Jawnomicon

Lamia

Also called Lamiae.

In Greek mythology, Lamia is a queen transformed into a child-devouring daemon after Hera's curse destroys her children, becoming the prototype for the many "lamia" bogeys later invoked across the Mediterranean to frighten children.

At a glance

Tradition
Greek mythology
Region
Libya (place of origin)
Trait family
The Night-Comers

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Serpentine elongated body
    why

    a woman's head and torso set atop a serpentine lower body

  • Cursed into monstrous form
    why

    Hera compels Lamia to devour her own offspring or drives her to madness and grief so severe that Lamia is transformed into a monstrous, child-eating daemon

  • Cannot close eyes
    why

    some tellings hold that Hera robs Lamia of the ability to close her eyes, so that she is forced to obsess endlessly over the image of her dead children

Behaviour

  • Devours own children
    why

    in some tellings Hera compels Lamia to devour her own offspring or drives her to madness and grief so severe that Lamia is transformed into a monstrous, child-eating daemon

  • Invoked to frighten children into obedience
    why

    She is closely associated with the empousai and mormolykeia, female bogey-figures invoked in Greek folklore to frighten children into good behavior, and ancient writers describe "Lamia" being used as a nursery bogeywoman's name long after the original myth

Sight and sound

Utility powers

  • Shapeshifting
    why

    a seductive, shape-taken aspect that let her lure victims

Curses

  • Seductive charm
    why

    Beyond her role as child-devourer, Lamia is credited in some tellings with the power to remove and replace her own eyes, and with a seductive, shape-taken aspect that let her lure victims, a strand of the myth later echoed in Hellenistic and Roman poetry describing serpent-women who beguile young men before revealing their monstrous nature.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.