Sign in or 
| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| May 15 2012, 11:51 AM EDT (current) | Kittyeatyou | 431 words added, 63 words deleted |
| Apr 9 2008, 12:27 AM EDT | Ravenite | 2 words added, 1 word deleted |
Changes
Key: Additions Deletions
In ancient Greek mythology, Lamia (Greek: Λάμια) was oncea beautiful queen of Libya who became a child-eating daemon. Aristophanes claimed her name derived from the beautifulGreek word for gullet (λαιμός; laimos), referring to her habit of devouring children.[1] Some accounts say she has a serpent's tail below the waist.[2] This popular Queendescription of Lybiaher is largely due to Lamia, a poem by John Keats published in 1819.[3] Antoninus Liberalis uses Lamia as an alternate name for the serpentine drakaina Sybaris; however, Diodorus Siculus describes her as having nothing more than a distorted face.[4] Later traditions referred to many lamiae; these were folkloric monsters similar to vampires and wassuccubi that seduced byyoung men and then fed on their blood.[5] Zeus then gave her the greatability to remove her eyes. kingThe purpose of this ability is unclear in Diodorus, but other versions state Lamia's ability to remove her eyes came with the Greekgift of godsprophecy. himselfZeus -did Zeus.this Histo jealousappease wife,Lamia Hera,in reactedher bygrief killingover Lamia'sthe childrenloss andof her children.[6] In later stories, Lamia was cursed turningwith the inability to close her eyes intoso that she would always obsess over the image of her dead children. Some accounts (see Horace, below) say Hera forced Lamia to devour her own children. Myths variously describe Lamia's monstrous (occasionally serpentine) appearance as a hatefulresult monsterof either Hera's wrath, the pain of grief, the madness that drove her to murder, or - in some rare versions - a womannatural result of being Hecate's daughter.[7]
LAMIA was a child-devouring Daimon. She was a daughter of the god abovePoseidon, and the mother of the sea-monsters Skylla waistand Akheilos. Her name and family suggest she was originally imagined as a serpentlarge, below.aggressive shark. In thisone formstory, sheLamia borewas morea Libyan children,queen loved by the god vampiricZeus. LamiaeWhen orhis Lamya,jealous whichwife preyedHera learned of their affair particularlyshe uponstole away sleepingher children. TheirLamia reptillianwent bodiesmad havewith grief, and tore out her own eyes. Zeus then transformed her into a woman'smonster allowing her to exact her revenge by headhunting and breasts,devouring withthe children of others. Lamia often clovenappears hindas hooves,a bogey-monster, a night-haunting demon which preyed on children. She was sometimes pluralised into ghostly, man-devouring demon Lamiai. The Greek word lamia means dangerous lone-shark. Such sharks were also referred to as ketea (sea-monsters). horse'sAs tail,such it is likely that she was identified with the monstrous sea-goddess Keto. Both Lamia (Lone-Shark) and felineKeto forelegs.(Sea-Monster) were said to have spawned the monster Skylla (the Rending One). Another child of Lamia was the boy Akheilos (the Lipless One) who was transformed into a shark by the goddess Aphrodite.
Lamia is also the name of a friendly Mermaid in Basque folklore of southern France and Northwestern Spain.