Editing Empusa

{{short description|Legendary figure in Greek mythology}}
{{other uses}}

'''Empusa''' or '''Empousa''' ({{IPAc-en|ɛ|m|'|p|j|uː|s|ə}};<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/centurycyclopedi09smituoft/page/360/mode/2up |page=361 |title=Century Cyclopedia of Names|editor-first=Benjamin E. |editor-last=Smith |publisher=Century |location=New York |year=1895 |volume=i}}</ref> {{Langx|grc|Ἔμπουσα}}; ''plural'': {{Lang|grc|Ἔμπουσαι}} ''Empusai'') is a [[shape-shifting]] female being in [[Greek mythology]], said to possess a single leg of copper, commanded by [[Hecate]], whose precise nature is obscure.<ref>''An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon'', Liddell and Scott</ref> In [[Late Antiquity]], the empousae have been described as a category of [[Apparition (disambiguation)|phantoms]] or spectres, equated with the [[Lamia (mythology)|lamiai]] and [[mormo|mormolykeia]], thought to seduce and feed on young men.

== In antiquity ==
The primary sources for the ''empousa'' in [[Age of antiquity|Antiquity]] are [[Aristophanes]]'s plays (''[[The Frogs]]'' and ''[[Ecclesiazusae]]'') and [[Philostratus]]'s ''[[Life of Apollonius of Tyana]]''.<ref name=dict-grbm-empusa/>

===Aristophanes===
The Empusa was defined in the Sudas and by [[Crates of Mallus]] as a "demonic phantom"{{Efn|''phāntasma daimoniōdes'' {{langx|el|φάντασμα δαιμονιῶδες}}.}}<ref name=sudas-empousa/> with [[shape-shifting]] abilities.<ref name=sudas-empousa/><ref name=aristoph-ranae-schol-393/> Thus in Aristophanes's plays she is said to change appearance from various beasts to a woman.<ref name=aristophanes-ranae-rogers/>

The Empusa is also said to be one-legged,<ref name=aristoph-ranae-schol-393/> having one [[brass]] leg,{{Efn|or of copper or bronze; {{langx|el|[[wikt:χάλκεος|χάλκεος]]}}).}} or a [[donkey]]'s leg, thus being known by the epithets '''Onokole''' (Ὀνοκώλη)<ref name=aristoph-ranae-schol-393/>  and '''Onoskelis''' (Ὀνοσκελίς) which both mean "donkey-footed".<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DE%3Aentry+group%3D4%3Aentry%3Dempusa-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Empūsa]</ref>
A [[folk etymology]] construes the name to mean "one-footed" (from Greek *έμπούς, ''*empous'': ''en-'', one + ''pous'', foot).<ref name=aristoph-ranae-schol-393/><ref name=sudas-empousa/>

In Aristophanes's comedy ''The Frogs'', an Empusa appears before [[Dionysus]] and his slave [[Xanthias]] on their way to the underworld, although this may be the slave's practical joke to frighten his master. Xanthias thus sees (or pretends to see) the empousa transform into a bull, a mule, a beautiful woman,<!--γυνή--> and a dog. The slave also reassures that the being indeed had one brass (copper) leg, and another leg of cow dung{{Efn|Or donkey dung; {{lang|grc|βόλιτος}}.<ref name=sudas-empousa/>}} besides.<ref name=aristophanes-ranae-rogers/><ref name=theoi/>

The Empusa was a being sent by [[Hecate]] (as one scholiast noted),<ref name=aristoph-ranae-schol-393/> or was Hecate herself, according to a fragment of Aristophanes's lost play ''Tagenistae'' ("Men of the Frying-pan"), as preserved in the Venetus.{{Efn|The Empusa/Hecate is said by Aristophanes to appear with coiled snakes in that summoned form.}}<ref name=aristoph-ranae-schol-393/>

===Life of Apollonius===

By the [[Late Antiquity]] 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.<ref name=dict-grbm-empusa/>

According to the 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 eventually to devour him.<ref name=apoll-vit-IV-25>''Apoll. Vit.'' IV. 25: {{harvp|Phillimore (tr.)|Philostratus|1912}}, '''2''', pp. 24–26</ref> 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.<ref>''Apoll. Vit.'' II. IV: {{harvp|Phillimore (tr.)|Philostratus|1912}}, '''1''', pp. 53</ref>

An ''empousa'' was also known to others as ''[[lamia]]'' or ''[[mormo|mormolyke]]''.<ref name=apoll-vit-IV-25/> 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,<ref name=apoll-vit-IV-25/> prompting an interpretation as blood-sucking [[vampire]] by [[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith]]'s ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'' (1849).<ref name=dict-grbm-empusa/>{{Refn|The "Apollonius of Tyana" article from the ''DGRBM''′s 1877 edition also wrote that it was a "vampire",<ref name=dict-grbm-1877-apollonius-p136/> but in the 1880 edition the article renamed "Apollonius Tyanaeus" has "purposely omitted wonders".<ref name=dict-grbm-1880-apollonius-p243/>}}

== 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 {{illm|Bernhard Schmidt (philologist){{!}}Bernhard Schmidt|de|Bernhard Schmidt (Philologe)}} (1871).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schmidt |first1=Bernhard |title=Das volksleben der Neugriechen und das hellenische alterthum |volume=1 |publisher=B.G. Teubner |year=1871 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9rEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA133 |page=133|quote="έχει κορμί τής Λάμνιας ή πώς περβατεί σαν τη Λάμνια.. mehr als zwei und zwar verschiedenartig gebildete Füsse hat, der eine ist von Erz, der andere ist ein Eselsfuss, wieder ein anderer ein Ochsenfuss, ein Ziegenfuss, ein Menschenfuss u. s. w."}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=West |first=M.L. |author-link=<!--M.L. West--> |title=TRAGICA III |journal=Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of London |volume=26 |year=1979 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RFITm2BmZKYC&q=Arachova|page=116<!--104–117-->}}</ref> Schmidt only speculated that oral lore of ''empousa'' might survive somewhere locally.{{sfnp|Schmidt|1871|p=141}} 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stewart|first=Charles|author-link=<!--Charles Steward--> |title=The Exotica: Greek Values and their Supernatural Antitheses |journal=ARV. Scandinavian Yearbook of Folklore |volume=41 |year=1985 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EKbYAAAAMAAJ&q=gello|page=62<!--37–64-->|isbn=9789122008873}}</ref>

==In fiction==
Empusa is referenced in [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s narrative poem "[[Rudyard Kipling bibliography#Poems|Tomlinson]]".

Empusa is a character in ''[[Faust, Part Two]]'' by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]. She appears during the Classical [[Walpurgis Night]] 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]]'s film ''[[Nosferatu]]'' (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 (video game)|''Primal'']], Empusa is among the Wraith-Aristocrates, a fast travelling race of demons, and the wife of the main-antagonist 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.

==See also==
* [[Vrykolakas]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name=aristophanes-ranae-rogers>Aristophanes, ''The Frogs'', 288 ff. {{citation|editor-last=Rogers |editor-first=Benjamin Bickley |editor-link=Benjamin Bickley Rogers |title=Aristophanous Kōmōidiai: The frogs. The Ecclesiazusae|place=London |publisher=Macmillan |volume=1 |year=1896 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cKFfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA44 |pages=44}}</ref>

<ref name=aristoph-ranae-schol-393>Scholion to Aristophanes, ''Frogs'' 393: {{citation|editor-last=Rutherford |editor-first=Willam G. |editor-link=<!--Willam G. Rutherford--> |title=Scholia Aristophanica |place=London |publisher=Macmillan |volume=1 |year=1896 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JDY_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA312 |pages=312–313}}
</ref>

<ref name=dict-grbm-1877-apollonius-p136>Mozley, John Rickards (1877), "[https://books.google.com/books?id=EF4GXCJN5KQC&pg=PA136 Apollonius of Tyana"], ''DGRBM'' '''1''', p. 136.</ref>
<ref name=dict-grbm-1880-apollonius-p243>Jowett, Benjamin (1880), "[https://books.google.com/books?id=0DIGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA243 Apollonius Tyanaeus]", ''DGRBM'' '''1''', p. 243. [[Perseus Project]] "{{plain link|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dapollonius-tyanaeus-bio-1|name=Apollonius Tyanaeus}}"</ref>

<ref name=dict-grbm-empusa>{{citation|last=Schmitz |first=Leonhard <!--L.S.-->|author-link=<!--Leonhard Schmitz--> |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=William |title=Lamia |work=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology |place=London |publisher=John Murray |volume=2 |year=1849 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nVkoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA713 |pages=713–714}} [[Perseus Project]] "{{plain link|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aentry%3Dlamia-bio-2|name=La'mia (2)}}".</ref>

<ref name=sudas-empousa>"{{plain link|name=Ἔμπουσα (Empousa) |url=http://www.stoa.org/sol-entries/epsilon/1049}}", ''Suda On Line", tr. Do Lee. 8 September 2003. {{cite book|author=Suidas |editor-last=Gaisford |editor-first=Thomas |title=Lexicon: post Ludolphum Kusterum ad codices manuscriptos. A - Theta |volume=1 |publisher=Typographeo Academico |year=1834 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fupCAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1227 |page=1227}}</ref>

<ref name=theoi>{{cite web|url=http://www.theoi.com/Phasma/Empousai.html|title=EMPUSA & LAMIAE: Vampires, demons, monsters; Greek legend: EMPOUSA & LAMIAI|access-date=12 May 2016}}, quoting Sudas, Arostphanes's ''Frogs'', and Smith's DGRBM, Suidas.</ref>

}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Phillimore (tr.)|Philostratus|1912}}|author=Philostratus |editor-last=Phillimore |editor-first=J. S. (tr.) |chapter=IV.25 |title=In Honour of Apollonius of Tyana |volume=2 |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1912 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTcIAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA26 |pages=24–26, 45, 144–6, 155, 315}}; {{plain link|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KDgIAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA53|name=Vol. 1}}, p. 53
{{refend}}

[[Category:European demons]]
[[Category:Female demons]]
[[Category:Greek sleep deities]]
[[Category:Monsters in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological hematophages]]
[[Category:Lamia]]
[[Category:Sleep goddesses]]
[[Category:Vampires]]