EPOPT. (From the Greek [Greek:  e)po/Ptes], an eye witness.) One who, having been initiated in the Greater Mysteries of paganism, has seen the aporrheta.

ERA OF MASONRY.  The legendary statement that the origin of Masonry is coeval with the beginning of the world, is only a philosophical myth to indicate the eternal nature of its principles.

ERICA.  The tree heath; a sacred plant among the Egyptians, and used in the Osirian Mysteries as the symbol of immortality, and the analogue of the masonic acacia.

ESSENES.  A society or sect of the Jews, who combined labor with religious exercises, whose organization partook of a secret character, and who have been claimed to be the descendants of the builders of the temple of Solomon.

EUCLID.  The masonic legend which refers to Euclid is altogether historically untrue.  It is really a philosophical myth intended to convey a masonic truth.

EURESIS. (From the Greek [Greek:  ey)/resis], a discovery.) That part of the initiation in the ancient Mysteries which represented the finding of the body of the god or hero whose death was the subject of the initiation.

The euresis has been adopted in Freemasonry, and forms an essential part of the ritual of the third degree.

EVERGREEN.  A symbol of the immortality of the soul.

Planted by the Hebrews and other ancient peoples at the heads of graves.

For this purpose the Hebrews preferred the acacia, because its wood was incorruptible, and because, as the material of the ark, it was already considered as a sacred plant.

EYE, ALL-SEEING.  A symbol of the omniscient and watchful providence of God.  It is a very ancient symbol, and is supposed by some to be a relic of the primitive sun-worship.  Volney says (Les Ruines, p. 186) that in most of the ancient languages of Asia, the eye and the sun are expressed by the same word.  Among the Egyptians the eye was the symbol of their supreme god, Osiris, or the sun.

F

FABER.  The works of the Rev. G.S.  Faber, on the Origin of Pagan Idolatry, and on the Cabiri, are valuable contributions to the science of mythology.  They abound in matters of interest to the investigator of masonic symbolism and philosophy, but should be read with a careful view of the preconceived theory of the learned author, who refers everything in the ancient religions to the influences of the Noachic cataclysm, and the arkite worship which he supposes to have resulted from it.

FELLOW CRAFT.  The second degree of Ancient Craft Masonry, analogous to the mystes in the ancient Mysteries.

The symbol of a youth setting forth on the journey of life.

FETICHISM.  The worship of uncouth and misshapen idols, practised only by the most ignorant and debased peoples, and to be found at this day among some of the least civilized of the negro tribes of Africa.  “Their fetiches,” says Du Chaillu, speaking of some of the African races, “consisted of fingers and tails of monkeys; of human hair, skin, teeth, bones; of clay, old nails, copper chains; shells, feathers, claws, and skulls of birds; pieces of iron, copper, or wood; seeds of plants, ashes of various substances, and I cannot tell what more.” Equatorial Africa, p. 93.