Lamia

Titles:

Devourer of Children, Sleepless Serpent

Culture:

Greek

Kin:

King Belus and Queen Lybie of Egypt (parents)

Appearance:

Lamia was once an innocent, beautiful woman of royalty. After being cursed, the lower half of her body transformed into that of a snake. In some traditions, the transition from human to serpentine body begins just past her breasts, whereas in others it begins at her waist.

Purpose/Role:

As a result of her experiences as a human, Lamia forever hunts down and murders the children of others, fraught with self-pity and rage
Was one of Zeus's many mistresses

Upon discovering her husband's affair, Hera killed Lamia's children and cursed her with insomnia so as never to escape her tragic new reality

Other sources claim that Hera drove Lamia to madness, causing her to kill her own children

Zeus, out of sympathy, gave Lamia the ability to remove her eyes at will
The perpetual anguish caused Lamia's body to become deformed and sinister, eventually warping the lower half of her body into a serpent's tail

Her name is attributed to a particular type of child-terrorizing demoness (sg. lamia, pl. lamiai)

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