EUPHEMIA of CHALCEDON, virgin and martyr. — The Acts that have come down to us are not authentic (BHCG, 619 ff.; BHL, 2708-14). She was a virgin consecrated to God; during the persecution of Diocletian her teeth were broken with a hammer and then she was cast into the fire. The *Fasti Vindobonenses priores* assign her martyrdom to 16 September in the year 303 (MGH, *Autores antiquissimi*, IX, p. 290). The veneration of the martyr soon spread both in the East and in the West, as is attested repeatedly by the Greek Synaxaria, the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum*, the calendars of Carthage and Naples, the Sacramentaries, and so forth. In the East she had a basilica in Antioch (Moscibus, *Pratum*, 88; PG 87, 2945).
In Constantinople more churches were dedicated to St Euphemia (R. Janin, *Les églises de St. Ephémie à Constantinople*, in *Études d’Orient*, 37 [1934], pp. 270-73). In Egypt she is recorded in the calendar of Oxyrhynchos (B. P. Grenfell–A. S. Hunt, *The Oxyrhynchus Papyri*, part 9a, no. 1337, pp. 19-43). In Africa, in the church at Kherbet-el-Ma-el-Abid, between Constantine and Sétif, a memorial of St Euphemia was deposited in the year 474 (P. Monceaux, *Enquête sur l’épigraphie chrétienne d’Afrique*, in *Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres*, XII, 1 [1907], p. 112). At Aquileia she was commemorated on 3 September. The dedication of the basilica included the solemn entry of a group of saints, among whom was St Euphemia; on the same date her basilica, built by Patriarch Elias, was commemorated at Grado. At Milan, perhaps as early as the time of St Ambrose, relics of St Euphemia were brought and her commemoration was made on 27 November. At Rouen Bishop Victricius placed relics of St Euphemia in veneration (*De laude Sanctorum*: PL 20, 418). At Ravenna there were no fewer than five churches dedicated to St Euphemia. One in the city was built in the 5th century over an earlier church; a second at Classe, called *ad mare*, i.e. the baptistery of the Basilica of Probus, was transformed by Bishop Maximian into a church of St Euphemia, but was already demolished in the time of Agnellus; a third that Agnellus calls “in Calcinio”; a fourth outside Porta Aurea; a fifth outside Porta S. Lorenzo. Again at Ravenna in 550 Bishop Maximian deposited relics of St Euphemia in the church of St Stephen. At Rome her cult was centred in a basilica located in the fourth urban region, i.e. the Subura; it is mentioned by Gregory of Tours (c. 537-94) as a gathering-place for widows in the procession of the Greater Litanies. The building was roofless in the time of Sergius I (687-701), who restored it (*Liber Pontificalis*, I, 375). It is unknown when the basilica was erected, but it must have been earlier than the one that Pope Gelasius dedicated to St Euphemia at Tivoli between 462-96 (*Liber Pontificalis*, I, p. 255). Near Albano a basilica in honour of St Euphemia was erected by Pope Donus (676-678). At Chalcedon, in the basilica erected over her tomb, precious fabrics were admired on which, according to the testimony of Asterius of Amasea, episodes of her martyrdom were depicted (BHCG 2, 623; Evagrius, *Hist. eccl.*, II, 3; J. Pargoire, *L’église St. Euphémie et Rufinianae*, in *Études d’Orient*, 14 [1911], pp. 107-111).
The martyr was depicted at Ravenna in one of the medallions in the museum in the chapel of St Peter Chrysologus (CIL, XI, 261) and closes the procession of martyrs in St Martin “Caelo Aureo” (now St Apollinare Nuovo: CIL, XI, 261); at Parenzo in one of the medallions in the museum inside the triumphal arch of the basilica of Bishop Eusebius (O. Marucchi, *Le recenti scoperte nel duomo di Parenzo*, in *Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana*, 2 [1866], p. 16). She is also portrayed in a fresco in a niche in the apse of the ancient basilica of St Clement; only the upper part survives, showing her youthful appearance with a rich pearl diadem on her head and the inscription SCÆ EUF[emia] (Wilpert, *Mosaiken*, pl. 213, 4; p. 1035); a figure of St Euphemia also appears in a 12th-century fresco in St Lawrence outside the Walls.
EUPHRATES (Sumerian Buranunu; Akkadian Purāmu or Purattu, whose most probable meaning is “Great River,” Hebrew Pērāth; the Greek Εὐφράτης derives from the Persian Ufrātho or Frat, cf. Armenian Efrat.). — One of the greatest rivers of Asia.
It rises in the mountains of Armenia from the union of the Kara Su, which has its source on the Dumlu Dağ north of Erzurum, and the Murat Su (= Arsaias of the Greeks, also called the Eastern Euphrates), which rises on the Ala Dağ a little north of Lake Van. The junction occurs below Harput. About 160 km from the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the Euphrates joins the other great river, the Tigris (v.), to form the Shatt al-Arab. The Euphrates is 2,780 km long and has a very irregular course, especially between the mountain ranges of the Taurus, where it flows in wide meanders and deep trenches that occasion high and beautiful waterfalls. In the Mesopotamian plain its bed widens, reaching up to 400 m in width and 5-6 m in depth. The volume of water varies with the seasons; but its floods (March-June) are usually very regular, depending on the melting of the snows. Navigation on the river, which is now little exploited owing to the building of railways along the Persian Gulf, depends on these floods. It is to be noted that in prehistoric times, and also in historical times although there is a lack of clear evidence, the Euphrates flowed directly into the sea with a separate mouth from that of the Tigris. Its principal tributaries are the Nahr Belih and the Nahr Zāb. Among the cities once watered by it, the most famous were Charchemish (cf. Jer. 46, 2) and Babylon (cf. Apoc. 9, 14; 19, 12). In the time of the Babylonian Empire the Euphrates supplied much of the water that, through an excellent network of canals, irrigated the vast plain.
The Euphrates is often mentioned in the Bible, appearing from the beginning (cf. Gen. 2, 14) as one of the rivers of the earthly Paradise. At times it symbolizes Babylonian power (cf. Jer. 2, 18; 13, 4; 9, 7; 27, 12). Frequently the Euphrates is recalled in boundary delimitations. According to the promise made to Abraham (Gen. 15, 18; cf. Ex. 23, 3; Deut. 1, 7; 11, 24; Josh. 1, 4, etc.) the northern limit of the Hebrew dominion would be marked by a certain river. At the beginning of the Israelite kingdom, at least nominally and on special occasions, this boundary seems to have been reached (cf. 2 Sam. 8, 3; 1 Kings 4, 24). In the Persian period the Euphrates marked the boundary of the satrapy Abar Nahara (Hebrew ‘eber hannāhār ‘beyond the river’; cf. Ezra 8, 36; Neh. 2, 7, 9), which comprised the territory extending between it and the Mediterranean.