The filthy demons called Empusae, children of Hecate, are asshaunched and wear brazen slippers—unless, as some declare, each has one ass’s leg and one brazen leg. Their habit is to frighten travellers, but they may be routed by insulting words, at the sound of which they flee shrieking. Empusae disguise themselves in the forms of bitches, cows, or beautiful maidens and, in the latter shape, will lie with men by night, or at the time of midday sleep, sucking their vital forces until they die.
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. The Empusae (‘forcers-in’) are greedily seductive female demons, a concept probably brought to Greece from Palestine, where they went by the name of Lilim (‘children of Lilith’) and were thought to be asshaunched, the ass symbolizing lechery and cruelty. Lilith (‘scritch-owl’) was a Canaanite Hecate, and the Jews made amulets to protect themselves against her as late as the Middle Ages. Hecate, the real ruler of Tartarus (see
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), wore a brazen sandal—the golden sandal was Aphrodite’s—and her daughters, the Empusae, followed this example. They could change themselves into beautiful maidens or cows, as well as bitches, because the Bitch Hecate, being a member of the Moon-triad, was the same goddess as Aphrodite, or cow-eyed Hera.
