Lamia

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. 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. 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. Genealogy Lamia was the daughter born between King Belus of Egypt and Lybie, according to one source. 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. This was later incorporated into Edward Topsell's 17th-century envisioning of the lamia. a generic is also supported by the definition as some sort of a "wild beast" in the Suda. ==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. Such practices are recorded by the 1st century Diodorus, Numerous sources attest to the Lamia being a "child-devourer", one of them being Horace. 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. 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. "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., 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..-->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. The same joke was used in theatrical Greek comedy, and generally. 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. 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. 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 it a 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 Ker in classical sources, but later 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. 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. One evidence this may be a double of the Lamia comes from Plutarch, who equates the word empousa with poinē. Libyan myth A second example is a colony of man-eating monsters in Libya, described by Dio Chrysostom. These monsters had a woman's torso and beastly hands, and "all the lower part was snake, ending in the snake's baleful head". The idea that these creatures were lamiai seems to originate with Alex Scobie (1977), and to be accepted by other commentators. ==Middle Ages==

By the Early Middle Ages, lamia (pl. lamiai or lamiae) was being glossed as a general term referring to a class of beings. Hesychius of Alexandria's lexicon () glossed lamiai as apparitions, or even fish. Isidore of Seville defined them as beings that snatched babies and ripped them apart. The Vulgate used "lamia" in Isaiah 34:14 to translate "Lilith" of the Hebrew Bible. Christian writers also warned against the seductive potential of lamiae. In his 9th-century treatise on divorce, Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, listed lamiae among the supernatural dangers that threatened marriages, and identified them with geniciales feminae, female reproductive spirits. ==Interpretations==

(1905). (1909) This Lamia of Libya has her double in Lamia-Sybaris of the legend around Delphi, both indirectly associated with serpents. Strong parallel with the Medusa has also been noted. These, and other considerations have prompted modern commentators to suggest she is a dragoness. Another double of the Libyan Lamia may be Lamia, daughter of Poseidon. Lamia by Zeus gave birth to a Sibyl according to Pausanias, and this would have to be the Libyan Lamia, yet there is a tradition that Lamia the daughter of Poseidon was the mother of a Sibyl. Either one could be Lamia the mother of Scylla mentioned in the Stesichorus (d. 555 BC) fragment, and other sources. Scylla is a creature depicted variously as anguipedal or serpent-bodied. Identification as a serpent-woman Diodorus Siculus (), for instance, describes Lamia of Libya as having nothing more than a beastly appearance. In the 1st-century Life of Apollonius of Tyana the female empousa-lamia is also called "a snake", where it is made clear she bears the guise of a snake, which she wants to relinquish in return for human appearance. Modern commentators have also tried to establish that she may have originally been a dragoness, by inference. Daniel Ogden argues that one of her possible reincarnations, the monster of Argos killed by Coroebus had a "scaly gait", indicating she must have had an anguipedal form in an early version of the story, although the Latin text in Statius merely reads inlabi (declension of labor) meaning "slides". It is noted that this character terrorized Delphi, just as the dragon Python had. Close comparison is also made with the serpentine Medusa. Not only is Medusa identified with Libya, she also had dealings with the three Graeae who had the removable eye shared between them. In some versions, the removable eye belonged to the three Gorgons, Medusa and her sisters. Hecate Some commentators have also equated Lamia with Hecate. The basis of this identification is the variant maternities of Scylla, sometimes ascribed to Lamia (as already mentioned), and sometimes to Hecate. The identification has also been built (using transitive logic) since each name is identified with empousa in different sources. Stench of a lamia A foul odor has been pointed out as a possible common motif or attribute of the lamiai. The examples are Aristophanes's reference to the "lamia's testicles", the scent of the monsters in the Libyan myth which allowed the humans to track down their lair, and the terrible stench of their urine that lingered in the clothing of Aristomenes, which they showered upon him after carving out his friend Sophocles's heart. Mesopotamian connection Lamia may originate from the Mesopotamian demoness Lamashtu. ==Modern age==

'', November 1949. Renaissance writer Angelo Poliziano wrote Lamia (1492), a philosophical work whose title is a disparaging reference to his opponents who dabble in philosophy without competence. It alludes to Plutarch's use of the term in De curiositate, where the Greek writer suggests that the term Lamia is emblematic of meddlesome busybodies in society. Worded another way, Lamia was emblematic of the hypocrisy of such scholars. From around the mid-15th century into the 16th century, the lamia came to be regarded exclusively as witches. Bestiary 's The History of Four-Footed Beasts In Edward Topsell's History of Four-footed Beasts (1607), the lamia is described as having the upper body (i.e., the face and breasts) of a woman, but with goatlike hind quarters with large and filthy "stones" (testicles) that smell like sea-calves, on authority of Aristophanes. It is covered with scales all over. Adaptations John Keats's "Lamia" in his Lamia and Other Poems is a reworking of the tale in Apollonius's biography by Philostratus, described above. In Keats's version, the student Lycius replaces Menippus the Lycian. For the descriptions and nature of the Lamia, Keats drew from Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy. August Enna wrote an opera called Lamia. Lamia is the main antagonist in the 2009 horror film Drag Me to Hell. In the film, Lamia is described as "the most feared of all demons" and having the head and hooves of a goat. A Romani curse associated with him has Lamia torment the victim for three days before having its minions drag them into Hell to burn in its fires for all eternity. A Lamia appears in the BBC series Merlin in series 4. Described as having the blood of both woman and serpent, she draws the life out of men through a kiss in her seductress form before turning into a serpent-like creature. She is killed by Prince Arthur. Lamia appears as an antagonist in Rick Riordan's The Demigod Diaries, appearing in its fourth short story "The Son of Magic". She is depicted as the daughter of Hecate and as having glowing green eyes with serpentine slits, shriveled hands with lizard-like claws, and crocodile-like teeth. In the manga and anime Monster Musume, the character Miia is a lamia. The main character of Dropkick on My Devil!, Jashin-chan, is also a lamia. In Gerald Brom's Lost Gods, Lamia serves as the primary antagonist, depicted as an ancient succubus who prolongs her life by drinking the blood of her children and grandchildren. Lamias are featured in the progressive rock album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis on the track "The Lamia". They are depicted as female creatures with "snake-like" bodies and seduce the protagonist Rael in an attempt to devour him, but as soon as they "taste" Rael's body, the blood that enters the lamias' bodies causes their death. Lamia is mentioned several times in the Iron Maiden song "Prodigal Son" from their 1981 album Killers. The band often refer to mythology and mythical beasts in their compositions. The American TV series Raised by Wolves features a character named Lamia, an android mother, who has removable eyes and the ability to shapeshift. The 2024 British fantasy TV series Domino Day, set in modern-day Manchester, features Siena Kelly as the titular lead character, a witch who feeds on the energy of her dating-app hook-ups. She eventually realizes that she is actually a lamia. Modern folk traditions In modern Greek folk tradition, the Lamia has survived and retained many of her traditional attributes. John Cuthbert Lawson remarks "the chief characteristics of the Lamiae, apart from their thirst for blood, are their uncleanliness, their gluttony, and their stupidity". The contemporary Greek proverb, "της Λάμιας τα σαρώματα" ("the Lamia's sweeping"), epitomises slovenliness; Fine arts In a 1909 painting by Herbert James Draper, the Lamia who moodily watches the serpent on her forearm appears to represent a hetaera. Although the lower body of Draper's Lamia is human, he alludes to her serpentine history by draping a shed snakeskin around her waist. In Renaissance emblems, Lamia has the body of a serpent and the breasts and head of a woman, like the image of hypocrisy. ==See also==