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Lamia (in Greek, Λάμια) is a female creature from Greek mythology and classical antiquity folklore, characterized as child-scaring and seductive. terrible. In this last aspect, she constitutes an antecedent of the modern vampiress. She is conceived as an individual character, but also as the generic name of a type of monster (lamias). She is often associated with similar figures from Greek (Empusa or Mormo), Hebrew (Lilith) or even Mayan (Xtabay) culture. In Neo-Hellenic, Basque, Galician, Cantabrian and Bulgarian folklore there are traditions about lamias, originating in the classical tradition.
Greco-Roman mythology
In Greek mythology, Lamia was originally a beautiful woman, possibly the daughter of King Belus, who became the lover of Zeus. When Hera, the god's wife, discovered the infidelity, she murdered Lamia's children as revenge (or according to another version, drove her mad and pushed her to kill her children herself) and turned her into a monster. Lamia was sentenced to not being able to close her eyes, so that she was always obsessed with the image of her dead children. Zeus gave him the gift of being able to remove his eyes from her to rest, and put them back on later. Lamia was envious of the other mothers and devoured her children. She had the body of a snake and the breasts and head of a woman. Although she was female, the playwright Aristophanes claims that the demagogue Cleon had "the testicles of a lamia"; (Wasps v. 1035, Peace v. 758), probably meaning that he didn't have them at all (and that, if he did, they would be as dirty as those of a lamia, the monster being famous for the stench it gave off).
Despite Hera's revenge, there are some traditions that the first sibyl was the daughter of Zeus and Lamia.
According to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who presents a rationalizing narrative, Lamia was a Libyan queen born in a cave who ordered her soldiers to kidnap children at night and kill them.
The etymology of the name has not been established with certainty. It is probably related to the adjective lamyrós, "gluttonous", and the noun laimós, "gull your throat". Some believe that the Latin lemur, which designates specters (lemurs) typologically similar to lamias, belongs to the same family.
In ancient times, Greek and Roman mothers used to threaten their mischievous children with this character. The English romantic poet John Keats dedicated a long narrative poem to the character, which gives the book Lamia and Other Poems its name. It was inspired by "The Bride of Corinth", a story that appears in the Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) by Robert Burton, who in turn took it from the Life of Apollonius of Tyana (4.25) by Philostratus (160-249). According to Philostratus, Menippus, a young philosopher's apprentice, was seduced by a mysterious foreign woman who approached him when he was walking on the outskirts of Corinth. The woman insisted that they marry, and the wise Apollonius attended the wedding, who, after carefully observing Menippus, declared: "You, whom women persecute, embrace a serpent, and she embraces you." The bride, in effect, was a lamia or Empusa, and although at first she denied her condition, she ended up confessing that she had seduced Menippus to devour him and drink her blood, since that of young men like him is pure and brimming with vigor.
According to a fairly widespread opinion, the mythological Lamia served as a model for lamias (lamiae in Latin), small African monsters, human from the waist up, that attracted travelers with their pleasant hissing and showing their breasts, to later kill them and devour their bodies. The oldest news of these beings is found in the fifth speech of the orator Dión Chrysostom, who refers to them as "Libyan beasts", not lamias.
Later, lamias often appeared in bestiaries as an example of a ruthless and savage monster.
In the cathedral of Pesaro (Italy) there is a mosaic from the 6th century in which two lamias are represented as birds with human heads.
French folklore
In the legends of Iparralde (French Basque Country), the lamias —since their sex is not clearly defined— are not, as in Hegoalde (Navarra, Álava, Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa), beautiful maidens with long, silky blond hair that they comb with a gold comb near the fountains and they have duck feet. The lamias of Iparralde are more like gnomes or small genies that must be feared, although they are not particularly malevolent. They are called lamiñak or lamiñakuak.
Basque mythology
In Basque mythology, lamias (lamiak or laminak) are mythological geniuses often described as having duck feet, a fish tail or the claws of some kind of bird. Almost always female, of extraordinary beauty, they live in rivers and springs, where they tend to comb their long hair with coveted gold combs. They are usually kind and the only way to make them angry is to steal their combs. also that they have helped men in the construction of dolmens, cromlech and bridges.
Sometimes they fall in love with mortals, but cannot marry them, as they cannot set foot on consecrated ground. Sometimes they have children with them. In other legends they are half human and half fish. Others say that they are nothing more than the goddess Mari.
A legend tells that once a woman stole a golden comb from a lamia, and this, enraged, tried to curse her, but she couldn't, since the church bell rang and that saved her.
In numerous Spanish localities, especially in the southeast of the Peninsula, the myth of the lamias is adapted in the Legend of the Enchanted, while in the north it is found in the anjanas or xanas.
Bulgarian folklore
In Bulgarian folk tales and stories, the lamia is a mysterious creature with several heads, which can grow again and again if cut off (like the Lernaean Hydra). He feeds on the blood of people or, more frequently, killing young women to enhance their beauty so he can seduce men. This monster often haunts towns and can be found in caves or underground. In some stories he has wings, in others his breath is fire. The lamia does not have a sex, but is usually considered feminine.