I only came across the Lamiae recently, and quite by accident.

I thought I’d made up the Lammyr all by myself, you see. My faeries in FIREBRAND (who aren’t in the least bit pink and don’t have wings, more’s the pity) have a terrible time with the Lammyr, who are kind of like the embarrassing relations. Except they don’t just sing terribly at parties, and show your baby photos to your new best friends, they’re very psycho. They love death, ‘even their own’ says my boy Seth.

I liked the name. I had no idea there was something called a Lamia, and I only found them recently. Turns out Lamia was a queen of Libya who liked to eat children. And just to be erudite for a second, it turns out ‘Lamia’ means ‘large shark’ in Greek, but Aristophanes says the’re named for laimos, the gullet. Because that’s where their prey went.

They’re not exacty vampires, but they do seem to be related to the succubi who fed on the blood of young men. And they were supposed to have the torso of a beautiful woman, and the tail of a serpent, so they’re depicted in much classical art as women draping a pretty snakeskin over their thighs. One Diodorus Siculus, though, said they were nothing more than a distorted face.

Nothing more than a distorted face! I love it!

Anyway, my Lammyr are these gender-neutral things who simply love to kill. They’re thin, strong, translucent, and they smoke too much. And they have a really sick sense of humour. It’s like I said, I thought I made them up. But though they’re very different to the Lamiae I’ve been reading about, I can’t help thinking that the Lamiae seeped into my brain somewhere along the way, and gave birth to these ones. My babies, my Lammyr.

I love it when you find a connection. Speaking of connections, you can find a lovely picture of a Lamia here - at the Urban Cryptozoological Journal, a gorgeous site I only just came across. And there’s a poem about a Lamia by John Keats, right here.

And here’s a prettier one than the one above. Now I’m off to find out more.

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