Bibliography Detail
The Lamia and Aristotle's Beaver: The Consequences of a Mistranscription
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 2016; Series: Volume 79
Digital resource (JSTOR)
In Greek mythology, Lamia was the charming daughter of King Belus of Libya. She bore several children to Zeus but his jealous wife, Hera, killed them all except for Scylla. Heart-broken over her loss, Lamia sought vengeance by stealing the babies of other women and consequently became a monster with the manners and physical traits of an animal, The word lamia can also be found in the form of an appellative: for example, in the Vulgate, Isaiah 34.14 lists the Jamia among the animals, beasts and monsters which will despoil Jerusalem when God’s judgement befalls the city. As I shall discuss below, ancient zoological works use the word to indicate what is probably a species of shark, while medieval encyclopedias add several more meanings: Jamia denotes, among other things, a hybrid creature which looks like a woman with horse legs; and a four-legged animal which damages plants in gardens at night and is likely to attack people it encounters. - [Author]
Language: English
Last update December 27, 2022