Lamia (; ), in ancient Greek mythology, was a child-eating monster and, in later tradition, was regarded as a type of night-haunting spirit or "daimon".
In the earliest myths, Lamia was a beautiful queen of ancient Libya who had an affair with Zeus and gave birth to his children. Upon learning of this, Zeus's wife Hera robbed Lamia of her children, either by kidnapping them and hiding them away, killing them outright, or forcing Lamia to kill them. The loss of her children drove Lamia insane, and she began hunting and devouring others' children.Duris of Samos (d. 280 B. C.), Libyca, quoted by Either because of her anguish or her cannibalism, Lamia was transformed into a horrific creature. Zeus gifted Lamia the power of prophecy and the ability to take out and reinsert her eyes, possibly because Hera cursed her with insomnia or the inability to close her eyes.Bell, Robert E., Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary (New York: Oxford UP, 1991), s.v. "Lamia" (drawing upon Diodorus Siculus 22.41; Suidas "Lamia"; Plutarch "On Being a Busy-Body" 2; Scholiast on Aristophanes' Peace 757; Eustathius on Odyssey 1714).
The lamiai () also became a type of phantom, synonymous with the empusai who seduced young men to satisfy their sexual appetite and fed on their flesh afterward. An account of Apollonius of Tyana's defeat of a lamia-seductress inspired the poem "Lamia" by John Keats.
Lamia has been ascribed serpentine qualities, which some commentators believe can be firmly traced to mythology from antiquity; they have found analogues in ancient texts that could be designated as lamiai, which are part-snake beings. These include the half-woman, half-snake beasts of the "Libyan myth" told by Dio Chrysostom, and the monster sent to Argos by Apollo to avenge Psamathe, daughter of King Crotopos. Snake-like traits also appear in other ancient mythological figures such as the Medusa and the Chimera.
In previous centuries, Lamia was used in Greece as a bogeyman to frighten children into obedience, similar to the way parents in Spain, Portugal and Latin America used the Coco.
Etymology A scholiast to Aristophanes claimed that Lamia's name derived from her having a large throat or gullet (; laimós). Modern scholarship reconstructs a Proto-Indo-European stem , "nocturnal spirit", whence also comes lemures.
Classical mythology Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (vii.5) refers to the lore of some beastly lifeform in the shape of a woman, which tears the bellies of pregnant mothers and devours their fetuses. An anonymous commentator on the passage states this is a reference to the Lamia, but muddlingly combines this with Aristotle's subsequent comments and describes her as a Scythian of the Pontus (Black Sea) area.
According to one myth, Hera deprived Lamia of the ability to sleep, making her constantly grieve over the loss of her children, and Zeus provided relief by endowing her with removable eyes. He also gifted her with a shapeshifting ability in the process.Scholium from the Byzantine-Hellenistic period to Aristophanes, Peace 758, quoted by Bell, Robert E. (1993), Women of Classical Mythology, drawing upon Diodorus Siculus XX.41; Suidas 'Lamia'; Plutarch 'On Being a Busy-Body' 2; Scholiast on Aristophanes's Peace 757; Eustathius on Odyssey 1714)
De-mythologized Diodorus Siculus () gave a de-mythologized account of Lamia as a queen of Libya who ordered her soldiers to snatch children from their mothers and kill them, and whose beauty gave way to bestial appearance due to her savageness. The queen, as related by Diodorus, was born in a cave.Diodorus Siculus (), Library of History XX.41, quoted by Bekker, Immanuel, ed., Diodorus Siculus, XX.41 Heraclitus Paradoxographus (2nd century) also gave a rationalizing account.
Diodorus's rationalization was that the Libyan queen in her drunken state was as if she could not see, allowing her citizens free rein for any conduct without supervision, giving rise to the folk myth that she places her eyes in a vessel. Heraclitus's euhemerized account explains that Hera, consort of Zeus, gouged the eyes out of the beautiful Lamia.Heraclitus Paradoxographus (2nd century) De Incredibilibus 34, quoted by
Genealogy Lamia was the daughter born between King Belus of Egypt and Lybie, according to one source.Diodorus Siculus, 20.41.3-6, Scholia to Aristophanes, Wasps 1035; Commentary 37 to Heraclitus the Allegorist
According to the same source, Lamia was taken by Zeus to Italy, and that Lamos, the city of the man-eating Laestrygonians, was named after her. A different authority remarks that Lamia was once queen of the Laestrygonians.
Aristophanes Aristophanes wrote in two plays an identically worded list of foul-smelling objects which included the "Lamia's testicles", thus making Lamia's gender ambiguous.Aristophanes, The Wasps, 1035; Peace 758, cited by , p. 91, note 117. This was later incorporated into Edward Topsell's 17th-century envisioning of the lamia.
It is somewhat uncertain if this refers to the one Lamia or to "a Lamia" among many, as given in some translations of the two plays;"a Lamia's groin" (Benjamin Bickley Rogers, 1874), "a foul Lamia's testicles" (Athenian Society, 1912), "sweaty Crotch of a Lamia" (Paul Roche, 2005). a generic is also supported by the definition as some sort of a "wild beast" in the Suda."", Suda On Line, tr. David Whitehead. 27 May 2008
Hellenistic folklore As children's bogey The "Lamia" was a bogeyman or bugbear term, invoked by a mother or a nanny to frighten children into good behavior., "Witchcraft and Lamiae in 'The Golden Ass'" Folklore 105, p. 77. Such practices are recorded by the 1st century Diodorus, and other sources in antiquity.Tertullian, Against Valentinius (ch. iii)
Numerous sources attest to the Lamia being a "child-devourer", one of them being Horace., note 114. Horace in Ars Poetica cautions against the overly fantastical: "[nor should a story] draw a live boy out of a Lamia's belly". Lamia was in some versions thus seen as swallowing children alive, and there may have existed some nurse's tale that told of a boy extracted alive out of a Lamia.
The Byzantine lexicon Suda (10th century) gave an entry for lamía, with definitions and sources much as already described."", Suda On Line, tr. David Whitehead. 1 April 2008 The lexicon also has an entry under mormo (), stating that Mormo and the equivalent (mormolykeion) are called lamía, and that all these refer to frightful beings.: "Μορμώ: λέγεται καὶ Μορμώ, Μορμοῦς, ὡς Σαπφώ. καὶ Μορμών, Μορμόνος. Ἀριστοφάνης: ἀντιβολῶ σ', ἀπένεγκέ μου τὴν Μορμόνα. ἄπο τὰ φοβερά: φοβερὰ γὰρ ὑπῆρχεν ἡ Μορμώ. καὶ αὖθις Ἀριστοφάνης: Μορμὼ τοῦ θράσους. μορμολύκειον, ἣν λέγουσι Λαμίαν: ἔλεγον δὲ οὕτω καὶ τὰ φοβερά. λείπει δὲ τὸ ὡς, ὡς Μορμώ, ἢ ἐπιρρηματικῶς ἐξενήνεκται, ὡς εἰ ἔλεγε, φεῦ τοῦ θράσους"., p. 91, note 114"", Suda On Line, tr. Richard Rodriguez. 11 June 2009.
"Lamia" has as synonyms "Mormo" and "Gello" according to the scholia to Theocritus.
Other bogeys have been listed in conjunction with "Lamia", for instance, the Gorgo (), the eyeless giant Ephialtes, and a Mormolyce () named by Strabo.
As a seductress In later classical periods, around the 1st century A.D., the conception of this Lamia shifted to that of a sultry seductress who enticed young men and devoured them. Perseus Project "".
Apollonius of Tyana A representative example is Philostratus's novelistic biography Life of Apollonius of Tyana.
It purports to give a full account of the capture of "Lamia of Corinth" by Apollonius, as the general populace referred to the legend. An apparition (phasma ) which in the assumed guise of a woman seduced one of Apollonius's young pupils.
Here, Lamia is the common vulgar term and empousa the proper term. For Apollonius in speech declares that the seductress is "one of the empousai, which most other people would call lamiai and mormolykeia". The use of the term lamia in this sense is however considered atypical by one commentator.
Regarding the seductress, Apollonius further warned, "you are warming a snake (ophis) on your bosom, and it is a snake that warms you". It has been suggested from this discourse that the creature was therefore "literally a snake". The empousa admits in the end to fattening up her victim (Menippus of Lycia) to be consumed, as she was in the habit of targeting young men for food "because their blood was fresh and pure". The last statement has led to the surmise that this lamia/empusa was a sort of blood-sucking vampiress. Perseus Project "".
Another aspect of her powers is that this empusa/lamia is able to create an illusion of a sumptuous mansion, with all the accoutrements and even servants. But once Apollonius reveals her false identity at the wedding, the illusion fails her and vanishes.
Lamia the courtesan A longstanding joke makes a word play between Lamia the monster and Lamia of Athens, the notorious hetaira courtesan who captivated Demetrius Poliorcetes (died 283 BC). The double-entendre sarcasm was uttered by Demetrius's father, among others.Plutarch, 19, Perrin, Bernadotte, ed. The same joke was used in theatrical Greek comedy,, citing Lamia O'Sullivan, Lara (2009), pp. 53–79, esp. p. 69 and generally.:"This is a pejorative expression, not a formal classification, but it is still meaningful"; "... labeling of a dangerous woman as a lamia was not uncommon. ... Aelian records ... a notorious prostitute ... (Miscellany 12.17, 13.8)". The word play is also seen as being employed in Horace's Odes, to banter Lucius Aelius Lamia the praetor.
Golden Ass In Apuleius's The Golden Ass appear two Thessalian "witches", Meroe and her sister Panthia, who are called lamiae in one instance.Apul. Met. 1.17. : "Admittedly, Apuleius' use of the term "Lamiae" is an isolated occurrence. Elsewhere, Meroe and her sister are referred to as witches or sorcerer".
Meroe has seduced a man named Socrates, but when he plots to escape, the two witches raid his bed, thrust a knife in the neck to tap the blood into a skin bag, eviscerate his heart, and stuff the hole back with sponge.–17
Some commentators, despite the absence of actual blood-sucking, find these witches to share "vampiric" qualities of the lamiae (lamiai) in Philostratus's narrative, thus offering it up for comparison.
Kindreds Lamia's possible kindred kind appear in Classical works, but may be known by other names except for isolated instance which calls Lamia. Or they may be simply unnamed or differently named. And those analogues that exhibit a serpentine form or nature have been especially noted.
Poine of Argos One such possible lamia is the avenging monster sent by Apollo against the city of Argos and killed by Coroebus. It is referred to as Poine or KerGreek Anthology 7.154, cited by in classical sources, but in the medieval period one source does call it a lamia (First Vatican Mythographer, century).
The story surrounds the tragedy of the daughter of King Crotopus of Argos, named Psamathe, whose child by Apollo dies, and she is executed for suspected promiscuity. Apollo as punishment then sends the child-devouring monster to Argos.
In Statius' version, the monster had a woman's face and breasts and a hissing snake protruding from the cleft of her rusty-colored forehead, and it would slide into children's bedrooms to snatch them.Statius, Thebaid, I. 562–669, quoted by ; Latin text: I; Bailey, D. R. Shackleton tr. (2003) , Book I. According to a scholiast to Ovid, it had a serpent's body carrying a human face.
In Pausanias's version, the monster is called Poinē (), meaning "punishment" or "vengeance", but there is nothing about a snake on her forehead.Pausanias, translated by Jones, W.H.S.; Ormerod, H.A., , 1. 43. 7 - 8
One evidence this may be a double of Lamia comes from Plutarch, who equates the word empousa with poinē.Plutarch, Moralia 1101c, cited by .
Monsters of Syrtis