empusa
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See also: Empusa
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Ancient Greek Ἔμπουσα (Émpousa)
Noun
empusa (plural empusas or empusae)
- (Greek mythology) In Ancient Greek mythology, a kind of spectre sent by Hecate to guard roads and devour travellers.
- 1858, "Empūsa", entry in William Smith, A Classical Dictionary of Biography, Mythology, and Geography, John Murray, page 240,
- The Lamiae and Mormolyceia, who assumed the form of handsome women for the purpose of attracting young men, and then sucked their blood like vampyrs and ate their flesh, were reckoned among the Empusae.
- 2016, Heide Crawford, The Origins of the Literary Vampire, Rowman & Littlefield, page 41:
- The empusae of Greek mythology demonstrate physical animal traits of the donkey and the female dog in order to emphasize certain negative characteristics associated with these animals in mythology that can also be applied to human beings.
- 1858, "Empūsa", entry in William Smith, A Classical Dictionary of Biography, Mythology, and Geography, John Murray, page 240,
Translations
kind of spectre in Greek mythology