Empusa or Empousa (; ; ''plural'': ''Empousai'') is a shape-shifting female being in

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...

, said to possess a single leg of copper, commanded by

Hecate Hecate or Hekate, , ; grc-dor, Ἑκάτᾱ, Hekátā, ; la, Hecatē or . is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depict ...

, whose precise nature is obscure. In

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English h ...

, the empousai have been described as a category of phantoms or spectres, equated with the lamiai and mormolykeia, thought to seduce and feed on young men.

In antiquity

The primary sources for the ''empousa'' in

Antiquity Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to: Historical objects or periods Artifacts *Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures Eras Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...

are

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his ...

's plays (''

The Frogs ''The Frogs'' ( grc-gre, Βάτραχοι, Bátrakhoi, Frogs; la, Ranae, often abbreviated ''Ran.'' or ''Ra.'') is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus i ...

'' and '' Ecclesiazusae'') and

Philostratus Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; grc-gre, Φιλόστρατος ; c. 170 – 247/250 AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probab ...

's ''

Life of Apollonius of Tyana ''Life of Apollonius of Tyana'' ( grc-gre, Τὰ ἐς τὸν Τυανέα Ἀπολλώνιον), also known by its Latin title , is a text in eight books written in Ancient Greece by Philostratus (c. 170 – c. 245 AD). It tells the story of A ...

''.

Aristophanes

The Empusa has been defined in the

Sudas Sudās Paijavana ( sa, सुदास्) was an Indo-Aryan tribal king of the Bharatas, during the main or middle Rigvedic period (c. 14th century BCE). He led his tribe to victory in the Battle of the Ten Kings near the Paruṣṇī (mod ...

and by

Crates of Mallus Crates of Mallus ( grc-gre, Κράτης ὁ Μαλλώτης, ''Krátēs ho Mallṓtēs''; century BC) was a Greek grammarian and Stoic philosopher, leader of the literary school and head of the library of Pergamum. He was described as th ...

as a "demonic phantom". with shape-shifting abilities. Thus in Aristophane's plays she is said to change appearance from various beasts to a woman. The Empusa is also said to be one-legged, namely, having one

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wi ...

leg,). or a

donkey The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as ...

's leg, thus being known by the epithets Onokole (Ὀνοκώλη) and Onoskelis (Ὀνοσκελίς) which they mean "Donkey-footed". A

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

construes the name to mean "one-footed" (from Greek *έμπούς, ''*empous'': ''en-'', one + ''pous'', foot). In Aristophanes's comedy ''The Frogs'', an Empusa appears before

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

and his slave

Xanthias Xanthias refers to several characters, notably all slaves, who appear in plays by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. History In ''The Frogs'', Xanthias is the slave of Dionysus. He delivers the opening line of the play, riding on Dionysu ...

on their way to the underworld, although this may be the slave's practical joke to frighten his master. Xanthius thus sees (or pretends to see) the empousa transform into a bull, a mule, a beautiful woman, and a dog. The slave also reassures that the being indeed had one brass (copper) leg, and another leg of cow dung besides. The Empusa was a being sent by

(as one scholiast noted), or, was Hecate herself, according to a fragment of Aristophanes's lost play ''Tagenistae'' ("Men of the Frying-pan"), as preserved in the Venetus.

Life of Apollonius

By the

in Greece, this became a category of beings, designated as ''empusai'' (Lat. ''empusae'') in the plural. It came to be believed that the spectre preyed on young men for seduction and for food. According to 1st century ''Life of Apollonius of Tyana'', the empousa is a phantom (''phasma'') that took on the appearance of an attractive woman and seduced a young philosophy student in order to eventually devour him.''Apoll. Vit.'' IV. 25: , 2, pp. 24–26 In a different passage of the same work, when Apollonius was journeying from Persia to India, he encountered an empousa, hurling insults at it, coaxing his fellow travellers to join him, whereby it ran and hid, uttering high-pitched screams. An ''empousa'' was also known to others as ''

lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

'' or '' mormolyke''. This ''empousa'' confessed it was fattening up the student she targeted to feed on him, and that she especially craved young men for the freshness and purity of their blood, prompting an interpretation as blood-sucking

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

by Smith′s ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/ biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 ...

'' (1849).

Modern Greek folklore

In modern times, folklore has been collected about a being fitting the description of an ''empousa'': an extremely slender woman with multiple feet, "one of bronze, one a donkey's foot, one an ox's, one a goat's, and one human", but she was referred to as a woman with the lamia-like body and gait. The example was from Arachova (Parnassus) and published by (1871) Schmidt only speculated that oral lore of ''empousa'' might survive somewhere locally. A field study (Charles Stewart, 1985) finds that ''empousa'' is a term that is rarely used in oral tradition, compared to other terms such as '' gello'' which has a similar meaning.

Modern interpretations

According to

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celt ...

, Empusa was a demigoddess, the beautiful daughter of the goddess Hecate and the spirit Mormo. She feasted on blood by seducing young men as they slept (see sleep paralysis), before drinking their blood and eating their flesh. When she spotted a man sleeping on the road, she attacked him, little knowing he was Zeus, king of the gods. Zeus woke and visited his wrath on her and Empusa was killed.

In fiction

Empusa is referenced in

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

's narrative poem "

Tomlinson Tomlinson may refer to: *''Tomlinson v Congleton Borough Council'', an English court case in Occupiers' Liability As a surname, Tomlinson may refer to: *Alys Tomlinson (born 1975), British photographer *Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson, founder of the Chu ...

". Empusa is a character in '' Faust, Part Two'' by

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

. She appears during the Classical

Walpurgis Night Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess ...

as Mephisto is being lured by the Lamiae. She refers to herself as cousin to Mephisto because she has a donkey's foot and he has a horse's. ''Empusa'' is the name of the ship used by Count Orlok to travel to Wisborg in

F. W. Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at th ...

's film ''

Nosferatu ''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' (German: ''Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens'') is a 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on the wife ...

'' (1922). Empusa is a main antagonist turned heroine in the novel ''Grecian Rune'' by James Matthew Byers. They may look like humans at first. In ''Primal'', Empusa is among the Wraith-Aristocrates, a fast travelling race of demons, and the wife of the main-antogonist in the third world. In ''Wicked Wings'' by Keri Arthur, the villains are three empusae who are eating the flesh of their prey. They use the form of a young woman to lure the men to their deaths.

Popular entertainment

In the ''

Percy Jackson & the Olympians ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' is a series of five fantasy novels written by American author Rick Riordan, and the first book series in the ''Camp Half-Blood Chronicles''. The novels are set in a world with the Greek gods in the 21st cent ...

'' series, the Empousai first appear in ''

The Battle of the Labyrinth ''The Battle of the Labyrinth'' is an American fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology written by Rick Riordan. It is the fourth novel in the ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series. The novel was first published in the United States on ...

'' as servants of

who had, by that time, joined the Titan Army. Empusa (along with

Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

and Mormo) is one of the three witches in the film ''

Stardust Stardust may refer to: * A type of cosmic dust, composed of particles in space Entertainment Songs * “Stardust” (1927 song), by Hoagy Carmichael * “Stardust” (David Essex song), 1974 * “Stardust” (Lena Meyer-Landrut song), 2012 * ...

'' (dir. Matthew Vaughn). She is played by Sarah Alexander. In

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gra ...

's novel ''

'' the witches are not given individual names.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* ; , p. 53 {{refend Female legendary creatures Greek legendary creatures Greek sleep deities Mythological hematophages Succubi