Empusa was a shape-shifting demon of the night — a seductive, monstrous servant of the goddess Hecate who took the form of a beautiful woman to lure young men to their doom, then revealed her true, hideous nature and devoured them. She is one of the earliest ancestors of the seductive blood-drinking demon — the beautiful stranger who is not at all what she seems.
The Servant of Hecate
Empusa belonged to the dark retinue of Hecate, goddess of witchcraft and the crossroads, and was sometimes counted among the phasmata — the frightening spectres Hecate sent against travellers by night. She haunted lonely roads and was especially dangerous in the dark hours, a creature of the threshold between waking and nightmare.
The Shape-Shifter
Her defining trait was transformation. Empusa could take the form of a stunningly beautiful young woman to approach and seduce her male victims — but her true shape was monstrous: she was said to have one leg of bronze and one of a donkey (or a single flaming-bronze leg), and a face that could blaze with fire. Once she had a man in her grip, she dropped the disguise and fed on his blood and flesh as he slept or made love to her.
Driven Off by Insults
The Greeks preserved a strangely comic defence against her. Empusa, for all her terror, could supposedly be driven away by insults and abuse — hurl mockery and curses at her, and she would shriek and flee. The playwright Aristophanes plays on this: confronted by the shape-shifting horror, the characters simply jeer at her until she runs off. Even a demon of the night, it seems, could not bear to be laughed at.
Mother of the Seductive Demon
Empusa, alongside Lamia, stands at the head of a long line of seductive, predatory female monsters — the lamiae, the later succubi, and ultimately the seductive vampire. The fear she embodies is ancient and enduring: the beautiful stranger in the dark whose true face is death.
The most dangerous thing on the night road wore the loveliest face — and fled only from laughter.