a town of Persia, in the pachalic of Bagdad; the ancient Arbela, where Alexander the Great defeated Darius. It is situated on an eminence commanding an extensive plain, which abounds in grain and fruit. It is surrounded by walls, but is now a poor place, containing about 2000 or 3000 Kurds or Chaldeans. It is sixty miles east of Mosul. Long. 43° 20'. E. Lat. 36° 11'. N.

EREBUS, ἐρεβος (from ἐρεβει, night), in Mythology, a term denoting darkness. According to Hesiod, Erebus was the son of Chaos and Night, and the father of the day. This was also the name of part of the infernal among the ancients; and a peculiar expiation was provided for those who were detained in Erebus.

Erebus was properly the gloomy region, and distinguished both from Tartarus the place of torment, and Elysium the region of bliss. According to the account given of it by Virgil, it forms the third grand division of the invisible world beyond the Styx, and comprehends several particular districts, as the limbus infantum, or the receptacle for infants; the limbus for those who had destroyed themselves; the fields of mourning, full of dark groves and woods, inhabited by those who died for love; and beyond these, an open campaign country for the accommodation of departed warriors.