
Empouse
Empusa or Empousa (Em-POO-say) 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.
- Variations: Demon du Midi (“Mid-Day Demon”), Empusa, Empusae, Empusas, Empuse, Empusen, Moromolykiai, MORMO (“terrible one”), “She who moves on one leg”
While the Greek word "empouse" is translated as “vampire”, by the ancient Greeks’ own mythological standards of classification "demon" would be a better translation. "They define a demon as any creature born in another world but that can appear in ours as a being of flesh."
In Greek lore, Empouse (plural empousai) are born the red-headed daughters of the witch goddess Hecate and act as her attendants. Their legs are mulelike and shod with bronze shoes. They have illusion and shape-shifting powers and will use these to have sexual relations with man and they will then drain that man of his life and, occasional, his flesh similar to a Succubus.
"In Russian folklore, the empouse appears at harvest time as a widow. It breaks the arms and legs of every harvester it can lay hands on."
GURPS Blood Types has "Empusa (Ancient Greece)" and states "The goddess Hecate had in her retinue a host of vampiric female demons alternately known as Lamia, empusae and Mormo"
References[]
- Bane, Theresa (2010) Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology McFarland pg 60