Auihorities. — The historians of ancient philosophy: Bajde, tit. ^^ Lnicippi Lnc7-ece ;" Gassendi, Be Vita ct Moribu.i Epicuri (Ilag. Comit. 1G5G, 4to) ; Syntaqmn philosnjMce Epimri (1050) ; Bremer, Ver.iitch einer Apol- orjie des Epicui- (Berlin, 177G, 8vo) ; Eondel, L<t Vie d' Epicure (Par. 1G70) ; Warnekros, Apolor/ie und Leben
Epicurs (Greifswald, 1795, 8vo); Munro, Lucretius, with a Translation and Notes {Cam\iridge and London, 18G4, 2 vols. 8vo) ; Lange, Gesch. des Materialismus (Iser- lohn, 1866) ; North Brit. Rev. March, 1868. (G. F. H.)
Epicure'ans (EiTiKuvptwi, Acts xvii, 18), follow- ers of Epicurus or adherents of the Epicurean philoso- phy (q. v.).
Epinienides, a Greek poet, born in Crete, and highly revered as a prophet and natural sage at Ath- ens, where he came by invitation B.C. cir. 596, and spent a long life. Our chief account of him is given hy Diogenes Laeitiiis (i, 10). He is said to have writ- ten prose woiks on sacrifices and the political consti- tution of Crete, together with two letters to Solon, which have all perished, as the extant copies of the last are spurious. Diogenes also attributes to him poetical works entitled the "Genesis and Theogonj" of the Curetes and Corybantes (in 5000 verses), an epic on Jason and the Argonauts (in 6500 verses), and an epic on jMinos and Rhadamantlws (in 4000 verses) ; but it is doubtful whether he ever wrote them. He may have been the author of poems called "Useful"' and " Pure" {S.oi](Jif^toi and Krt3-rtp/(0(), which are as- cribed to him by other ancient authorities (Suidas, s. V. 'EirifitviStiQ ; Strabo, x, p. 479 ; Pausan. i, 14, 4). But all these have equally perished. He is probabl}' referred to by the apostle Paul in the words (Tit. i, 12; see Alford, Gr. Test, in loc), " One of themselves [the Cretans], even a prophet of their own, said, ' The Cretans are always liars,' " etc., apparently quoting from certain old-fashioned poems written upon skins, and popularly attributed to Epinienides. — Smith, Diet, of Class. Biogr. s. v. ; Heinrich, Epinienides aus Greta (Lpz. 1801) ; also the monographs De Epimenide of Gottschalck (Altorf, 1714), and Schuremann (Hafn. 1733).
Epiph'anes ('ETt^av/;c, manifeM, hence famous), an epithet given to the gods when appearing to men. The Sviian king Antiochus, brother of Seleucus, com- ing fortunately into Syria a little after the death of his brother, was regarded as some propitious deity, and was hence called Epiphanes — the splendid (1 Mace, i, 10 ; X, 1 ; 2 Mace, iv, 17 ; x, 9). See Antiochus 3.
Epiphanes, or Epiphanius, son of Carpocrates, heretic and gnostic, like his father. He supposed an infinite eternal principle, and united with this funda- mental principle the sj'stem of Valentinus. Accord- ing to him, as according to some modern reformers, it is ignorance and passion which, in disturbing the equal- ity and the community of goods, have introduced evil into the world ; and the idea of property forms no part of the divine plan, but is of human invention. He concluded, therefore, that all laws should be suppress- ed, and equality re-established. He concluded, also, that the community of wives, as well as of the fruits of the earth, is necessary to the re-establishment of order. He died at the earty age of seventeen yeai's. A temple was consecrated to him in Cephalonia. — Neander, Ch. Hist, i, 449 ; IMosheim, Ch. Hist. bk. i, c. 2, pt. ii, ch. V, § 14, n. 17 ; Hoefer, N'ouv. Eiog. Gener, xvi, 159.
Epiphania. See Hamatii.
Epiphanius (ETK^n'noc), bishop of Constantia, one of the Church fathers, was born in Palestine, near Eleutheropolis, in the early part of the 4th century (between 310 and 320). His parents are said to have been Jews, but in his sixteenth year he emliraced Christianity ; the on\j case of the kind among the fa- thers, for the rest of them were either converts from heathenism, or born of Christian parents. He went to Egypt, and there gave himself to ascetic life among the monks; one record also says that he imbibed Gnos- tic errors, from which he was rcclainted by the monk- ish discipline. He became an earnest patron and friend of monasticism, and founded a monastery near
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