very greedy. They
were priests of Ham, called El Ham; from whence was formed 'Lamus and
'Lamia. Their chief city, the same probably, which was named Tauromenium,
is mentioned by Homer, as the city of Lamus.

[650][Greek: Hebdomatei d' hikomestha Lamou aipu ptoliethron.]

And the inhabitants are represented as of the giant race.

[651][Greek: Phoiton d' iphthimoi Laistrugones, allothen allos,]
[Greek: Murioi, ouk andressin eoikotes, alla Gigasi.]

Many give an account of the Lestrygons, and Lamiae, upon the Liris in Italy;
and also upon other parts of that coast: and some of them did settle there.
But they were more particularly to be found in [652]Sicily near Leontium,
as the Scholiast upon Lycophron observes. [653][Greek: Laistrugones, hoi
nun Leontinoi.] _The antient Lestrygons were the people, whose posterity
are now called Leontini_. The same writer takes notice of their incivility
to strangers: [654][Greek: Ouk esan eithismenoi xenous hupodechesthai.]
That they were Amonians, and came originally from Babylonia, is pretty
evident from the history of the Erythrean Sibyl; who was no other than a
Lamian priestess. She is said to have been the daughter of Lamia, who was
the daughter of Poseidon. [655][Greek: Sibullan--Lamias ousan thugatera tou
Poseidonos.] Under the character of one person is to be understood a
priesthood: of which community each man was called Lamus, and each
priestess Lamia. By the Sibyl being the daughter of Lamia, the daughter of
Poseidon, is meant, that she was of Lamian original, and ultimately
descended from the great Deity of the sea. Who is alluded to under that
character, will hereafter be shewn. The countries, to which the Sibyl is
referred, point out her extraction: for she is said to have come from
Egypt, and Babylonia. [656][Greek: Hoi de auten Babulonian, heteroi de
Sibullan kalousin Aiguptian.] If the Sibyl came from Babylonia and Egypt,
her supposed parent, Lamia, must have been of the same original.

The Lamiae were not only to be found in Italy, and Sicily, but Greece,
Pontus, and [657]Libya. And however widely they may have been separated,
they are still represented in the same unfavourable light. Euripides says,
that their very name was detestable.

[658][Greek: Tis t' ounoma tod' eponeidiston brotois]
[Greek: Ouk oide Lamias tes Libustikes genos.]

Philostratus speaks of their bestial appetite, and unnatural gluttony.
[659][Greek: Lamias sarkon, kai malista anthrop