ERIVAN, a city of Persia, in Asia, and capital of Persian Armenia. It is a large, dirty, ill-looking place, in which are no handsome buildings, the houses being very mean, and raised with earth or mud; but it is full of gardens and vineyards. It is situated in a plain which is surrounded on all sides with mountains. Two rivers pass near it, the Zengui to the north-west, and the Queer Boulac to the south-west. The fortress may pass for a town of itself; it is of an oval form, and is four miles in circumference, containing about 800 houses. It is inhabited by none but the native Persians. The Armenians have shops in it, where they work and trade in the daytime, but at night return to their habitations in the city. The fortress is surrounded with three walls, made with bricks dried in the sun, which have battlements, and are flanked with towers, and defended with ramparts. On the north-east there is a dreadful precipice, above 200 yards in depth, at the bottom of which the river runs. The garrison usually consisted of 2000 men; but how many there are since the revolution is hard to say. The palace of the governor of the province is within the fortress. The city ERM

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ERP

is about a cannon's shot distant from the fortress, and the space between is full of houses and markets. E. Long. 44° 50' N. Lat. 40° 20'.

ERIHYLLE, in fabulous history, a sister of Adras- tus king of Argus, who married Amphiarous. She was daughter of Talaus and Lisimache. When her husband concealed himself that he might not accompany the Argives in their expedition against Thebes, where he knew he was to perish, Eriphyle suffered herself to be bribed by Polynices with a golden necklace which had been formerly given to Hermione by the goddess Ve- nus, and she discovered where Amphiarous was. This treachery of Eriphyle compelled him to go to the war; but before he departed, he charged his son Alcmeon to murder his mother as soon as he was informed of his death. Amphiarous perished in the expedition; and his death was no sooner known than his last injunctions were obeyed, and Eriphyle was murdered by the hands of her son.