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ERISICHTHON

Volume 6 · 91 words · 1797 Edition

(fab. hist.), a Thessalian, son of Triops, who derided Ceres and cut down her groves. This impiety irritated the goddess, who afflicted him with continual hunger. He squandered all his possessions to gratify the cravings of his appetite, and at last devoured his own limbs for want of food. Some say that his daughter had the power of transforming herself into whatever animal she pleased, and that she made use of that artifice to maintain her father, who fell her, after which she assumed another shape, and became again his property.