In Roman literature, Erichtho (from Ancient Greek: Ἐριχθώ) is a legendary Thessalian witch who appears in several literary works. She is noted for her horrifying appearance and her impious ways. Her first major role was in the Roman poet Lucan's epic Pharsalia, which details Caesar's Civil War. In the work, Pompey the Great's son, Sextus Pompeius, seeks her, hoping that she will be able to reveal the future concerning the imminent Battle of Pharsalus. In a gruesome scene, she finds a dead body, fills it with potions, and raises it from the dead. The corpse describes a civil war that is plaguing the underworld and delivers a prophecy about what fate lies in store for Pompey and his kin.
Erichtho's role in Pharsalia has often been discussed by classicists and literary scholars, with many arguing that she serves as an antithesis and counterpart to Virgil's Cumaean Sibyl, a pious prophetess who appears in his work the Aeneid. In the 14th century, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri referenced her in his Divine Comedy (wherein it is revealed that she, using magic, forced Virgil to fetch a soul from Hell's ninth circle). She also makes appearances in both Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 19th-century play Faust, as well as John Marston's Jacobean play The Tragedy of Sophonisba.
In Roman literature, Erichtho (from Ancient Greek: Ἐριχθώ) is a legendary Thessalian witch who appears in several literary works. She is noted for her...
wishes to know the future. He finds the most powerful witch in Thessaly, Erichtho, and she reanimates the corpse of a dead soldier in a terrifying ceremony...
witchcraft, witches, magic, and sorcery. In Lucan's Pharsalia, the witch Erichtho invokes Hecate as "Persephone, who is the third and lowest aspect of Hecate...
animals; and invoke underworld deities and spirits. They include Lucan's Erichtho, Horace's Canidia, Ovid's Dipsas, and Apuleius's Meroe.: 59–66 In pre-Christian...
Archive). The rape of Proserpine (1714). With the story of Sextus and Erichtho, from the Pharsalia of Lucan. Translated by Jabez Hughes (c. 1685 – 1731)...
with the Thessalian witch Erichtho, who practices necromancy and inhabits deserted graves, feeding on rotting corpses. Erichtho, it is said, can arrest...
animals; and invoke underworld deities and spirits. They include Lucan's Erichtho, Horace's Canidia, Ovid's Dipsas, and Apuleius's Meroe.: 62-63 However...
The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West) Empusa (Stardust) Erichtho (Lucan's Pharsalia) Tabitha Evans (Shadow Falls) F Mrs Fairfax (Howl's...
Proserpine, from Claudian, in three books, with the Story of Sextus and Erichtho from Lucan's Pharsalia, book 6' (London, 1714; another edition, corrected...
heretics and their punishment. Inf. X. Erard de Valéry: See Tagliacozzo. Erichtho: According to a story in Lucan's Pharsalia, she was a sorceress sent to...
and a Boy Looking at Prints, c. 1765–1770 A Caricature Group, c. 1766 Erichtho I ^ Mortimer was sometimes accused of being a "copier" of others. Horace...
(Blanchard, 1852) D. empelia (Alexander, 1962) D. encharis (Alexander, 1964) D. erichtho (Alexander, 1950) D. errabunda (Alexander, 1929) D. erratica (Alexander...
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