Lamia
A class of bogeywoman creatures derived from the original Lamia myth — female demons said to prey on children and young men, used in antiquity to frighten children into obedience.
The Myth of Lamia
The individual Lamia — the queen of Libya whose children were killed by Hera — gave her name to a whole category of night-haunting female monsters. The plural Lamiai were shapeshifting demons, sometimes beautiful women who lured young men to devour them, sometimes horrifying creatures that stole and ate children. Philosophers used them: Plato and Aristotle both mention lamiai as the kind of frightening stories nurses told children. Keats' poem Lamia drew on the tradition as passed through Philostratus, who wrote of a Lamia who took the form of a beautiful woman. The lamiai represent the ancient Mediterranean's complex of child-threatening female demons, related to the Strix, Mormo, and Gello in function if not in direct genealogy.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Aristotle mentions lamiai as the kind of scary stories used to frighten children — evidence that by the classical period they had already become as much nursery-bogeys as mythological figures.
Explore Further
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🐉 creaturetransformation
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