Lamia, A Compendium of the Ancient Gods

Lamia was originally (in the version preserved by Diodorus) a beautiful queen of Libya, beloved of Zeus, who bore him several children — all of whom were killed by the jealous Hera. In her grief Lamia became a monster, devouring the children of others as her own had been devoured; her face was twisted with weeping, her aspect terrible, and she preyed especially upon young children whom she snatched from cradles in the night. She was used by Greek mothers as a bogey to frighten misbehaving children — "Lamia will get you" — and the figure passed through Hellenistic and Roman tradition into European folklore as one of the prototypes of the night-witch and child-stealing crone. In late Greek tradition she became, like Empusa below, a generic name for a class of female demons rather than an individual.

Through this folkloric line, Lamia entered Renaissance and Romantic literature as a more sympathetic figure: in Keats's "Lamia" (1820), drawing on a tale from Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana, she is a serpent-woman who takes human form to win a young scholar's love, only to be exposed and to perish when his philosopher-mentor identifies her true nature. The figure has remained a productive one in Western fantasy literature.

Curator’s note

What the sources say, and what later tradition added. The sources for this bay

Diodorus Siculus 20.41 (the Libyan-queen origin); Aristophanes, Wasps 1035 (the use as bogey); Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 4.25 (the source for Keats); Keats's poem of 1820 is the principal modern instantiation.

Kin in the sources

Each tie is quoted from the entry that states it.

Consort ofZeusa beautiful queen of Libya, beloved of Zeus, who bore him several children
Rival ofHeraall of whom were killed by the jealous Hera
Compared withEmpusaIn late Greek tradition she became, like Empusa below, a generic name for a class of female demons

When the sources speak

Dated witnesses for The Heroic Bestiary. A date marks when the evidence was written down, not when the belief began. The whole timeline

c. 1600–1100 BCE: Mycenaean palace tablets in Linear B record offerings and divine names, but little continuous myth.
c. 1100–800 BCE: Post-palatial oral traditions and changing cult landscapes precede the surviving alphabetic epics.
late 8th–7th centuries BCE: The Iliad, Odyssey, Hesiodic Theogony and Works and Days give influential but non-exclusive divine orders.
7th–6th centuries BCE: Homeric Hymns, lyric poetry, colonization, and local sanctuary traditions multiply regional narratives.
6th–5th centuries BCE: Orphic, Pythagorean, and mystery materials develop alternative cosmogonies and afterlife doctrines.
5th century BCE: Athenian tragedy and comedy recast heroic houses and divine justice for civic audiences.
4th century BCE: Philosophers, antiquarians, and local historians interpret or criticize inherited myth.
323–31 BCE: Hellenistic poets and scholars systematize variants across an enlarged Greek world.