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  • Eight Immortals (Taoism)
    heterogeneous group of holy Taoists, each of whom earned the right to immortality and had free access to the Peach Festival of Hsi Wang Mu, Queen Mother of the West. Though unacquainted in real life, the eight are frequently depicted as a group—bearing gifts, for instance, to Shou Hsing, god of longevity, to safeguard their immortality....
  • Eight Masters of Nanjing (Chinese artists)
    group of Chinese artists who lived and worked during the late 17th century in Nanjing (known as Jinling during the early Tang dynasty, c. 7th century). Although their group identity derives largely from the locale in which they worked, certain aesthetic similarities are discernible: their paintings, usually landscapes, are often uneven in quality and rather rustic....
  • Eight Masters of Nanking (Chinese artists)
    group of Chinese artists who lived and worked during the late 17th century in Nanjing (known as Jinling during the early Tang dynasty, c. 7th century). Although their group identity derives largely from the locale in which they worked, certain aesthetic similarities are discernible: their paintings, usually landscapes, are often uneven in quality and rather rustic....
  • eight, rule of (chemistry)
    In summary, Lewis’ ideas are expressed by his celebrated octet rule, which states that electron transfer or electron sharing proceeds until an atom has acquired an octet of electrons (i.e., the eight electrons characteristic of the valence shell of a noble gas atom). When complete transfer occurs, the bonding is ionic. When electrons are merely shared, the bonding is covalent, and ea...
  • Eight Saints, War of the (Papal history)
    (1375–78), conflict between Pope Gregory XI and an Italian coalition headed by Florence, which resulted in the return of the papacy from Avignon to Rome. In 1375, provoked by the aggressiveness of the Pope’s legates in Italy, Florence incited a widespread revolt in the Papal States. The Pope retaliated by excommunicating the Florentines (March 13...
  • eight sound (music)
    The Chinese talent for musical organization was by no means limited to pitches. Another important ancient system called the eight sounds (pa yin) was used to classify the many kinds of instruments used in Imperial orchestras. This system was based upon the material used in the construction of the instruments, the eight being stone, earth (pottery), bamboo, metal, skin, silk, wood, and......
  • Eight, The (American artist group)
    group of American painters who exhibited together only once, in New York City in 1908, but who established one of the main currents in 20th-century American painting. The original Eight included Robert Henri, leader of the group, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, Geor...
  • Eight Trigrams Society (Chinese organization)
    ...(“Righteous and Harmonious Fists”). The group practiced certain boxing and calisthenic rituals in the belief that this made them invulnerable. It was thought to be an offshoot of the Eight Trigrams Society (Baguajiao), which had fomented rebellions against the Qing dynasty in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their original aim was the destruction of the dynasty and also of....
  • Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers (work by Muqi Fachang)
    ...a triptych with a white-robed Guanyin at the centre flanked on either side by a scroll of monkeys and a crane; and a surviving set of four sections of an original set of Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers. However the paintings may vary in style and subject matter, there is throughout an appropriate sense of immediate vision and creation and a totally......
  • eight-legged essay (Chinese literary genre)
    ...By the end of the Ming dynasty, the writing of examination responses had become highly stylized and formalized in a pattern called “the eight-legged essay” (baguwen), which in subsequent centuries became notoriously repressive of creative thought and writing....
  • eighteen (number)
    Because 18 is twice 9, it has some significance by association with 9. In Norse mythology Haldan has 18 sons and Odin knows 18 things. The number is sacred to the Sufi mystics known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes, and their custom was for a guest to bring gifts in multiples of 18. The Indian Mahabharata has 18 books, and the Jewish prayer ......
  • eighteen schools (Buddhism)
    the division of the Buddhist community in India in the first three centuries following the death of the Buddha in c. 483 bc. Although texts speak of the “18 schools,” the lists differ considerably; and more than 30 names are mentioned in various chronicles....
  • Eighteenth Amendment (United States Constitution)
    ...its support from Protestant evangelical churches, and it lobbied at all levels of government for legislation to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages. After the adoption of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) Amendment in 1919, the league sought strict enforcement of the Prohibition laws; but, after the repeal of that amendment in 1933, it ceased to be a force in American......
  • Eighteenth Army Group (Chinese history)
    larger of the two major Chinese communist forces that fought the Japanese from 1937 to 1945. The Eighth Route Army also engaged in political and propaganda work, helping to increase communist support among the populace. The army grew from 30,000 troops in July 1937 to 156,000 in 1938 and 400,000 in 1940. Reduced to about 300,000 by the fierce fighting between 1941 and 1944, its ...
  • Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, The (essay by Marx)
    ...conspiracy and wrote a pamphlet on their behalf. The same year he also published, in a German-American periodical, his essay “Der Achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Napoleon” (The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte), with its acute analysis of the formation of a bureaucratic absolutist state with the support of the peasant class. In other respects the next 12 years......
  • Eighteenth Dynasty (Egyptian history)
    The 18th dynasty...
  • Eightfold Path (Buddhism)
    in Buddhism, an early formulation of the path to enlightenment. The term appears in what is regarded as the first sermon of the founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, which he delivered after his enlightenment. There he sets forth a middle way, the Eightfold Path, between the extremes of asceticism and sensual indulgence. Like the Sanskr...
  • Eightfold Way (physics)
    classification of subatomic particles known as hadrons into groups on the basis of their symmetrical properties, the number of members of each group being 1, 8 (most frequently), 10, or 27. The system was proposed in 1961 by the American physicist Murray Gell-Mann and the Israeli physicist Yuval Neʾeman. It is based on the mathematic...
  • Eighth Amendment (United States Constitution)
    ...of the nature of the accusation, to be confronted with prosecution witnesses, and to have the assistance of counsel. Excessive bail or fines and cruel or unusual punishment are forbidden by the Eighth Amendment. The Ninth Amendment protects unenumerated residual rights of the people, and by the Tenth, powers not delegated to the United States are reserved to the states or the people....
  • eighth cranial nerve (anatomy)
    nerve in the human ear, serving the organs of equilibrium and of hearing. It consists of two anatomically and functionally distinct parts: the cochlear nerve, distributed to the hearing organ, and the vestibular nerve, distributed to the organ of equilibrium....
  • Eighth Day of Solemn Assembly (Jewish religious festival)
    (Hebrew: “Eighth Day of the Solemn Assembly”), a Jewish religious festival on the eighth day of Sukkoth (Feast of Booths), considered by some to be an independent celebration immediately following Sukkoth. In Old Testament times a distinction was made regarding sacrifices: whereas 70 sacrifices were offered on the first seven days of Sukkoth to signify the ...
  • Eighth Route Army (Chinese history)
    larger of the two major Chinese communist forces that fought the Japanese from 1937 to 1945. The Eighth Route Army also engaged in political and propaganda work, helping to increase communist support among the populace. The army grew from 30,000 troops in July 1937 to 156,000 in 1938 and 400,000 in 1940. Reduced to about 300,000 by the fierce fighting between 1941 and 1944, its ...
  • Eighty Mile Beach (region, Western Australia, Australia)
    coastal edge of the arid, sedimentary Great Sandy Desert and the Canning Basin, northwestern Western Australia, bordering the Indian Ocean. Extending in a curve northeast from Cape Keraudren (east of the De Grey River mouth) to Cape Bossut, it is about 85 miles (140 km) long. The beach, generally low and sandy but with an expanse of dunes in the area around A...
  • Eighty Years’ War (European history)
    (1568–1648), the war of Netherlands independence from Spain, which led to the separation of the northern and southern Netherlands and to the formation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (the Dutch Republic). The first phase of the war began with two unsuccessful invasions of the provinces by mercenary armies under Prince William I of Orange (15...
  • eighty-eight (card game)
    ...When each month is tallied, bonus points are given for varying combinations of tanzaku and high-point cards. In the more-complicated and widely played game eighty-eight, players try for more than 40 bonus combinations, many of them scored at the hand’s outset if they happen to be dealt to a player intact. Other hanafuda games include koi koi and k...
  • Eigtved, Nicolai (Danish architect)
    ...during the reign (1746–66) of King Frederick V and comprising four mansions and the octagonal courtyard surrounded by them. The complex was designed and constructed by the Danish architect Nicolai Eigtved, who also designed numerous other buildings in the surrounding district. At the centre of the court stands a much-admired equestrian statue of Frederick V by the French sculptor......
  • Eijkman, Christiaan (Dutch physician)
    Dutch physician and pathologist whose demonstration that beriberi is caused by poor diet led to the discovery of vitamins. Together with Sir Frederick Hopkins, he was awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine....
  • Eikon Basilike (English book of meditations)
    In this role as an apologist, Milton received the Council of State’s assignment to refute Eikon Basilike (“Image of the King”), which was published in 1649 within days of the king’s beheading. Subtitled The True Portraiture of His Sacred Majesty in His Solitudes and Sufferings, Eikon Basilike portrays the la...
  • Eikonoklastes (work by Milton)
    ...of his supporters, Bishop John Gauden, and was very effective in arousing sympathy in England and on the Continent for the king, whom some perceived as a martyr. In his rebuttal, Eikonoklastes (1649; “Image-Breaker”), Milton shatters the image of the king projected in Eikon Basilike. Accusing Charles of hypocrisy, Milton cites Shakespeare...
  • Eilat (Israel)
    port city, southern extremity of Israel. It lies at the south tip of the Negev and at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba (Hebrew, Mifratz Elat), the eastern arm of the Red Sea. Al-ʿAqabah, Jordan, also located on the Gulf of Aqaba, lies 4 miles (7 km) to the southeast....
  • Eilean Siar (council area, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    council area of Scotland, in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwestern coast of the Scottish mainland, comprising the islands of the Outer Hebrides. Lewis, the northern part of the principal island of Lewis and Harris, is part of the historic county of Ross-shire in the historic region of Ross and Cromarty, and the rest of the Western Isles co...
  • Eileithyia (Greek mythology)
    pre-Hellenic goddess of childbirth, who hindered or facilitated the process according to her disposition. She is mentioned in several Linear B tablets from ancient Crete. The next earliest evidence for her cult is at Amnisus, in Crete, where excavations indicate that she was worshipped continuously from Neolithic to Roman times. In Homer’s writings she appears, sometimes ...
  • Eilenberg, Samuel (American mathematician)
    About 1940 Mac Lane made some purely algebraic calculations in group theory, and the Polish American mathematician Samuel Eilenberg noticed that they applied to the topology of infinitely coiled curves called solenoids. To understand and generalize this link between algebra and topology, the two men created category theory, the general cohomology of groups, and the basis for the......
  • Eilenberg-Steenrod axioms (mathematics)
    Bourbaki was a key figure in the rethinking of structural mathematics. Algebraic topology was axiomatized by Samuel Eilenberg, a Polish-born American mathematician and Bourbaki member, and the American mathematician Norman Steenrod. Saunders Mac Lane, also of the United States, and Eilenberg extended this axiomatic approach until many types of mathematical structures were presented in......
  • Eilhart von Oberg (German poet)
    German poet important in the history of the court epic and the development of the Tristan and Isolde story in Romance literature. Eilhart was a member of a Brunswick family mentioned in the records of Henry III of Saxony. His epic, Tristrant und Isalde, a laboured version of an Old French source now lost, dates from the last quarter of the 12th century. Uncertainty about ...
  • Eimeria (biology)
    genus of parasitic protozoans of the spore-producing phylum Apicomplexa (previously Sporozoa). Eimeria, which causes coccidiosis in livestock and wild animals, infects mainly the cells of the digestive tract, although it also attacks cells of the liver and the bile duct. Symptoms of infection are diarrhea, weight loss, and general weakness. Eimeria is characterize...
  • Eimeric, Nicholas (Spanish theologian)
    Roman Catholic theologian, grand inquisitor at Aragon, and supporter of the Avignon papacy....
  • Eimerico, Nicolás (Spanish theologian)
    Roman Catholic theologian, grand inquisitor at Aragon, and supporter of the Avignon papacy....
  • Eimert, Herbert (German composer)
    The second event of significance was the formation of an electronic music studio in Cologne by Herbert Eimert, a composer working for Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (now Westdeutscher Rundfunk), who was advised in turn by Werner Meyer-Eppler, an acoustician from the University of Bonn. Eimert was soon joined by Karlheinz Stockhausen, who composed the first really important tape composition from......
  • Eimi (work by Cummings)
    ...was produced by the Provincetown Players in New York City. During these years he exhibited his paintings and drawings, but they failed to attract as much critical interest as his writings. Eimi (1933) recorded, in 432 pages of experimental prose, a 36-day visit to the Soviet Union, which confirmed his individualist repugnance for collectivism. He published his discussions as the......
  • Ein Gedi (Israel)
    oasis, archaeological site, and kibbutz (communal settlement) in southeastern Israel on the west bank of the Dead Sea. Because of its spring in an otherwise totally arid country, the site has been inhabited from remote antiquity. Excavations in the 1960s and early 1970s at an adjoining tell (stratified mound) revealed remnants of a sanctuary of the Chalcolithic period (4th millennium bc...
  • Einaudi (Italian publishing house)
    A founder and, until his death, an editor of the publishing house of Einaudi, Pavese also edited the anti-Fascist review La Cultura. His work led to his arrest and imprisonment by the government in 1935, an experience later recalled in “Il carcere” (published in Prima che il gallo canti, 1949; in The Political Prisoner, 1955) and the novella Il compagno......
  • Einaudi, Luigi (president of Italy)
    Italian economist and statesman, the first president (1948–55) of the Republic of Italy....
  • Eindhoven (The Netherlands)
    gemeente (municipality), southern Netherlands. It lies along the Dommel River, 68 miles (109 km) southeast of Rotterdam....
  • Eine kleine Nachtmusik (work by Mozart)
    ...Joke), a good-humoured parody of bad music, in a vein Leopold would have liked (it was thought to have been provoked by his death until it was found that it was begun much earlier); Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the exquisite and much-loved serenade, probably intended for solo strings and written for a purpose that remains unknown (though it has been speculated that it was......
  • Einem, Gottfried von (Austrian composer)
    Austrian composer whose operas and orchestral works combine late-19th-century Romanticism with 20th-century compositional practices such as dissonance and atonality as well as elements of jazz....
  • Einführung in die Religions-geschichte (work by Söderblom)
    ...of the Belief in God”), Söderblom divided religions into dynamistic, animistic, and theistic types according to the way primitive peoples apprehend the divine. In other works (Einführung in die Religionsgeschichte, or “Introduction to the History of Religion,” and Thieles Kompendium der Religionsgeschichte neu bearbeitet, or “Tiele’...
  • Einhard (Frankish historian)
    Frankish historian and court scholar whose writings are an invaluable source of information on Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire....
  • Einheit in der Kirche, Die (work by Möhler)
    ...(1826–35) and Munich (1835–38). One of his outstanding books is Symbolik (“On the Creeds”), first published in 1832. In this work, as in his earlier volume Die Einheit in der Kirche (1825; “Unity in the Church”), Möhler argued that man’s journey to God could be made only in the church founded by Christ. He sympathized with......
  • Einhorn, David (American rabbi)
    ...of the Bible (analyzing Scripture in light of modern knowledge), excluded Kohler from the Jewish pulpit in Germany. He emigrated to the United States and was welcomed by the eminent Reform rabbi David Einhorn, whose daughter he married. He then became rabbi of Reform congregations in Detroit (1869–71), Chicago (1871–79), and, finally, New York City (1879–1903)....
  • Einkehr (work by Morgenstern)
    ...combined; Ich und die Welt (1898; “I and the World”); Ein Sommer (1900; “One Summer”), which was written in Norway and celebrates physical beauty; and Einkehr (1910; “Introspection”) and Wir fanden einen Pfad (1914; “We Found a Path”), poems written under the influence of Buddhism and the anthroposophist ...
  • einkorn wheat (plant)
    ...diploid (2n), the normal condition; tetraploid (2n = 14, resulting from the fusion of diploid gametes); and hexaploid (2n = 21). An example of a domesticated diploid wheat is einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum), one of the earliest domesticated wheat species. Hybridization of a diploid wheat with Aegilops speltoides (a closely allied species of grass),......
  • Einleitung in die christkatholische Theologie (work by Hermes)
    Einleitung in die christkatholische Theologie (1819–29; “Introduction to the Catholic Theology”) sought to establish a rational certainty for the principal tenets of the Christian faith, such as the existence of God. His Christkatholische Dogmatik (“Catholic Dogmatics”), published posthumously in three volumes (1834–35), derived the......
  • Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache (work by Kretschmer)
    Kretschmer’s epochal study of pre-Greek elements in ancient Greek was his Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache (1896; “Introduction to the History of the Greek Language”). Comparing Greek place-names with their foreign counterparts in ancient Anatolia, he concluded that a non-Greek, Mediterranean culture had preceded the Greeks there, leaving extensive....
  • “Einsame Menschen” (work by Hauptmann)
    ...weavers’ revolt of 1844. Das Friedensfest (1890; “The Peace Festival”) is an analysis of the troubled relations within a neurotic family, while Einsame Menschen (1891; Lonely Lives) describes the tragic end of an unhappy intellectual torn between his wife and a young woman (patterned after the writer Lou Andreas-Salomé) with whom he can share his...
  • Einsatzgruppen (Nazi military police)
    ...the Soviet Union in June 1941, Himmler was entrusted with the administration of the conquered territory with the goal of eliminating the Soviet system. He oversaw the deployment of the Einsatzgruppen (“deployment groups”) in the massacre of Jews and other victims at sites such as Baby Yar, in Ukraine, during the early war years. Himmler organized the extermination....
  • Einsiedeln (Switzerland)
    town, Schwyz canton, northeast-central Switzerland. It is located on the right bank of Alp Stream, northeast of Schwyz city. It developed around the Benedictine abbey, founded in 934. The abbey became a principality of the Holy Roman Empire in 1274 and belonged to Schwyz after 1386. Its wooden statue, the “Black Virgin” (which owes its name to the discoloration cau...
  • einstein (unit of measurement)
    Light can be described as a wave of particles known as photons; these are units of energy, or light quanta. The quantity N photons is called an einstein. The energy of light varies inversely with the length of the photon waves; that is, the shorter the wavelength, the greater the energy content. The energy (e) of a photon is given by the equation e =......
  • Einstein, Albert (American physicist)
    German-born physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century....
  • Einstein, Alfred (German-American musicologist and critic)
    eminent German-American musicologist and critic....
  • Einstein, Hannah Bachman (American reformer)
    American social worker who launched a successful campaign to establish municipal, state, and national boards and associations for child welfare....
  • Einstein Intersection, The (work by Delany)
    ...explores the nature of language and its ability to give structure to experience. Delany won the science-fiction Nebula Award for this book, which established his reputation, and for The Einstein Intersection (1967), which features a similar protagonist and addresses issues of cultural development and sexual identity, a theme more fully developed in the author’s later works....
  • Einstein Observatory (observatory, Potsdam, Germany)
    The sketches led to Mendelsohn’s first commission after the war, the Einstein Tower, Potsdam (1919–21). This bizarre, highly sculptured structure caused an immediate sensation. He had intended the structure to convey the possibilities of poured concrete, but a shortage of this material necessitated the substitution of brick covered with cement. The hat factory of Steinberg, Hermann ...
  • Einstein Observatory (satellite)
    ...Earlier, Giacconi had worked out the operating principles for a telescope that could focus X rays into images, and in the 1970s he built the first high-definition X-ray telescope. Called the Einstein Observatory (launched 1978), it examined stellar atmospheres and supernova remnants, identified many X-ray double stars (some containing suspected black holes), and detected X-ray sources in......
  • Einstein on the Beach (work by Glass)
    Glass’s opera Einstein on the Beach (1976), composed in collaboration with Robert Wilson, earned him broader acclaim; this work showed a renewed interest in classical Western harmonic elements, though his interest in startling rhythmic and melodic changes remained the work’s most dramatic feature. Glass’s opera Satyagraha (1980) was a more authentically “o...
  • Einstein relation (physics)
    ...observed as their kinetic energy outside the metal. The relation between electron kinetic energy E and the frequency ν (that is, E = hν − W) is known as the Einstein relation, and its experimental verification helped to establish the validity of quantum theory. The energy of the electrons depends on the frequency of the light, while the intensity...
  • Einstein Tower (observatory, Potsdam, Germany)
    The sketches led to Mendelsohn’s first commission after the war, the Einstein Tower, Potsdam (1919–21). This bizarre, highly sculptured structure caused an immediate sensation. He had intended the structure to convey the possibilities of poured concrete, but a shortage of this material necessitated the substitution of brick covered with cement. The hat factory of Steinberg, Hermann ...
  • Einstein-Bose statistics (physics)
    one of two possible ways in which a collection of indistinguishable particles may occupy a set of available discrete energy states. The aggregation of particles in the same state, which is characteristic of particles obeying Bose-Einstein statistics, accounts for the cohesive streaming of laser light and the frictionless creeping of superfluid helium. The theory of this behavio...
  • Einstein-de Sitter model (astronomy)
    In 1932 Einstein and de Sitter proposed that the cosmological constant should be set equal to zero, and they derived a homogeneous and isotropic model that provides the separating case between the closed and open Friedmann models; i.e., Einstein and de Sitter assumed that the spatial curvature of the universe is neither positive nor negative but rather zero. The spatial geometry of the......
  • Einstein-de Sitter universe (astronomy)
    In 1932 Einstein and de Sitter proposed that the cosmological constant should be set equal to zero, and they derived a homogeneous and isotropic model that provides the separating case between the closed and open Friedmann models; i.e., Einstein and de Sitter assumed that the spatial curvature of the universe is neither positive nor negative but rather zero. The spatial geometry of the......
  • Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment (physics)
    In 1935 Einstein’s most celebrated attack on the quantum theory led to the EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) thought experiment. According to quantum theory, under certain circumstances two electrons separated by huge distances would have their properties linked, as if by an umbilical cord. Under these circumstances, if the properties of the first electron were measured, the state of the second...
  • einsteinium (chemical element)
    (Es), synthetic chemical element of the actinoid series of the periodic table, atomic number 99. Not occurring in nature, einsteinium (as the isotope einsteinium-253), produced by intense neutron irradiation of uranium-238, was identified in December 1952 by Albert Ghiorso and co-workers at Berkeley, Calif., in debris taken from the first thermonuclear or hydrogen-bomb explosion...
  • Einstein’s Letter to President Roosevelt, 1939
    ...
  • Einstein’s mass-energy relation (physics)
    relationship between mass (m) and energy (E) in the special theory of relativity of Albert Einstein, embodied by the formula E = mc2, where c equals 300,000 kilometres (186,000 miles) per second—i.e., the speed of light....
  • Einthoven, Willem (Dutch physiologist)
    Dutch physiologist who was awarded the 1924 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the electrical properties of the heart through the electrocardiograph, which he developed as a practical clinical instrument and an important tool in the diagnosis of heart disease....
  • einzig mögliche Beweisgrund zu einer Demonstration des Daseyns Gottes, Der (essay by Kant)
    ...in which the same predicate is both affirmed and denied, and, hence, that it is pointless to reduce causality to the logical relation of antecedent and consequent. In an essay of the same year, Der einzig mögliche Beweisgrund zu einer Demonstration des Daseyns Gottes, he sharply criticized the Leibnizian concept of Being by charging that the so-called ontological argument, which.....
  • Einzige, Der (poem by Hölderlin)
    ...somewhat as a result of the kind and gentle treatment he received at home. The poems of the period 1802–06, including “Friedensfeier” (“Celebration of Peace”), “Der Einzige” (“The Only One”), and “Patmos,” products of a mind on the verge of madness, are apocalyptic visions of unique grandeur. He also completed verse tr...
  • Einzige und sein Eigentum, Der (work by Stirner)
    ...Socialism. They thus involved Hegel in their critique of the political, cultural, and philosophical conditions of the time. The most widely known result of the first trend was Stirner’s book Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (1845; “The Individual and His Property”), in which the fundamental thesis of individualistic anarchism can be discerned. The unique entity, in Stir...
  • Eira barbara (mammal)
    weasellike mammal of tropical forests from southern Mexico through South America to northern Argentina. The tayra is short-legged, yet slender and agile, weighing from 2.7 to 7 kg (5.95 to 15.4 pounds). The body, measuring about 60–68 cm (24–27 inches), is covered with coarse but smooth, dark fur. The bushy tail is 39–47 cm (15–18.5 inches) long. The tayra’s dark...
  • Éire
    country of western Europe occupying five-sixths of the westernmost island of the British Isles....
  • Éireann, Muir (sea, Atlantic Ocean)
    arm of the North Atlantic Ocean that separates Ireland from Great Britain. The Irish Sea is bounded by Scotland on the north, England on the east, Wales on the south, and Ireland on the west. The sea is connected with the Atlantic by the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland and by St. George’s Channel between the southeastern tip of Ireland and southwestern...
  • “Eirene” (play by Aristophanes)
    This play was staged seven months or so after both Cleon and Brasidas, the two main champions of the war policy on the Athenian and Spartan sides respectively, had been killed in battle and, indeed, only a few weeks before the ratification of the Peace of Nicias (? March 421 bc), which suspended hostilities between Athens and Sparta for six uneasy years. In Peace (421 ...
  • Eirene (sculpture by Cephisodotus)
    A noted work of his was “Eirene” (“Peace”), a somewhat Madonna-like figure bearing the infant Plutus (Wealth), a grouping recalled in Praxiteles’ more famous “Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus.” Cephisodotus should not be confused with Cephisodotus the Younger, a son of Praxiteles, noted for portrait sculptures, none of which have survived....
  • Eirik Blodoks (king of Norway and Northumberland)
    king of Norway (c. 930–935) and later king of Northumberland (948, 952–954). On the death of his father, Harald I Fairhair, first king of united Norway, Erik attempted to make himself sole king of Norway, defeating and slaying two of his brothers to whom vassal kingdoms had been assigned by their father; but his tyranny fostered the reaction that had set in against the strong ...
  • Eirik Raude (Norse explorer)
    founder of the first European settlement on Greenland (c. 986) and the father of Leif Eriksson, one of the first Europeans to reach North America....
  • Eiríksson, Leifur (Norse explorer)
    Norse explorer widely held to have been the first European to reach the shores of North America. The 13th- and 14th-century Icelandic accounts of his life and additional later evidence show that he was certainly a member of an early Viking voyage to North America, but it remains doubtful whether he led the initial expedition....
  • Éirne, Loch (lake, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    lake in Fermanagh district (established 1973), formerly County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is 40 miles (64 km) long and has an average width of 5 miles (8 km) and a maximum depth of 200 feet (60 m). The lake consists of the shallow Upper Lough Erne, 12 miles (19 km) long, and Lower Lough Erne, 18 miles (29 km) long, linked by a 10-mile (16-kilometre) strait that is part of the River Erne. The ...
  • Eirōn (Greek literary character)
    The term irony has its roots in the Greek comic character Eiron, a clever underdog who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character Alazon. The Socratic irony of the Platonic dialogues derives from this comic origin. Feigning ignorance and humility, Socrates goes about asking silly and obvious questions of all sorts of people on all sorts of subjects, only to......
  • eirôneia (ancient Greece)
    Another prominent feature of the personality of Socrates, one that often creates problems about how best to interpret him, is (to use the ancient Greek term) his eirôneia. Although this is the term from which the English word irony is derived, there is a difference between the two. To speak ironically is to use words to mean the opposite......
  • EIRP (unit of measurement)
    ...of an EHF radio wave at 300 gigahertz is only 1 millimetre. An important measure of the efficiency with which a transmitting antenna delivers its power to a remote receiving antenna is the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP), measured in watts per metre squared. To achieve high EIRP the antenna dimensions should be several times larger than the largest transmitted wavelength. For......
  • Eis ton peirasten nomikon (work by Arsenius the Great)
    ...as a guideline for monks and is evidence, according to 6th-century historians, that he was an abbot or spiritual leader of a religious community. His commentary on the Gospel According to Luke, Eis ton peirastēn nomikon (“On the Temptation of the Law”), in effect is also a treatise on asceticism and the contemplative life. These texts are contained in the series......
  • “Eisagoge” (work by Porphyry)
    In the 4th century Marius Victorinus produced Latin translations of Aristotle’s Categories and De interpretatione and of Porphyry of Tyre’s Isagoge (“Introduction,” on Aristotle’s Categories), although these translations were not very influential. He also wrote logical treatises of his own. A short De dialectica (“On Dial...
  • “Eisagōgē mousikē” (work by Alypius)
    author of Eisagōgē mousikē (Introduction to Music), a work that contains tabular descriptions of two forms of ancient Greek notation; the tables indicate the interaction of the notation with the Greek modal system. Although the work was written well after the music in question, it is of fundamental importance in transcribing......
  • Eisai (Buddhist monk)
    ...after the death of his mother and father taught him the transitoriness of life. Unfulfilled by his experience at Mount Tendai, Dōgen sought the true path of Buddhism and may have studied with Eisai for a time. Like Eisai, whom he held in high esteem, Dōgen went to China, where he fell under the influence of a Chinese Chan master. Upon his return to Japan, he taught the discipline ...
  • eisangelia (ancient Greek law)
    ...and a Boule, a rival council of 400, was set up. The Areopagus nevertheless retained “guardianship of the laws” (perhaps a legislative veto); it tried prosecutions under the law of eisangelia (“impeachment”) for unconstitutional acts. As a court under the presidency of the archōn basileus, it also decided cases of murder....
  • Eiselen Commission (South African history)
    Concern over African education in the 1940s led to the creation of the Eiselen Commission, whose report in 1951 accorded with the separatist racial views of the government that came to power in 1948 and laid the groundwork for subsequent apartheid (“apartness”) legislation in education. That legislation included the Bantu Education Act of 1953. The National Education Policy Act of......
  • Eiselen, Ernst (German educator)
    ...can be traced to the outdoor playground (Turnplatz) Jahn opened in a field known as the “Hasenheide” (rabbit field) on the outskirts of Berlin. Ernst Eiselen, Jahn’s assistant and the coauthor of Die Deutsche Turnkunst (1816; The German Gymnastic Art), carefully noted and explained the.....
  • Eiseley, Loren Corey (American anthropologist)
    U.S. anthropologist, educator, and author who wrote about anthropology for the lay person in eloquent, poetic style....
  • Eiselin, Max (Swiss mountaineer)
    ...world’s highest mountains. With a south wall 15,000 feet (4,600 m) high, the peak’s steep sides and bitter climate prevented an ascent to the top until May 13, 1960, when a Swiss expedition led by Max Eiselin reached the summit. The name of the peak is derived from two Sanskrit words meaning “white mountain.”...
  • Eiselsberg, Anton, Freiherr von (Austrian surgeon)
    Austrian surgeon, teacher, and researcher who carried out important studies in the physiology of the thyroid gland and surgery of the central nervous system....
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