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Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art

By John Vinycomb

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Other Chimerical Creatures and Heraldic Beasts-Lamia or Emipusa

A curious creature of the imagination is the lamia, of which we are told many fictitious stories. It is said 
to be "the swiftest of all four-footed creatures, that it is very treacherous and cruel to men. It is stated to be bred in Lybia, and sometimes devours its own young." It is represented in an ancient "Bestiaria" as having the head and breasts of a woman, and the body of a four-footed animal with flowing tail, the hind feet having divided hoofs. It is "thought to be the creature mentioned in Isaiah xxxiv., called in Hebrew Lilith, as also the same which is mentioned in Lamentations iv."

In Dr. Brewer's "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable," Lamia is "a female phantom whose name was used by the Greeks and Romans as a bugbear to children, from the classic fable of a Lybian Queen beloved by Jupiter, but robbed of her children by Juno; and in consequence she vowed vengeance against all children, whom she delighted to entice and murder." They are again described as spectres of Africa, who attracted strangers and then devoured them. In the story of "Machatës and Philemon," a young man is represented as marrying an Empusa, who sucks his blood at night. Goethe borrowed his ballad of the "Bride of Corinth" from this tale.

Beyond casual mention this mythical creature does not appear in heraldry.