Eriksson, Leif See Leif Eriksson the Lucky
Eris Ver-is\ Ancient Greek personification of strife. Her Roman counter¬ part was Discordia. The daughter of Nyx and the sister of Ares, she was best known for her role in starting the Trojan War. When she alone was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, she threw down among the guests a golden apple inscribed “for the most beautiful.” Hera, Athe¬ na, and Aphrodite each claimed it, and Zeus assigned the task of judging to the Trojan Paris. He awarded the apple to Aphrodite, who in turn helped him carry off the beautiful Helen, an act that triggered war.
Eritrea \,er-3-'tre-9, ,er-3-'tra-3,\ officially State of Eritrea Tigrinya Ertra Country, eastern Africa. It extends about 600 mi (1,000 km) along the Red Sea coast and includes the Dahlak Archipelago. Area: 46,770 sq
guage. The varied population is about half Tigrinya-speaking (see Tigray) Christians, with a large minority of Mus¬ lims and diverse other peoples. Arabic, English, and Italian are also spo¬ ken. Currency: nakfa. The land varies from temperate central highlands to coastal desert plain, with savanna and open woodlands in the western lowlands. The economy is based on livestock herding and subsistence agriculture. Industry, based in Asmara, includes food products, textiles, and leather goods; exports include salt, hides, cement, and gum arabic. Eritrea’s form of government is a transitional regime with one interim legislative body; the head of state and government is the president. As the site of the main ports of the Aksumite empire, it was linked to the begin¬ nings of the Ethiopian kingdom, but it retained much of its independence until it came under Ottoman rule in the 16th century. In the 17th-19th centuries, control of the territory was disputed among Ethiopia, the Otto¬ mans, the kingdom of Tigray, Egypt, and Italy; it became an Italian colony in 1890. Eritrea was used as the main base for the Italian invasions of Ethiopia (1896, 1935-36) and in 1936 became part of Italian East Africa. It was captured by the British in 1941, federated to Ethiopia in 1952, and made a province of Ethiopia in 1962. Three decades of guerrilla warfare by Eritrean secessionist groups ensued. A provisional Eritrean government was established in 1991 after the overthrow of the Ethiopian government, and independence came in 1993. A new constitution was ratified in 1997. A border war with Ethiopia that began in 1998 ended in an Ethiopian vic¬ tory in 2000.
Erivan See Yerevan
Erlitou \'er-le-'t6\ culture Neolithic culture (1900-1350 bc) of the cen¬ tral plains of northern China. It was the first state-level society in China, and its remains are taken to be correlates of the Xia dynasty. Remains of
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632 i ermine ► Ervin
palatial buildings, royal tombs, and paved roads have been uncovered, leading to hypotheses that the site represents a Xia capital. The society employed advanced bronze technology. The relationship between Erlitou bronzes and those produced earlier at Qijia in Gansu remains unclear. See Hongshan culture; Neolithic Period.
ermine \'ar-man\ or stoat Species of the weasel family ( Mustela erminea). Its white winter coat has historically adorned royal robes and is still used in the fur trade. Ermines are found in North America and northern Eurasia. They are most abundant in thickets, woodland, and semitimbered areas. In summer they v • ^ are brown, with whitish throat, chest,
and belly. Species are 5—12 in. Ermine (Mustela erminea)
(13-29 cm) long (excluding the 2-5- in., or 5-12-cm, tail) and weigh less than 11 oz (0.3 kg). Voracious carnivores, ermines feed on small mam¬ mals, birds, eggs, frogs, and, occasionally, invertebrates.
© CHARUE OTT-THE NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY COLLECTION/PHOTO RESEARCHERS
Erne VornV Lough Lake, Fermanagh district, Northern Ireland. An aver¬ age of 5 mi (8 km) wide, the lake consists of the shallow Upper Lough Erne, 12 mi (19 km) long, and Lower Lough Erne, 18 mi (29 km) long, linked by a 10-mi (16-km) strait that is part of the River Erne. Numerous islands dot the lakes and provide recreation facilities. The River Erne, which flows north across the border of Northern Ireland and empties into Donegal Bay, is 72 mi (116 km) long.
Ernst Vernst, 'ornsA, Max (b. April 2, 1891, Briihl, Ger.—d. April 1, 1976, Paris, Fr.) German-born French painter and sculptor. He gave up studying philosophy and psychol¬ ogy at Bonn University for painting.
After serving in World War I, he became the leader of the Dada move¬ ment in Cologne (1919), working in collage and photomontage. A char¬ acteristic work is Here Everything Is Still Floating (1920), a startlingly illogical composition made from cut¬ out photographs of insects, fish, and anatomical drawings. In 1922 he settled in Paris and was among the founders of Surrealism. His work was imaginative and experimental; he pioneered the technique of frottage and experimented with automatism.
After 1934 the irrational and whimsical imagery seen in his paintings appeared also in his sculpture. In 1941 he moved to New York City, where he joined his third wife, Peggy Guggenheim, and began collaborating with Marcel Duchamp. He returned to France in 1953 and continued to produce lyrical and abstract works.
Max Ernst, photograph by Yousuf Karsh, 1965.
© KARSH FROM RAPHO/PHOTO RESEARCHERS
Eros Ver-.as, 'ir-,as\ Greek god of love. Though Hesiod declared him one of the primeval gods born of Chaos, he was later said to be the son of Aph¬ rodite. His Roman counterpart was Cupid. Eros was depicted as a beautiful winged youth carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows. In later literature and art he became increasingly younger, ending as an infant. His cult centre was at Thespiae, but he also shared a sanctuary with Aphrodite at Athens.
Eros First asteroid found to travel mainly inside the orbit of Mars and the first to be landed on by a spacecraft. Discovered in 1898 and named for the Greek god of love, Eros is an elongated body about 20.5 mi (33 km) in its greatest dimension. It can approach to within 14 million mi (22 mil¬ lion km) of Earth. In 2000 the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR Shoemaker) spacecraft orbited Eros, collecting a full year of data, and in 2001 it set down gently on Eros’s surface.
erosion Removal of surface material from the Earth’s crust and trans¬ portation of the eroded materials by natural agencies from the point of removal. Erosion is caused by wind action, river and stream processes, marine processes (sea waves), and glacial processes. The complementary actions of erosion and deposition or sedimentation operate through wind, moving water, and ice to alter existing landforms and create new land- forms. Erosion will often occur after rock has been disintegrated or altered through weathering. Moving water is the most important natural agent of
erosion. Sea wave erosion results primarily from the impact of waves striking the shore and the abrasive action of sand and pebbles agitated by wave action. Erosion by rivers is caused by the scouring action of the sediment-containing flowing water. Glacial erosion occurs by surface abrasion as the ice, embedded with debris, moves slowly over the ground accompanied by the plucking of rock from the surface. Wind plays a key role in arid regions as blowing sand breaks down rock and dislodges sur¬ face sand from unprotected sand dunes. Human intervention, as by the removal of natural vegetation for farming or grazing purposes, can lead to or accelerate erosion by wind and water. See also sheet erosion.