Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Lamiae

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

LAM'IAE (λαμίαι). Vampires; believed to be malignant spirits of the female sex, who wandered about at night in the guise of old hags, sucking the blood, and devouring the flesh of human beings, more especially of young children. This superstition originated in Egypt, whence it was adopted into Greece and Italy. Hor. A. P. 340. Apul. Met. i. p. 13. Id. v. p. 96. Quaranta. Mus. Borb. xi. 53.