(urth) ) Goldwurm and blood sucking in Greek Myth in SH; Lamia of Corinth

[Marc Aramini]

I was hung up on who Goldwurm was ... Wolfe did a number on us. There are
three spirits with three manifestations. The Kikimora, Knecht Ruprecht
(Robin Goodfellow/The Devil) and ... finally, the one who is the strangler
Goldwurm and the butler Nicholas, who sucks the blood of children. There is
one monster who was used as a bogeyman for children, who sucked their blood
or ripped them from the womb. The lamia, who, not always a serpent, was a
shapeshifter. When her children died, killed by the jealous Hera there are
several features that she has. One is that she could never sleep,
tormented, so she could remove her eyes and possess vessels through them.
The flaming eyes of Lupine and Nicholas are mentioned. In addition, in some
myths, she was ambiguously gendered, as one noxious item was lamia's
testicles (see the Greek gold coin on which the obverse side is a woman who
looks like a man to Doris and the fact that Winkle is called a HE by
Iuean).

Finally, and the seal of the deal, is this, from Philostratis and the Life
of Appolonius about Lamia of CORINTH - note that the coin is
CORINTHIAN!!!!!!!!:

Lamia is the vulgar term, empousa the proper term:

"The *empousa* admits in the end to fattening up her victim (Menippus of
Lycia) to be consumed, as she was in the habit of targeting young men for
food "because their blood was fresh and pure".[36]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamia#cite_note-philostratus-tr-phillimore-43>
The
last statement has led to the surmise that this lamia/empusa was a sort of
blood-sucking vampire.[44]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamia#cite_note-dict-grbm-empusa-53>

Another aspect of her powers is that this empusa/lamia is able to create an
illusion of a sumptuous mansion, with all the accoutrements and even
servants. But once Apollonius reveals her false identity at the wedding,
the illusion fails her and vanishes"


There we have it - the house as illusion of the ambiguously gendered and
fierce eyed-lamia, in conjunction with the stories of Knecht Ruprecht and
the Kikimora, means this bodes very ill for Bax. Goldwurm is the Lamia. Her
rival is Hera, but does Hera appear to strike down the illegitimate
children of Zeus in the text?
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