Simaetha

Simaetha is the eponymous sorceress of Theocritus' The Sorceress. Theocritus. The Sorceress
== Biography ==
Simaetha's friend Anaxo, the daughter of Eubulus, was serving as the basket-bearer in a parade to Artemis' grove, accompanied by wild beasts. At the urging of her neighbour, the Thracian nurse of Theumaridas, Simaetha went to watch the parade while wearing a shawl lent to her by Clearista. On her way, near the home of Lycon, she came across Delphis and Eudamippus on their way back from the wrestling school. She immediately fell in love with him and went straight home. 
She spent a week bedbound, feverish, eating little, while her skin yellowed and her hair started falling out. She then started visiting the homes of witches looking for a cure, before she accepted that she was suffering from love-sickness and had her slave, Thestylis, invite Delphis to her home. 
When she saw him, she was unable to speak. He claimed that he had been planning on visiting her that night with some of his friends to party with her, bringing apples and wearing a poplar wreath, and that nothing would have stopped him from getting to her. He then confessed his love for her. She believed him and immediately had sex with him. 
Sometime later, ten days since she had last seen him, the mother of Melixo and Philista (Simaetha's flute player) told her that Delphis was in love with someone, and that he was constantly getting unmixed wine and toasting to love, and rushing out to cover his lover's house with garlands. 
The next evening, Simaetha, with the aid of Thestylis, performed a Love Binding on Delphis to both punish him and make him faithfully love her, before recounting her story to the Moon in the hopes that Selene would help with the magic. She was not confident in the magic's effectiveness though, and had acquired some Assyrian poisons and was intending to make her own poison the next morning, to kill Delphis with if her magic did not work. 
== Powers and Abilities ==
Simaetha knew how to perform a Love Binding, though she was not confident in its effectiveness. She was more confident in her ability to kill her target with poison than to use magic to make him fall in love with her. 
== References ==
Category:The Sorceress
Category:Spellcasters