 According to 1st century "Life of Apollonius of Tyana", the empousa is a phantom ("phasma") that took on the appearance of an attractive woman and seduced a young philosophy student in order to eventually devour him.In a different passage of the same work, when Apollonius was journeying from Persia to India, he encountered an empousa, hurling insults at it, coaxing his fellow travellers to join him, whereby it ran and hid, uttering high-pitched screams.An "empousa" was also known to others as "lamia" or "mormolyke".