LAMIE, Λαμιαί, among the ancients, a kind of demons, or evil spirits, who, under the form of beautiful women, are said to have devoured children.
Horace makes mention of them in his Art of Poetry. Some authors call them lamie, & laniando. Philostratus says, they are also called larvae, or lemures, as if they were all the same thing. Bochart will have the word to be Phœnician, and derives it from φάειν "to devour;" alleging the fable of the lamie came from Libya.