliad and the Aeneid, there are ekphrases of shields.

Egeria - a Roman water nymph who was an attendant of Diana.

eggastrimuthos - a spirit that controlled someone's voice; at ancient oracles, priests or priestesses would be taken over by a divinity who forced him or her to speak; often, it was thought that the god Apollo controlled prophets' voices.

eidolon - the image or ghost of a dead person; for an example, see Harvard 1925.30.52.

ekecheiria - the official three-month truce proclaimed by the spondophoroi of Elis that was initiated during the Olympic games; fines were imposed on anyone breaking the truce.

• The Olympic Truce - Myth and Reality
• The Ancient Olympics

ekklesia - Athenian assembly; for more information see the Perseus Historical Overview "6.22. The Institutions of Incipient Democracy."

ekkyklema - literally a "thing rolled out"; in a theater, a platform rolled out on wheels through one of the doors of the skene on which a tableau was displayed representing the result of an action which had taken place indoors and therefore was unseen by the audience.

elanguesco - (Latin) to become relaxed, to become languid.

Eleusinian Mysteries - the earliest Greek mystery cult, located in Eleusis; this cult worshipped Demeter; for its worship, the Eleusinian Mysteries had special priests, rites, and a specific initiation process; much is still unknown about mystery cults, which adds to their interest for modern students and scholars.

eloquentia - (Latin) eloquence; Cicero discusses eloquentia at length in his De Oratore or On Oratory.

embades - an enclosed boot; the term comes from the Greek verb embainein, "to step into"; the boot was often lined with fur or felt; Dionysus is depicted wearing embades and thus tragic actors wore them on stage.

• Louvre vase on which a youth wears embades (image)

emodular - (Latin) to put something to music.

empiricism - the doctrine that says sense experience is the only source of knowledge.

emporium - (Latin) a market, where any kind of sales are made.

emptor - (Latin) buyer, one who buys; this word derives from the Latin verb emo; a famous Latin phrase used in business is “caveat emptor” which literally means “let the buyer beware”.

engue - a pledge; in an ancient Greek wedding ceremongy it is an oral agreement between the kyrios, the bride's male guardian, and the groom; the kyrios entrusted his charge to the groom for the purpose of producing children, while reciting the phrase: "I hand over this woman to you for the ploughing of legitimate children."

• Ancient Weddings

Ennius - Quintus Ennius is the first Latin poet; he wrote during the Roman Republic; his Annales, written in dactylic hexameter, chronicled Roman history beginning with the fall of Troy and continuing through Cato the Elder’s censorship; the Annales was an early text used in schools that was eventually replaced with Vergil’s Aeneid.

entablature - section of a temple between the columns and eaves often composed of the architrave, cornice and frieze.

The Columns of Greece, Rome & Providence RI

ephedreia - in ancient Greek athletic competitions, a bye in which the odd athlete out, the ephedros, competed with the victor in the next round of competition.

• The Ancient Olympics

ephedros - in ancient Greek athletic competitions, the odd athlete out who had a bye and competed with the victor in the next round of competition.

• The Ancient Olympics

Ephesus - a Greek city in the Roman province of Asia, modern-day Turkey; a battle was fought at Ephesus in 499 BCE during the Persian Wars; the city of Ephesus boasted a beautiful Temple of Artemis

epic - a long poem focusing on the story of a hero involving gods and heroic exploits, Homer's Iliad, Odyssey and Vergil's Aeneid are all examples.

• University of Victoria's electronic list of Literary and Rhetorical Terms

epic cycle - a series of poems that recount the entirety of the Trojan War; the best known texts of the epic cycle are Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey; each poem relates a different piece of the Trojan saga, beginning from the Wedding of Peleus and Thetis and the Judgment of Paris and following through the return home from the war of various heroes.

• Troy

Epicureanism - the moral philosophy of Epicurus which rejected the involvement of the gods in human life and urged the avoidance of pain; Epicureanism promoted seeking pleasure; however, the pleasure to seek was not bodily pleasure but rather pleasure for the soul; ataraxia, the absence of disturbance, is most important; Epicureans worked to free themselves from distractions of the outside world.

Epicurus - a Hellenistic Athenian philosopher and founder of Epicureanism (On the Nature of the Universe).

• Netshot: On the Nature of the Universe

epideictic speeches - a genre of speeches that seeks to praise or blame someone or something; epideictic speeches would usually be delivered on specific occasions to commemorate or revile; an example of a positive epideictic speech is Pliny's Panegyric, while a negative epideictic speech would be the Philippics delivered by Cicero.

epinician - a poem written to commemorate athletic victories; the Greek poet Pindar is best know for his epinians in which he wrote about athletic triumphs at ancient Greek sporting contests.

• The Ancient Olympics
• Pindar's Olympian Ode For Hieron of Syracuse, Single Horse Race, 476 BCE

episode - spoken part of Greek drama that alternates with the stasima which are sung.

epithet - a word or phrase that is added to the name of a person or thing describing a characteristic attribute, e.g., swift-footed Achilles.

epoptes - a later-stage initiate in a Greek mystery cult; an epoptes was a mystes who returned for further instruction.

epulae - (Latin) a banquet.

epyllion - a smaller epic; these texts would generally contain only about 600 lines and would cover a mythological topics; the most famous practitioners of the epyllion were Callimachus and Theocritus.

eques - (Latin) horseman; one who takes care of horses.

equito - (Latin) to ride on a horse.

equus - (Latin) horse.

equitatus - (Latin) cavalry.

Erato - the Muse of lyric poetry; ; the Muses were nine goddesses whom artists appealed to in order to inspire their works; Virgil calls upon Erato in Book 7 of his Aeneid to give him inspiration.

Erinyes - the Furies; they are three sisters named Tisiphone, Megaera, and Alecto; they were supposedly born out of anger and their job is to seek revenge on people who have committed crimes; in Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy, the final play, the Eumenides chronicles the change of these goddesses from the Erinyes to the Eumenides (the “Kindly Ones”) and the creation of a legal justice system.

Eris - the goddess of discord; daughter of Zeus and Hera; Eris is involved in every quarrel, feud and disagreement; her eternal and unforgiving rage was the cause of fear and respect on Olympus, though despised by the Olympians they dared not confront her; though she rode into battle with her brother and companion, Aries, she was more generally known for the less deadly forms of conflict; political strife, personal contention, rivalry and wrangling; she is often confused with the Roman goddess, Discordia.

error - (Latin) mistake; deception.

erubesco - (Latin) to respect, to blush for.

esca - (Latin) food.

esculentus - (Latin) delicious, ripe.

essedarius - (Latin) a charioteer, someone who rides in an essedum.

essedum - (Latin) a chariot used in war by the Gauls and the Britons.

Eteocles - son of Oedipus and Jocasta; cursed by his father never to live in peace with his brother, Polynices; the two brothers killed one another.

Euclid - mathematician; his famous text, which writes the laws of geometry, is his Stoicheion or Elements that was published in 300 BCE.

Eunus - leader of a slave revolt; he incited other slaves to begin the First Servile War that lasted between 135 BCE and 132 BCE; he died in 132 BCE

euphemism - the use of a more palatable word or phrase in place of a more direct or crude one. [Contributor: Dr. Ismail S. Talib, National University of Singapore.]

Euripides - Athenian tragic playwright lived from ca. 485 BCE to 406 BCE; Euripides began his career as a tragic playwright in 455 BCE; his extant plays include: Alcestis (438), Medea (431), Children of Heracles (ca. 430), Hippolytus (428, first prize), Andromache (ca. 425), Hecuba (ca. 424), Suppliant Women (ca. 423), Electra (ca. 420), Heracles (ca. 416), Trojan Women (415, second prize), Iphigenia among the Taurians (ca. 414), Ion (ca. 413), Helen (412), Phoenician Women (ca. 410), Orestes (408), Bacchae and Iphigenia in Aulis (after 406, posthumous first prize), Cyclops (date unknown, possibly ca. 410).

• Biography of Euripides
• Netshot: Introduction to Greek Tragedy
• Euripides' Medea
• Euripides' Bacchae

evalesco - (Latin) to grow strong; to be able.

Evander - Greek king who came to Italy and settled on the Palatine Hill at the site of Rome; (2) son of Priam.

everriculum - (Latin) a fishing net.

everto - (Latin) to overthrow.

evinco - (Latin) to conquer, to defeat.

evolutio - (Latin) opening and reading of a scroll; reading a book.

ex animo - (Latin) literally “from the spirit”; this phrase indicates when something appears sincerely.

ex cathedra - (Latin) literally "from the chair"; when someone speaks ex cathedra, (s)he appears confidently and with expertise.

ex libris - (Latin) literally "from the books"; this phrase can be occasionally found on the frontispiece of books to indicate where they come from.

ex officio - (Latin) literally "from the office"; when a person gains a new job, (s)he may at the same time gain a place on certain committees that go along with that new job; hence, (s)he holds the committee office ex officio not because of personally being appointed.

ex parte - (Latin) literally "from a party"; if only one side of a two-party dispute appears to argue, then that dispute is ex parte since only one voice is heard.

excolo - (Latin) to honor a god; to polish; to serve.

exedra - a semicircular portico with curved outdoor high-backed benches that was often used in ancient Greek and Roman times as meeting area.

exemplar - (Latin) a model; a book to copy.

exempli gratia - (Latin) literally this expression means "for the sake of example"; abbreviated in texts as "e.g."; the abbreviation is used in scholarly writing to indicate a following example.

exodos - 'exit scene'; the exit and closing song in Greek drama; roughly, the section of the play after the last stasimon.

exploro - (Latin) to explore.

extant - refers to the works of ancient authors that have not been destroyed or lost and are complete.

extendo - (Latin) to expand.

extispicy - the reading of an omen by examining the entrails of animals; for an example, see Wurzburg L 507 (image).

extollo - (Latin) to lift up, to exalt.

extremitas - (Latin) farthest point, end.