Case file · Haunting
Philinnion, the dead girl of Amphipolis
Phlegon of Tralles' 'Book of Marvels' (2nd century AD) opens with a letter describing how Philinnion, dead six months, came back at night to a young guest in her parents' house at Amphipolis.
140 CE · 40.82, 23.85 · status: legend
The account
Her mother found her in the guest room; the next day her tomb was opened and found empty except for a ring and a cup she had taken from the young man. When she was discovered she died again, and the city had her body burned outside the walls. The tale, set under Philip II of Macedon, is an ancestor of the revenant and vampire bride stories, and Goethe used it for 'The Bride of Corinth'.
The sceptical view
The text survives only in fragments, its opening lost, and Phlegon was a collector of marvels rather than a critical historian.