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The Greek demoness Lamia comes from Mesopotamian Lamaštu.
Diodorus Siculus 20.41.3-6:
At the base of this rock was a large cave thickly covered with ivy and bryony, in which according to myth had been born Lamia, a queen of surpassing beauty. But on account of the savagery of her heart they say that the time that has elapsed since has transformed her face to a bestial aspect. For when all the children born to her had died, weighed down in her misfortune and envying the happiness of all other women in their children, she ordered that the new-born babies be snatched from their mothers’ arms and straightway slain. Wherefore among us even down to the present generation, the story of this woman remains among the children and her name is most terrifying to them. But whenever she drank freely, she gave to all the opportunity to do what they pleased unobserved. Therefore, since she did not trouble herself about what was taking place at such times, the people of the land assumed that she could not see. And for that reason some tell in the myth that she threw her eyes into a flask, metaphorically turning the carelessness that is most complete amid wine into the aforesaid measure, since it was a measure of wine that took away her sight. One may also present Euripides as a witness that she was born in Libya, for he says: “Who does not know the name of Lamia, Libyan in race, a name of greatest reproach among mortals?”
Source (list of abbreviations)
Diodorus Siculus 20.41.3-6
Bibliography
| Oldfather 1960, X 252-255 | Oldfather, C. H. Diodorus of Sicily. 12 Vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, London: Heinemann 1960. |
Amar Annus
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