Empusa

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In ancient Greek mythology, the Empusae (Greek: Έμπουσα, English: Empousa, English translation: "forcer-in") were female supernatural monster or demonesses; the daughters of Hecate sent by her to harass travelers. It scared to death or ate anybody that travelled along the paths or roads it inhabited. The empusae are sometimes described as having one donkey-like leg, one bronze leg and brazen slippers. The Empusae are best known for their appearance in Aristophanes's The Frogs, in which they scared Dionysus and Xanthias on their way to the underworld. They could assume the form of beautiful women, and lie with men and drain their life forces.

More recent Greek tales describe the creature as a merely frightening shapeshifter, but blame it for injuring sheep.

The Empusae are similar to the lilim of ancient Jewish legend, and the former may be derived from that of the latter. See also Lamia.

[edit] Popular culture

Two empousai (called Kelli and Tammi) were in the book the Battle of the Labyrinth in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series

Empusa (referred to as "yellow-hued Empusa, hobgoblin to the queen of ghosts") is the name of a powerful painkiller taken by Gabriel Swan in John Banville's novel Mefisto.

Empusa is the name of the two masted sail ship boarded by the vampire Count Orlok traveling from Galaz to Wisborg in the film Nosferatu (Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens) (1922). This is the very first version of Bram Stoker's classic.

Empusa appears as a type of monster from Dragon Quest V. It is a goblin-like monster wearing a hula skirt, a wig and lipstick, whose attacks are mostly dance-based.

Empusa was a monster that appeared in Cronus Chronicles; she was described as a shape-shifting, vampire-like, female demon with hair of flames, legs of bronze, and hooved feet.

Empusa in a shape of a beautiful woman was exposed and expelled by Apollonius of Tiana, when she was about to marry a young man, whose energy she was sucking.

Empusa also appears in various games from the Megami Tensei series. It looks like a blue and white dog-like animal with the head of a blonde woman.

Empusa again appears in the Disgaea video game series as the basic succubus monster. A bizarre cross between a bat and a woman, their signature "hip attack" is "sexier than you think".

Empusa appear as a basic monster type in the final act of the video game Titan Quest, with 4 Empusa "hero" monsters being part of a quest to raid Hades' treasury.

Empusa is a character in the video game Primal for the Playstation 2. She is a Wraith, an aristocratic, grotesque vampire like creature ruling over the land of Aetha which is allied with the Chaos.

Sarah Alexender plays Empusa, a witch with pink magic who lives with her sisters Lamia and Mormo in the film Stardust (2007 film). When Empusa is dueling Septimus, she sends tongues of flame at him, then heats his sword, then sends one last burst of flame at him then turns to her sisters to laugh with. Then Septimus grabs a knive they use for sacrificing and slings it at Empusa. She laughs one more time before she dies.

Empusae is the name of an Industrial band from Belgium.