EPHRAIM. 140 EPICHARMTJS. (I. Kings xii. 1-20). After this revolt Ephraim is merged in the northern kingdom, and of this kingdom it formed by far the most important part. The story told in Gen. xlviii. 15-19, of the preference which Jacob gave to Ephraim in bless- ing him before Manasseh, although the latter was the older son of Joseph, is due to an Ephraimitic writer, but truthfully reflects this superior posi- tion which Ephraim occupied in the northern kingdom, and its general prominence in Hebrew before the Exile. The tribal traditions furthermore indicate that at one time Manasseh, Ephraim, and Benjamin constituted a single tribe known as Joseph. Benjamin was the first to cut loose, and hence becomes, in tribal meta- phor, the younger brother of Joseph. For a time Manasseh and Ephraim remained together, and even in Solomon's days they still unite for admin- istrative purposes, but at last Ephraim also cut loose and eventually outranks Manasseh. EPHRAIM. A town mentioned in John xi. 54, to which Jesus retired from the neighborhood of Jerusalem, because of the hostility manifested by the Jewish authorities. The place is described as near a 'desert,' i.e. an uncultivated tract, and i- probably to be identified with the modern I i j ibeh, a few miles northeast of ancient Bethel. The Ephraim of II. Sam. xiii. 23, the Ephraim of II. Chron. xiii. 19, the Aphairema of I. Maccabees xi. 34, and the Ephraim of Josephus, h War, iv. 9, ail probably represent the same place. Practically nothing is known of its history. EPHRAIM CO'DEX. See Bible. EPH'RATA. A township and borough, in Lancaster County, Pa. The borough, which was incorporated in 1891, is situated on the Reading and Columbia Railroad. 38 miles east by south of Harrisburg, and is a thriving place, with a population, in 1900, of 2390. It is noteworthy chiefly on account of having been formerly the seal of the mystic 'Order of the Solitary.' a semi monastic community of Seventh-Day Dun- kers. The community, which contained both men and women, was founded by Johann Conrad Beissel (q.v.), in 173."). The members adopted a peculiar dress, somewhat resembling that of the Capuchins or White Friars, and the men wore i ]il-. Celibacy was looked upon as praise- worthy, bill marriage was permitted. Property was held in common, although private ownership was not forbidden. Many of Ihe members were well educated; a printing-press was set up, and a number of works, in both English and German, -nine of them very beautifully made and now highly prized, were published. t the period of its greatest prosperity the community contained 'in persons, lint about the time of the Revolution i' began to decline, and few traces in. Consult: Gibbons, Pennsylvania ■ Essays t Philadelphia, ISTiM : ■'I. two-i olume work. The I /'. nnsylvania I Philadel phia, L80! EPH'YDRA, r-f'idra (Neo-Lat, from Gk. tQi'&pos, ephydros, living on tin m Arc epi, upon + tStap, hydor, water) genus of i mites, whose eggs and l.i i by American Indians. I me cultivated by the native Mexicans, as was the custom of their ancestors. Another species furnished food to the aborigines about Mans Lake, Cal. For full details, see Fly. EPI, a-pe' (Fr., ear of corn). The pointed ter- mination on the peak of a pavilion or turret, or at the end of a roof-ridge, especially above hipped roofs, often around an upright timber. In the United States a plain copper sheathing is ordi- narily used; in the Middle Ages it was usually of lead. When the protective sheathing was turned into a decorative motive, it was crowned by a linial and had relief ornament. They were some- times of carved stone, terra-cotta, or faience. EPIC CYCLE. The name given to a series of poems produced by various Greek poets of the Ionian school, between c. 800 and 550 B.C. These productions worked up the many legends centring about the story of Troy, which had been passed over in the Iliad and Odyssey; they were later combined with the Homeric poems into an epic cycle designed to give a complete survey of myth- ology from the marriage of Uranus and Gaea to the death of Ulysses, and the writers were hence known as Cyclic poets (q.v.). Among their works were the Cypria of Stasinus, forming an introduction to the Iliad, and the .Hthiopis and Iliu Persis of Arctinus, forming its continuation. The interval between the Iliad and the Odyssey was covered by the Nosli of Agias of Troezen, and the Odyssey was supplemented by the Telegonia of Eugammon of Cyrene. Of these and other works only the titles, authors' names, and some fragments have come down. The poems are chief- ly of importance from the fact that the dram- atists drew on them for their versions of the myths. They were later arranged for educa- tional purpose by the so-called Cyclograpbs, and illustrated by artists. A specimen of these col- lections is preserved at Naples (Marmor Bor- gianuni), and another, the famous Tabula lliaca, is in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. Consult Lawton, The Successors of Homer (New York, 1898). EP'ICHAR'MUS (Lat., from Gk. 'Eirtxapfios, Epicharmos) . The greatest of the Sicilian comic poets. He was born in Cos, but while still a child emigrated to Sicily early in the fifth cen- tury. The details of his life are little known; tradition says that he lived to be ninety years of age, and was greatly honored by the Syracusans. Epicharinus doubtless owed much to the Syra- cusan tyrants. Gelon and Hiero, who generously aided lyric and dramatic poets, that they might increase the brilliancy of the courts; and it was probably under their patronage that he produced his comedies. rinse numbered 36 (according to some authorities 52 . and roughly fall into two classes — mythological travesties and realistic scenes from common life — as the extant titles show. To the tir-t belonged his Busiris, Cyclops, Eephcestus, Marriage of Hebe, and Prometheus; to the second, The Peasant, Tin Visitors at the Festival, etc. The first class preserved the tradi- tional character of early comedy, but the second introduced new themes, closely allied to those of the Mime (q.v.), which was ; i 1 s. > tir-t developed in Syracuse, While Athenian comedy was a local development, no doubt Epicharmus's influence on Attic comedians of the fifth century was not without its effect. 5Tel the statement that Epi- i harmus was the inventor of comedy (due to an
