to modern times, the principal district whence they are taken being north-central Africa (Bagirmi, &c.). As the larger proportion of children die after the operation (generally total removal) owing to unskilful surgery, such as recover fetch at least three or four times the ordinary price of slaves. Even more vile, as being practised by a civilized European nation, was the Italian practice of castrating boys to prevent the natural development of the voice, in order to train them as adult soprano singers, such as might formerly be heard in the Sistine chapel. Though such mutilation is a crime punishable with severity, the supply of “soprani” never failed so long as their musical powers were in demand in high quarters. Driven long ago from the Italian stage by public opinion, they remained the musical glory and moral shame of the papal choir till the accession of Pope Leo XIII., one of whose first acts was to get rid of them. Mention must here also be made of the class of voluntary eunuchs, who have emasculated themselves, or caused the operation to be performed on them, for the avoidance of sexual sin or temptation. This unnatural development of asceticism appears in early Christian ages, its votaries acting on the texts Matt. xix. 12, v. 28-30. Origen’s case is the most celebrated example, and by the 3rd century there had arisen a sect of eunuchs, of whom Augustine says (De haeres. c. 37), “Valesii et seipsos castrant et hospites suos, hoc modo existimantes Deo se debere servire” (see Neander, History of Chr. Church, vol. ii. p. 462; Bingham, Antiq. Chr. Church, book iv. chap. 3.) Such practices have been always opposed by the general body of the Christian churches, but have not even now ceased. A secret sect of the kind exists in Russia, whose practice of castration is expressed in their name of Skopzi. (E. B. T.)
EUNUCH FLUTE, or Onion Flute (Fr. flûte eunuque, flûte
à l’onion, mirliton; Ger. Zwiebelflöte), a wind instrument in use
during the 16th and 17th centuries, producing music akin to the
comb-music of the nursery, and still manufactured as a toy
(mirliton). The onion flute consists of a wooden tube widening
out slightly to form a bell. The upper end of the tube is closed
by means of a very fine membrane similar to an onion skin
stretched across the aperture like the vellum of a drum. The
mouthpiece, a simple round hole, is pierced a couple of inches
below the membrane; into this hole the performer sings, his
voice setting up vibrations in the membrane, which thus intensifies
the sound and changes its timbre to a bleating quality.
A movable cap fits over the membrane to protect it. Mersenne[1]
has given a drawing of the eunuch flute together with a description;
he states that the vibrations of the membrane improve
the sound of the voice, and by reflecting it, give it an added
charm. There were concerts of these flutes in four or five parts
in France, adds Mersenne, and they had the advantage over other
kinds of reproducing more nearly the sound of the voice.
EUONYMUS, in botany, a genus of deciduous or evergreen
shrubs or small trees, widely distributed in the north temperate
zone, and represented in Britain by E. europaeus, the spindle
tree, so called from its hard tough wood being formerly used for
spindles. It is a shrub or small tree growing in copses or hedges,
with a grey smooth bark, four-angled green twigs, opposite
leaves and loose clusters of small greenish-white flowers. The
ripe fruit is a pale crimson colour and splits into four lobes exposing
the bright orange-coloured seed. E. japonicus is a hardy
evergreen shrub, often variegated and well known in gardens.
The Greek name εὐώνυμος, of good name, lucky, is probably a
euphemism; the flowering was said to foretell plague.
EUPALINUS, of Megara, a Greek architect, who constructed
for the tyrant Polycrates of Samos a remarkable tunnel to
bring water to the city, passing under a hill. This aqueduct
still exists, and is one of the most remarkable constructions in
Greece (see Aqueduct: Greek).
EUPATORIA (Russ. Evpatoria; also known as Kozlov and to
the Turks as Gezlev), a seaport of Russia, in the government of
Taurida, on the W. coast of the Crimea, 20 m. N.W. of Simferopol,
on a sandy promontory on the north of Kalamita Bay, in 45° 12′
N. and 33° 40′ E. Pop. (1871) 8294; (1897) 17,915. This number
includes many Jews, the Karaite sect having here their principal
synagogue. Here too resides the spiritual head (gakhan) of the
sect. Of its numerous ecclesiastical buildings three are of interest—the
synagogue of the Karaite Jews; one of the mosques, which
has fourteen cupolas and is built (1552) after the plan of St Sophia
in Constantinople; and the Greek Catholic cathedral (1898).
The port or rather roadstead has a sandy bottom, and is exposed
to violent storms from the N.E. The trade is principally in
cereals, skins, cow-hair, felt, tallow and salt. Eupatoria has
some repute as a sea-bathing resort.
According to some authorities it was near this spot that a military post, Eupatorium, was established in the 1st century A.D. by Diophantus, the general of Mithradates the Great, king of Pontus. Towards the end of the 15th century the Turks built the fortress of Gezleveh on the present site, and it became the capital of a khanate. It was occupied by the Russians under Marshal Münnich in 1736, and in 1771 by Prince Dolgorukov. Its annexation to Russia took place in 1783. In 1854 the Anglo-French troops were landed in the neighbourhood of Eupatoria, and in February 1855 the town was occupied by the Turkish forces.
EUPATRIDAE (Gr. εὖ, well; πατήρ, father, i.e. “Sons of
noble fathers”), the ancient nobility of Attica. Tradition
ascribes to Theseus, whom it also regards as the author of the
union (synoecism) of Attica round Athens as a political centre,
the division of the Attic population into three classes, Eupatridae,
Geomori and Demiurgi. The lexicographers mention as characteristics
of the Eupatridae that they are the autochthonous
population, the dwellers in the city, the descendants of the royal
stock. It is probable that after the time of the synoecism the
nobles who had hitherto governed the various independent
communities were obliged to reside in Athens, now the seat of
government; and at the beginning of Athenian history the noble
clans form a class which has the monopoly of political privilege.
It is possible that in very early times the Eupatridae were the
only full citizens of Athens; for the evidence suggests that they
alone belonged to the phratries, and the division into phratries
must have covered the whole citizen body. It is indeed just
possible that the term may originally have signified “true
member of a clan,” since membership of a phratry was a characteristic
of each clan (γένος). It is not probable that the Eupatrid
families were all autochthonous, even in the loose sense of
that term. Some had no doubt immigrated to Attica when the
rest had long been settled there. Traces of this union of immigrants
with older inhabitants have been detected in the combination
of Zeus Herkeios with Apollo Patroös as the ancient gods
of the phratry.
The exact relation of the Eupatridae to the other two classes has been a matter of dispute. It seems probable that the Eupatridae were the governing class, the only recognized nobility, the Geomori the country inhabitants of all ranks, and the Demiurgi the commercial and artisan population. The division attributed to Theseus is always spoken of by ancient authorities as a division of the entire population; but Busolt has recently maintained the view that the three classes represent three elements in the Attic nobility, namely, the city nobility, the landed nobility and the commercial nobility, and exclude altogether the mass of the population. At any rate it seems certain from the little we know of the early constitutional history of Athens, that the Eupatridae represent the only nobility that had any political recognition in early times. The political history of the Eupatridae is that of a gradual curtailment of privilege. They were at the height of their power in the period during the limitation of the monarchy. They alone held the two offices, those of polemarch and archon, which were instituted during the 8th century B.C. to restrict the powers of the kings. In 712 B.C. the office of king (βασιλεύς) was itself thrown open to all Eupatrids (see Archon). They thus had the entire control of the administration, and were the sole dispensers of justice in the state. At this latter privilege, which perhaps formed the strongest bulwark of the authority of the Eupatridae, a severe blow was struck (c. 621 B.C.) by the publication of a criminal
- ↑ L’Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636), livre v. prop. iv. pp. 228-229.
