Lamia

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Lamia: John William Waterhouse

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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John William Waterhouse Oil Painting - Lamia

Keywords: Lamia

Work Overview: Lamia
John William Waterhouse
Date 1909
Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions 36 × 22.5 in (91.4 × 57.2 cm)

In ancient Greek mythology, Lamia (/ˈleɪmiə/; Greek: Λάμια) was a beautiful queen of Libya who became a child-eating daemon. Aristophanes claimed her name derived from the Greek word for gullet (λαιμός; laimos), referring to her habit of devouring children.[1] Modern scholarship reconstructs a Proto-Indo European stem *lem-, "nocturnal spirit", whence also lemures.

The English poet John Keats published his narrative poem "Lamia" in 1820.[28] The poem has influenced later works of Western literature. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's epic poem "Aurora Leigh" contains numerous references to Lamia, including Book One in which at times a portrait of her dead mother appears as a Lamia, and Book Six in which she repeatedly refers to Lady Waldemar as Lamia. Booker Prize winner A. S. Byatt's 1998 collection of short fiction, Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice, contains a short story entitled "A Lamia in the Cévennes", which references Keats' poem.[29] The character Brawne Lamia appears in Dan Simmons' novels Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. The works of John Keats feature heavily in the novels.[30][31] In Neil Gaiman's TV series and novel Neverwhere a character named Lamia is a "Velvet", a type of warmth-drinking vampire. The name is also given to the witch queen in the film adaptation of Gaiman's novel Stardust (a character who goes unnamed in the book).

In John Connolly's book of short stories entitled Night Music: Nocturnes Volume 2,[32][full citation needed] the Lamia is a half-woman half snake or scorpion-like creature that helps victimized women gain revenge upon the men that rape them and escape the justice of the courts. It is unclear how the Lamia feeds upon the men, but she begins the ritual by forcing her snake-like tail down the throats of the men until their mouths split and the life leaves their bodies.

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John William Waterhouse

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