Apollonius of Tyana

Apollonius of Tyana is one of the most famous philosophers of his time.  He has a wide experience on travelling reaching as far as India, Syria and even Egypt.  There are many books that mentioned his name including the  Life of Apollonius written by Flavius Philostratus.  The book includes his experience with the vampire of Corinth.

The story involves a former student of Apollonius, Menippus that is about to get married to a beautiful and rich young woman.  Apollonius is one of the invited guests of the wedding and he immediately noticed that something seems wrong with the bride of Menippus.  Apollonius told Menippus beforehand that she cannot marry the girl since she is a serpent.  But Menippus is determined to marry the girl, so Apollonius decided to go to the wedding.  After a keen observation, Apollonius suddenly announced that the girl is a Lamia (A form of a female vampire that takes the form of a beautiful woman and seduced men.  He was also believed to kill children due to her hatred to Hera.)  He said all the grandiose fest and luxurious settings are just a trickery made by the power of the Lamia.  After his proclamation, the guests of the wedding supposedly disappeared including those of the extravagant feast revealing that it was after all a hallucination made by the blood sucking creature.  Upon the revelation of her real identity, the lamia apparently lost its powers and the true identity of the cryptid was revealed which became a basis for the poem Lamia written by John Keats.  The story is different from the “Bride of Corinth” written by Goethe.

In other books, the creature is mentioned as empusa, also a different type of undead creature.  The incident can be found on the Book IV of the Life of Apollonius.  It was said that due to his mystic eyesight, Apollonius was able to save his student Menippus in a certain death.  The event was believed to occur during the 1st century (A.D.).  It was also written by Montague Summers in his book Vampires in Europe