ERIE, LAKE, the fourth in size among the giant lakes of North America, lies between Lakes Huron and Ontario, on the Canadian border, is 240 m. long and varies from 30 to 60 m. in breadth; is very shallow, and difficult to navigate; ice-bound from December till about April.

ERIGENA, JOHANNES SCOTUS, a rationalistic mystic, the most distinguished scholar and thinker of the 9th century, of Irish birth; taught at the court of Charles the Bald in France, and was summoned by Alfred to Oxford in 877; died abbot of Malmesbury; held that “damnation was simply the consciousness of having failed to fulfil the divine purpose”; he derived all authority from reason, and not reason from authority, maintaining that authority unfounded on reason was of no value; d. 882.

ERIN, the ancient Celtic name of Ireland, used still in poetry.

ERINNA, a Greek poetess, the friend of Sappho, died at 19; wrote epic poetry, all but a few lines of which has perished; born about 612 B.C.

ERINNYES, THE (i. e. the roused-to-anger, in Latin, the Furies), the Greek goddesses of vengeance, were the daughters of Gaia, begotten of the blood of the wounded Uranus, and at length reckoned three in number, Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megara; they were conceived of as haunting the wicked on earth and scourging them in hell; they were of the court of Pluto, and the executioners of his wrath.

ERIS, the Greek goddess of strife or discord, sowing the seeds thereof among the gods to begin with, which she has since continued to do among men.

ERIVAN (15), a fortified town in Transcaucasia, situated 30 m.  NE. of Mount Ararat on an elevated plateau; was ceded to Russia in 1828 by Persia.

ERLANGEN (13), a Bavarian town on the Regnitz, has a celebrated Protestant university, founded by Wilhelmina, sister of Frederick the Great, who was the Electress; was a place of refuge for the Huguenots in 1685; manufactures in gloves, mirrors, and tobacco are carried on, and brewing.

ERLAU (22), an ecclesiastical city of Hungary, on the Erlau, 89 m.  NE. of Pesth; is the seat of an archbishop; has a fine cruciform cathedral, built since 1837, several monasteries, a lyceum with a large library and an observatory; is noted for its red wine.

ERL-KING, a Norse impersonation of the spirit of superstitious fear which haunts and kills us even in the guardian embrace of paternal affection.

ERMINIA, a Syrian, the heroine of Tasso’s “Jerusalem Delivered,” in love with the Christian prince Tancred.

ERNESTI, JOHANN AUGUST, a celebrated German classicist and theologian, called the “German Cicero,” born at Tennstaedt, Thueringia; professor of Philology in Leipzig, and afterwards of Theology; edited various classical works, his edition of Cicero specially noted; was the first to apply impartial textual criticism to the Bible, and to him, in consequence, we owe the application of a more correct exegesis to the biblical writings (1707-1781).