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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
Kasyapa, who became mothers of gods, demons, men, birds, serpents and all living things.
Dharma. An ancient sage, sometimes classed among the Prajapatis. He married 13 (or 10) of the daughters of Daksha, and had a numerous progeny, but all his children "are manifestly allegorical, being personifications of intelligences and virtues and religious rites, and being therefore appropriately wedded to the probable authors of the Hindu code of religion and morals! or the equally allegorical representation of that code, Dharma, moral and religious duty."-Wilson.
Daity as. Titans. Descendants from Diti by Kasyapa. They are a race of demons and giants who warred against the gods and interfered with sacrifices. . they and the Dânavas are generally associated and hardly distinguishable.
Diti. Daughter of Daksha, wife of Kasyapa and mother of the Daityas.
Dâna vas, descendants from Danu by the sage Kasyapa. They were giants who warred against the gods.
Asuras..
The word has long been used as a general name for the enemies of the gods, including Daityas and Dânvas and other descendants of Kasyapa.
Putting all the above evidence together, and taking into consideration the confusion into which mythological legends are apt to fall, I do not think it an unfair inference to draw that the modern Aryan Lamia, the snake-woman demon, is the classical Aryan Lambâ, the demon, Titan or giant, or the mother of the demons, Titans or giants, or probably either indifferently, and that her name means 'the Long One.'
But the Lamia is equally the property of Europe as of India. In All the Year Round, New Series, Vol. XXIX, No. 691, p. 41, for February 1882, I chanced on the following: "The most cruel and formidable of all ferocious animals is the Lamia, a monster like unto an enormous goat, except that it has the hoofs of a horse. In its wild rush it breaks down well grown trees, snaps off and scatters their boughs, and loves to fall upon men and bite them, the wound being incurable within sound of the creature's voice. In its fury it tears even its young to pieces."
The author of the article "Imaginary Monsters," quotes as his authorities the Bestiaire d'Amour of Richard de Fournival, the Ortus Sanitatis of Johann von Cube and the De Proprietatibus Rerum of Bartholomæus de Glanvilla, black letter, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1494. He does not say
Compare the figures used as brackets in early Indian temples and caves, e.g. on the door of Cave IV at Ajanta and in the Mahavallipuram Caves, sometimes called
[AUGUST, 1882. from which of the above authors the passage is
culled.
Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon, 1864, says,Aápia, (not Aapía Spitzn. Vers. H. P. 30, Meineke Menand. p. 145), a fabulous monster said to feed on man's flesh, a bugbear to children. Ar. Vesp. 1177, etc.
Smith's Latin Dict. 1864. Lamia, f. λáua, a witch, sorceress, enchantress: neu pransa lamiæ puerum vivum extrahat alvo, Hor. A. P. 340: App. M. I. p. 110.
Smith's Dict. of G. and R. Biog. and Mythol. 1859, gives Lamia (Xáuia) a female-phantom (Empusa). Also
Empusa ("Eurovera), a monstrous spectre which was believed to devour human beings. It could assume different forms, and was sent by Hecate to frighten travellers. It was believed usually to appear with one leg of brass and the other of an aag, whence it was called δνοσκελίς and ὀνοκώλη. The Lamia and Mormolyceia, who assumed the form of handsome women for the purpose of attracting young men, and then sucked their blood like vampyrs and ate their flesh, were reckoned among the Empus.
Liddell and Scott, Greek Lex., give Eurovσa, n, Empusa, a hobgoblin assuming various shapes, said to be sent by Hecate, also 'Ovorkeλís and 'Ovokán, the donkey-footed: Aristoph. Ran. 293, Eccl. 1056, ef. Dem. 270, 25: sometimes identified with Hecate Ar. Fr. 426. v. Aápa.
Smith, Biog. and Mythol. Dict., gives Mormo (Μορμώ algo Μορμολύκη, Μορμολυκείον), a female spectre with which the Greeks used to frighten their children. Again, Liddell and Scott say Moppé and Moppov, a hideous she-monster used by nurses to frighten children with, like the Lamia, Mania and Maniola of the Romans: Luc. Philops, Ruhnk. Tim. generally, a bugbear. Moppoдukciov like poppá, a bugbear, hobgoblin: Ar. Thesm. 417; Fr. 97,187; Plat. Phæd. 77E; cf. Ruhnk. Tim. In MSS. sometimes μορμολύκιον, also μορμολύκη, ή ; Strabo, 19.
Smith, Dict. of Biog. and Myth. gives Mania, a formidable Italian, probably Etruscan, divinity of the lower world. Smith, Latin Dict. says Mania, a bugbear for children. Arn. 6 fin. Maniola, little bugbears for children; Fest, s.v.
Lastly, Smith, Diet. of Biog. and Myth. says Hecate, 'Exárn, a mysterious divinity.. According to the most genuine traditions she appears to have been an ancient Thracian divinity and a Titan..... ... She was the only one among the Titans who retained power under the
Sardulas in the north and Yalls in the south.-ED.
Connected with Manes, the infernal deities, not with mania, madness.
