Talk:Empusa

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Weren't the empusa's created by Hecate herself? I didn't know she was a demigodess. Hermes13 (talk) 19:08, 4 April 2010 (UTC) Hermes13[reply]

Worse even, the article speaks of Empusa being grouped with the demigodesses Lamia and Mormo. Later in the text, she is described as "the daughter of Hecate and the spirit Mormo". Putting aside that Lamia is not a demigodess and Mormo is probably best classified as a daimon, this identifies Mormo as a female entity - which is consistent with Mormo as described (and sourced) in the Mormo article. However, the article then unceremoniously glosses over Mormo being the daughter of two female entities. That may be possible in mythology, but it is unheard of in Greek mythology and, if true, might warrant some further explanation. Is anyone familiar with The Greek Myths, which is given as source for the "daughter" statement? I do believe that a closer examination of the source is warranted to see whether the description of Empusa as a daughter of Hecate and Mormo is correct. --Kalle Clemens (talk) 14:33, 12 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Robert Graves is a favorite novelist of mine, but I don't think you can use his books on mythology as reliable sources, since he reconstructs a lot of things. The genealogy should probably be deleted as spurious. The sourcing needed is a valid secondary source, which has to point to a primary source. --Kiyoweap (talk) 05:36, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I agree. Robert Graves was a great writer and a great poet, but not a great scholar. His ideas about Greek mythology are highly speculative and often based on extremely flimsy or nonexistent textual evidence. Furthermore, he is also over half a century outdated and he wrote his major works before the decipherment of Linear B; that in itself is enough to discredit his speculations regarding the origins of Greek mythological figures, since now we have far more ancient records available to us than he anything he ever had access to. He should definitely not be cited as a reliable source. --Katolophyromai (talk) 16:00, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]