composed in alternate verses of iambic trimeter and iambic dimeter, thus:—
| “At o Deorum quicquid in coelo regit Terras et humanum genus.” |
In the seven remaining epodes Horace has diversified the measures, while retaining the general character of the distich. This group of poems belongs in the main to the early youth of the poet, and displays a truculence and a controversial heat which are absent from his more mature writings. As he was imitating Archilochus in form, he believed himself justified, no doubt, in repeating the sarcastic violence of his fierce model. The curious thing is that these particular poems of Horace, which are really short lyrical satires, have appropriated almost exclusively the name of epodes, although they bear little enough resemblance to the genuine epode of early Greek literature.
EPONA, a goddess of horses, asses and mules, worshipped
by the Romans, though of foreign, probably Gallic, origin. The
majority of inscriptions and images bearing her name have been
found in Gaul, Germany and the Danube countries; of the
few that occur in Rome itself most were exhumed on the site of
the barracks of the equites singulares, a foreign imperial body-guard
mainly recruited from the Batavians. Her name does not
appear in Tertullian’s list of the indigetes di, and Juvenal contrasts
her worship unfavourably with the old Roman Numa
ritual. Her cult does not appear to have been introduced before
imperial times, when she is often called Augusta and invoked
on behalf of the emperor and the imperial house. Her chief
function, however, was to see that the beasts of burden were
duly fed, and to protect them against accidents and malicious
influence. In the countries in which the worship of Epona was
said to have had its origin it was a common belief that certain
beings were in the habit of casting a spell over stables during
the night. The Romans used to place the image of the goddess,
crowned with flowers on festive occasions, in a sort of shrine in
the centre of the architrave of the stable. In art she is generally
represented seated, with her hand on the head of the accompanying
horse or animal.
See Tertullian, Apol. 16; Juvenal viii. 157; Prudentius, Apoth. 197; Apuleius, Metam. iii. 27; articles in Daremberg and Saglio’s Dict, des antiquités and Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie.
EPONYMOUS, that which gives a name to anything (Gr. ἐπώνυμος, from ὄνομα, a name), a term especially applied to the mythical or semi-mythical personages, heroes, deities, &c. from whom a country or city took its name. Thus Pelops is the giver
of the name to the Peloponnese. At Athens the chief archon
of the year was known as the ἄρχων ἐπώνυμος, as the year was
known by his name. There was a similar official in ancient
Assyria. In ancient times, as in historical and modern cases,
a country or a city has been named after a real personage, but
in many cases the person has been invented to account for the
name.
EPPING, a market town in the Epping parliamentary division of Essex, England, 17 m. N.N.E. from London by a branch
of the Great Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901),
3789. The town lies high and picturesquely, at the northern
outskirts of Epping Forest. The modern church of St John
the Baptist replaces the old parish church of All Saints in the
village of Epping Upland 2 m. N.W. This is in part Norman.
There is considerable trade in butter, cheese and sausages.
Epping Forest forms part of the ancient Waltham Forest, which covered the greater part of the county. All the “London Basin,” within which the Forest lies, was densely wooded. The Forest became one of the commonable lands of Royal Chases or hunting-grounds. It was threatened with total disafforestation, when under the Epping Forest Act of 1871 a board of commissioners was appointed for the better management of the lands. The corporation of the city of London then acquired the freehold interest of waste land belonging to the lords of the manor, and finally secured 5559½ acres, magnificently timbered, to the use of the public for ever, the tract being declared open by Queen Victoria in 1882. The Ancient Court of Verderers was also revived, consisting of an hereditary lord warden together with four verderers elected by freeholders of the county. The present forest lies between the valleys of the Roding and the Lea, and extends southward from Epping to the vicinity of Woodford and Walthamstow, a distance of about 7 m. It is readily accessible from the villages on its outskirts, such as Woodford, Chingford and Loughton, which are served by branches of the Great Eastern railway. These are centres of residential districts, and, especially on public holidays in the summer, receive large numbers of visitors.
EPPS, the name of an English family, well known in commerce and medicine. In the second half of the 18th century they had been settled near Ashford, Kent, for some generations, claiming descent from an equerry of Charles II., but were reduced in circumstances, when John Epps rose to prosperity as a provision merchant in London, and restored the family fortunes. He had four sons, of whom John Epps (1805–1869), George Napoleon Epps (1815–1874), and James Epps (1821–1907) were notable men of their day, the two former as prominent doctors who were ardent converts to homoeopathy, and James as a homoeopathic chemist and the founder of the great cocoa business associated with his name. Among Dr G. N. Epps’s children were Dr Washington Epps, a well-known homoeopathist, Lady Alma-Tadema, and Mrs Edmund Gosse.
ÉPRÉMESNIL (Ésprémesnil or Épréménil), JEAN JACQUES DUVAL D’ (1745–1794), French magistrate and politician, was born in India on the 5th of December 1745 at Pondicherry, his
father being a colleague of Dupleix. Returning to France in 1750 he was educated in Paris for the law, and became in 1775 conseiller in the parlement of Paris, where he soon distinguished himself by his zealous defence of its rights against the royal prerogative. He showed bitter enmity to Marie Antoinette in the matter of the diamond necklace, and on the 19th of November 1787 he was the spokesman of the parlement in demanding the
convocation of the states-general. When the court retaliated by an edict depriving the parlement of its functions, Éprémesnil bribed the printers to supply him with a copy before its promulgation, and this he read to the assembled parlement. A
royal officer was sent to the palais de justice to arrest Éprémesnil
and his chief supporter Goislard de Montsabert, but the parlement
(5th of May 1788) declared that they were all Éprémesnils, and
the arrest was only effected on the next day on the voluntary
surrender of the two members. After four months’ imprisonment
on the island of Ste Marguerite, Éprémesnil found himself a
popular hero, and was returned to the states-general as deputy
of the nobility of the outlying districts of Paris. But with the
rapid advance towards revolution his views changed; in his Réflexions impartiales ... (January 1789) he defended the monarchy, and he led the party among the nobility that refused to meet with the third estate until summoned to do so by royal command. In the Constituent Assembly he opposed every step towards the destruction of the monarchy. After a narrow escape from the fury of the Parisian populace in July 1792 he
was imprisoned in the Abbaye, but was set at liberty before the September massacres. In September 1793, however, he was arrested at Le Havre, taken to Paris, and denounced to the Convention as an agent of Pitt. He was brought to trial before the revolutionary tribunal on the 21st of April 1794, and was guillotined the next day.
D’Éprémesnil’s speeches were collected in a small volume in 1823. See also H. Carré, Un Précurseur inconscient de la Révolution (Paris, 1897).
EPSOM, a market town in the Epsom parliamentary division
of Surrey, England, 14 m. S.W. by S. of London Bridge. Pop.
of urban district (1901), 10,915. It is served by the London &
South-Western and the London, Brighton & South Coast railways,
and on the racecourse on the neighbouring Downs there is a
station (Tattenham Corner) of the South-Eastern & Chatham
railway. The principal building is the parish church of St
Martin, a good example of modern Gothic, the interior of which
contains some fine sculptures by Flaxman and Chantrey. Epsom
(a contraction of Ebbisham, still the name of the manor) first
came into notice when mineral springs were discovered there
