[651]Φοιτων δ' ιφθιμοι Λαιστρυγονες, αλλοθεν αλλος, Μυριοι, ουκ ανδρεσσιν εοικοτες, αλλα Γιγασι. Many give an account of the Lestrygons, and Lamiæ, upon the Liris in Italy; and also upon other parts of that coast: and some of them did settle there. But they were more particularly to be found in [652]Sicily near Leontium, as the Scholiast upon Lycophron observes. [653]Λαιστρυγονες, ὁι νυν Λεοντινοι. _The antient Lestrygons were the people, whose posterity are now called Leontini_. The same writer takes notice of their incivility to strangers: [654]Ουκ ησαν ειθισμενοι ξενους ὑποδεχεσθαι. That they were Amonians, and came originally from Babylonia, is pretty evident from the history of the Erythrean Sibyl; who was no other than a Lamian priestess. She is said to have been the daughter of Lamia, who was the daughter of Poseidon. [655]Σιβυλλαν--Λαμιας ουσαν θυγατερα του Ποσειδωνος. Under the character of one person is to be understood a priesthood: of which community each man was called Lamus, and each priestess Lamia. By the Sibyl being the daughter of Lamia, the daughter of Poseidon, is meant, that she was of Lamian original, and ultimately descended from the great Deity of the sea. Who is alluded to under that character, will hereafter be shewn. The countries, to which the Sibyl is referred, point out her extraction: for she is said to have come from Egypt, and Babylonia. [656]Ὁι δε αυτην Βαβυλωνιαν, ἑτεροι δε Σιβυλλαν καλουσιν Αιγυπτιαν. If the Sibyl came from Babylonia and Egypt, her supposed parent, Lamia, must have been of the same original. The Lamiæ were not only to be found in Italy, and Sicily, but Greece, Pontus, and [657]Libya. And however widely they may have been separated, they are still represented in the same unfavourable light. Euripides says, that their very name was detestable. [658]Τις τ' ουνομα τοδ' επονειδιστον βροτοις Ουκ οιδε Λαμιας της Λιβυστικης γενος. Philostratus speaks of their bestial appetite, and unnatural gluttony. [659]Λαμιας σαρκων, και μαλιστα ανθρωπειων ερᾳν. And Aristotle alludes to practices still more shocking: as if they tore open the bodies big with child, that they might get at the infant to devour it. _I speak_, says he, _of people, who have brutal appetites_. [660]Λεγω δε τας θηριωδεις, ὁιον την ανθρωπον, την λεγουσι τας κυουσας ανασχιζουσαν τα παιδια κατεσθεειν. These descriptions are perhaps carried to a great excess; yet the history was founded in truth: and shews plainly what fearful impressions were left upon the minds of men from the barbarity of the first ages. One of the principal places in Italy, where the Lamia seated themselves, was about Formiæ; of which Horace takes notice in his Ode to Ælius Lamia. [661]Æli, vetusto nobilis ab Lamo, &c. Authore ab illo ducis originem, Qui Formiarum mœnia dicitur Princeps, et innantem Maricæ Littoribus tenuisse Lirim.