Lamia

Name: Lamia

Features: Woman’s head, scaly body, four legs and a tail

Source: Greek Mythology

Habitat: Libya

Lamia was a Libyan Queen who became enamored with the king of gods, Zeus. Even though Zeus tried to hide her from his wife Hera, their affair was eventually discovered.

Hera was famous for cruelly lashing out at Zeus’s many girlfriends. In a rage filled with jealousy, she forced the beautiful Queen to eat the children that Zeus had fathered with her.

This horrible unconceivable act turned her into a hideous monster and left her with an insatiable taste for children’s flesh.

Hera’s curse left the transformed Queen unable to close her eyes and forever be tormented with horrible images of her dead children.

To relieve his former lover’s pain, Zeus gave the troubled Queen the power to remove her eyes so she could get temporary relief from the images of the heinous act she had committed.

In some stories this creature has the head of a woman but the body of a serpent. She uses her beauty to lure young men so she can feed on their blood just as vampires do.

In Spanish Mythology, she is more like a mermaid and benevolent. The only reason for which she can be angered is if someone tries to steal her hair combs made of pure gold.