LAMIA
Greek Mythology
Roman Mythology
(2) Spanish and French Mermaid
Two characters bear this name:
(1) This is the name of a female supernatural monster in the classical mythology of Greece and Rome. The LAMIA was said to exist in the northern African deserts. She was described as being like that of a woman to the waist, but there after the body of a serpent, though she was able to assume the shape of a completely beautiful woman. There are a number of traditions concerning her origin. THe most usual is that she was a Lybian Queen loved by the king of the gods ZEUS/JUPITER. He had hid her from his consort, HERA, in a fabulous cavern in Africa and, to protect her, empowered LAMIA to remove her eyes and leave them to keep watch while she slept. However, ZEUS/JUPITER'S Queen, HERA/JUNO, found and transformed LAMIA into her hideous appearance, then took her children and destroyed them. Henceforth, LAMIA seeks and destroys men and children whenever she can entice them. Later on, her legend was associated with the EMPUSAE, the VAMPIRES of the ancient world, spawning with a horrible tribe of offspring known as the LAMYA, LAMIE, or LAMYE. From this earlier legend, used over a thousand years ago as a nursery bogie for Roman children, the tradition developed to the LAMIA described by Burton in The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) and Keats's Lamia (1780) of the amorous sorceress, or SUCCUBUS.
In more modern times she has survived in the dual form of the demonologists' VAMPIRE or nightmare or the malignant melancholy FAIRY ROAD DEMON of modern Greek folklore.
(2) The LAMIA is a MERMAID of entirely benevolent nature in the folklore of the Basque people of Southern France and Northwestern Spain.
Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth