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EPERIES, a town of Hung-ary, in the county of Saros, famousfor salt mines, ‘20 miles N. of Cassovia .

EPERNAY, an ancient and handsome town of France , in thedepartment of Marne , and late province of Champagne; famousfor its wines and cloth manufacture, it is 17 miles N. \V. of Cha-lons’sur Marne.

EPEUS, a descendant of Endvmion, the inventor of the batter-ing ram, an engine of great service in sieges to make a breach.He is said to have built the Trojan horse, and founded the cityMetapontum .

EPI1 A, or EPIIAII, [nstt, Ileb.j a dry measure among theJews , equal to three pecks, three pints, twelve and four-tenthsinches. Also a liquid measure equal to four gallons, two pints, andfifteen inches.

EPHEB/EUM, in antiquity, the place where the cphebi oryouth exercised.

EPHEB1, among the ancient Athenians , a designation givento their young men when they are arrived at eighteen years ofage, at which time they had their names entered in a public re-gister.

EPH E D It A, a genus of the monodelphia order, and dioecia classof plants; natural order Conifers:. Male calyx bilid ; no corolla;stamina seven; anthera four, inferior, three superior: female, calyxfour, bipartite, five-fold, one upon another; no corolla; pistils two;seeds two, covered by the calyx, resembling a berry. It has twospecies, natives of Russia .

EPHEMERA, 1. A fever that terminates in one

day. 2. An insect that lives only one day.

Ei’hemkra, the Day Ei.y, in entomology, a genus of the orderneuroptera. Mouth without mandibles; feelers four, very short,filiform ; antennx short, filiform ; above the eye are two or threelarge stemmata; wings erect, the lower ones much shorter; tail ter-minating in long bristles or hairs. These short-lived animals, ofwhich there are about twenty species, in two divisions, accordingas they have two or three hairs in the tail, are found every whereabout waters in the summer. They take their name from the short-ness of their life', and are distinguished into several species. Somelive several days, others do not take flight till the setting of thesun, and live not to see the rising luminary. Some exist but onehour, others but half that time; in w hich short period they com-ply with the call of nature. With respect to those which live severaldays, there is a peculiarity observed, incident to them alone.They have to cast off one slough more, an operation which some-times takes twenty-four hours to complete. To bring this about,they cling fast to a tree. The ephemera:, before they flutter in air,have in some respect been fishes. They remain in the states oflarva and chrysalis for one, two, or three years. The chrysalisonly differs from the larva by having cases for wings on its back.Both have on their sides small fringes of hair, which, when putinto motion, serve them as lins. Nothing can he more curiousthan the plying of those little oars in the water. Their abdomenis terminated, as well as in their state of flies, by three threads.These larva- scoop oiit dwellings in the banks of rivers; smalltubes made like siphons, the one serving for an entrance, theother affording them an outlet. The banks of some rivers areoften perforated with them. When the waters decrease, they digfresh holes lower down, to enjoy their element the water. Theseason and hour, when the chrysalids of the different species of theephemera’ turn into flies, maintain a kind of regularity. The heat,the rise or fall of the waters, accelerate, however, or postponetheir final display. The ephemerae of the Rhine appear in the airtw o hours before sunset. These Hies are hatched almost all at thesame in-tant in such numbers as to darken the air. The most earlyot those on the.Marne andSeine iuFrance, do not begin to fly till twohours after sunset, in the middle of August. They are seen flut-tering and sporting on the brink of their tomb. The glare of lightattracts them, round which they perform a thousand circles withamazing regularity. See Plate XXXVII.

EPHEMEUIS, 1. A journal; an account of daily

transactions. 2. An account of the daily motions and situations ofthe planets.

Ephemeras, [m, andv/wija, a day,] in astronomy, a table calcu-lated to shew the state of the heavens for every day at noon ; orthe places wherein all the planets are found at that time. Fromthese tables the eclipses, conjunctions, and aspects, of the planets,are determined; horoscopes or celestial schemes constructed, &c.

Origan , Kepler, Argoli, Heckeru-, Mezzaracchis, Wing, DelaHire, Parker, &c. have published ephemendes. S. Cassini hascalculated ephemendes of the sidera medicare, or satellites of Ju-piter, which are of good use in determining the longitude. InEngland, the Nautical Almanac, or Astronomical Ephemeris,published annually by anticipation, under the direction of thecommissioners of longitude, is the most considerable. In France ,celestial ephemerides were published by M. Desplaces every tenyears, from 1715, to 1745: thev were afterwards continued bythe Abbe Caille, with many additions; of which an account maybe seen in the History of the Academy of Sciences , for 1745.That academy have likewise published annually, from the begin-ning of the present century, a kind of ephemeris, under the titleof Connoissance des Terns. White’s ephemeris is also a very use-ful work for the practical astronomer.

El’HESIA, a festival held at Ephesus in honour of Diana,

EPIIESTIA, in antiquity, a festival in honour of Vulcan,wherein three young men ran for a prize.

EPIIESTRIA, feasts celebrated at Thebes in honour of Tire-sias.

EPHESUS, an ancient city of Ionia, much celebrated on ac-count of its temple of Diana, and for being the most famousmart of Asia Minor, as well as the metropolis of all Asia . Ste-phanas gives it the title of Epiphanestate, or most illustrious; andPliny styles it the ornament of Asia . The ancient city stoodabout 50 miles south of Smyrna, near the mouth of the riverCayster, and the shore of the Icarian sea, which is a bay of therEgxan; but it has been so often destroyed and rebuilt, it is noeasy matter to determine the precise place. Most of our mo-dern travellers are of opinion, that the ancient city stood moreto tiie south than the present; which they argue from the ruinsthat still remain. Ephesus was anciently known by the differentnames of Alopes , Orlygia, Morgcs, Smyrna, Tracha-a, Samor-nion, and Plela. It was called Ephesus, according to Heraclides ,from E$»i<j-o;, permission ; because Hercules (says he) permitted theAmazons to live and build a city in that place. Others Idl us,that Ephesus was the name of the Amazon that founded the city ;for Pliny, Justin, and Orosius , unanimously affirm that it w as builtby an Amazon ; while others bestow this honour upon Androclus,the son of Codrus, king of Athens, who was the chief of theIonians that settled in Asia . But in matters of so early a date,it is impossible to come at the truth. What we know for certainis, that the city, which in the Roman times was the metropolis ofall Asia, acknowledged Lysimachus for its founder ; for that princehaving caused the ancient city to he entirely demolished, rebuilt,at a vast expence, a new one, in a place more convenient, andnearer the temple. Ephesus is now called Ajasaloue, and still ex-hibits many relicts of its ancient grandeur. It is seated near agulph of the same name, and, according to some modern travel-lers. has still a good harbour, 4l> miles S. of Smyrna. Lon. 27. 33.E. Lat. 37. 48. N.

EPHETJE, [from ' I send forth,] in antiquity, magis-

trates among the Athenians , instituted by king Demophoon, totake cognizance of murder, man-slaughter, and chance-medley.

EPHIEL1S, in botany, a genus of the octamlria monogyniaclass and order. Calyx live-parted; petals five, with claws; nec-tary ten scales, two to each petal; capsule oblong, one-celled, two-valved, two-seeded. One species, viz. E. guianensis, a lofty tree,growing in the forests of Guiana.

EPIIOD, [TIBS,] a sort of ornament worn by the Hebrew priests. That worn by the high priest was richly composed ofgold, blue, purple, crimson, and twisted cotton; and upon thepart which came over his two shoulders, w ere two large preciousstones, upon which were engraven the names of the twelve tribesof Israel, upon each stone six names. Where the ephod crossedthe high priest’s breast was a square ornament, called the breast-plate ; in which twelve precious stones were set, with the namesof the twelve tribes of Israel engraved on them, one on eachstone. The ephods worn by the other priests were of plain linen.Calmet.

EPIIORI, in Grecian antiquity, magistrates established by Ly-curgus in ancient Sparta to balance the regal power. 'Flic autho-rity of the ephori was very great. They sometimes expelled, andeven put to death, the kings, and abolished or suspended the powerof the other magistrates, calling them to an account at pleasure.There were five of them, or, as others say, nine. They presided in