Lamia: A Sorceress, a Fairy or a Revenant?
Lamia: A Sorceress, a Fairy or a Revenant?

Summary/Abstract: This paper will examine the role of a specific fantastic creature in the popular European body of myths. Originally a major figure of ancient Greek mythology, a beautyful Libyan queen transformed into a repulsive child-eating demon, Lamia penetrated the folk traditions of post-ancient world. Widely dispersed in oral literature, as a sort of sorceress or a fairy, she was identified with those women, young and old, ravishing and unsightly, who haunt the night with the rare desire for eating human innards. On the other hand, she could be a revenant, a female vampire that comes back from the dead in order to kill, to suck blood and particularly to mangle children’s flesh. In addition, she could easily turn up as a nightmare or a succubus, asking unbearable pressure on her victims’ chests or even having sexual intercourse with them. Thus, under a serpentine figure, with horse feet, irresistibly beauteous or irresistibly ugly, Lamia, representing an important piece of the ensemble of European demonic beings, adopted a large number of forms, manifesting different variants.

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