The Serpent-Vampire in Keats's Lamia
The origin of the lamia myth lies in one of the love affairs of Zeus. The Olympian falls in love with Lamia, queen of Libya, which was, for the Greeks, the whole continent of Africa. When Hera finds out about their love, she destroys each of Lamia's children at birth. In her misery, Lamia withdraws to the rocks and caves of the sea-coast, where she preys on other women's children, eating them and sucking their blood. To recompense his mistress, Zeus gives her the power of shape-shifting. Perhaps as a reflection of this versatility, the monstrous race of lamiae of Africa are composite beings, with the heads and breasts of women, but the bodies of serpents. In this earliest incarnation, Lamia is a cannibal and a blood sucker.
Lamia's position in the myth is clearly that of the outcast. She is an abandoned mistress, a non-Greek, and a violator of the almost universal taboo against eating human flesh. That she takes on this role out of anguish over the loss of her own children does not, however, arouse sympathy. The lamiae later come to be more closely associated with vampires who return from the grave to suck the blood of the living. Since no community tolerates vampires, such a creature is otherness or difference personified.
Other female mythic figures show affiliations with the lamia and its vampirism--the mortal femme fatale, the goddess who offers the hero a paradise of ease and immortality, and the female monster, sometimes visibly horrible, sometimes apparently benign, that lurks in cliffs (Skylla), under the waters (Kharybdis), and on the rocks (Sirens). Homer's Odyssey conveniently gives us examples of all of these women. The mortal femme fatale, represented mo...
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...uncongenial want to change Keats from a Romantic to a Victorian.
Works Cited
1. Carl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks (London: Thames, 1992), 38-40.
2. All quotations from Homer come from Robert Fitzgerald's translation of theThe Odyssey of Homer (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998).
3. I am indebted to Barbara Fass and her book, La Belle Dame sans Merci and the Aesthetics of Romanticism (Detroit: Wayne State U. P., 1974), for help in deciding how I would classify the female temptresses. A sub-category of the enchantress is the "loathly lady," who has knowledge the hero needs (like the old woman in the Wife of Bath's Tale) or who can be seen sometimes to resemble the female monster in all her ugliness (like Duessa in The Fairy Queene).
4. F.C. Conybeare, trans., Philostratus: The Life of Apollonius of Tyana (Cambridge: Harvard U. P., 196
Homer. The Odyssey: Fitzgerald Translation. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. Print.
Rengakos, Antonios. Homertext und die Hellenistichen Dichter. Hermes. Einzelschriften, Heft 64. Stuttgart, F. Steiner, 1993.
Lattimore, Richmond. “Phaedra and Hippolytus.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 1.3 (Autumn, 1962): 5-18. JSTOR. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
5. Lesley Adkins, Roy A Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome, Oxford University Press, 1998. (pg. 304)
Butterflies are frequently discernible in Minoan art and can be found in the form of gold pendants as well as embossed into gold scales. The detail as to how the butterfly 's wings are portrayed in Minoan art and seals bare a distinct similarity between it and the labrys, specifically on a seal’s impression found in Zakros. This theory is hypothesised by Marija Gimbutas an American archaeologist known for work her in the Bronze Age culture of ‘old Europe’. As a result of this belief the labrys hit as also become synonymous for matriarchy. Just like a female divinity would carry power and an important role, any women seen holding the labrys is assumed to of been in a similar position.
Rengakos, Antonios. Homertext und die Hellenistichen Dichter. Hermes. Einzelschriften, Heft 64. Stuttgart, F. Steiner, 1993.
Since the beginning of time, women have been seen as different from men. Their beauty and charms have been interpreted as both endearing and deadly to men. In the Bible, it was Eve’s mistake that led to humanity’s exile from the Garden of Eden. However, unlike in the Bible, in today’s world, women who drive men to ruin do not do so through simple mistakes and misunderstandings, they do so while fully aware of what effects their sexuality can cause. One thing remains constant through these portrayals of women, and that is that they are portrayed as flawed creations and therefore monstrous. It is a woman’s sex drive and sexuality that can lead to her monstrosity. The femme fatale is an enticing, exquisitely beautiful, erotic character who plays the ultimate trick of nature: she displays her beauty, captures the man and goes in for the kill. Films such as Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction and stories such as Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale, and Sir Gawain the Green Knight use the femme fatale as a means of making a woman into a monster; the femme fatale can never win in the battle of the sexes. But what is it that makes the femme fatale such a dangerously character for the hero as well as the readers or viewers?
Morford, Mark P.O., and Robert J. Lenardon. Classical Mythology. '7th ed'. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Frost, Frank J. "Greek Society in the Age of Polis" (5th Edition) Pages 92, 93
Though not the focus of epic poetry, the female characters of this ancient genre play a central role, as they have a great influence on the male heroes they encounter. In a genre which idealizes manliness and heroism—that is, acts of courage, strength, and cunning— women are set in opposition to these ideals and therefore less respected. At the same time, women who attempt to take on more “masculine” roles are vilified. Here, antagonist is defined as anyone in opposition to the hero’s goals. Female agency—their free will and ability to wield power—is directly related to their role in epic poetry; that is, the more agency a female character has, the more antagonistic of a role she plays. This agency is often enacted through sexuality or supernatural
She claims she was won in marriage, and sold for her beauty. She uses the submissive role of women to show Menelaus that she did right as a Greek woman and was submissively taken to Troy. The blame for the Trojan War was placed solely on her shoulders. She questioned Menelaus, asking him if she really did anything wrong. She was held against her will in Troy, despite numerous escape attempts. She was perceived as passionate and rebellious and that was not a good image for a woman to have in those
The third and final level of women in Greek mythology is that of the monster. These monsters are part woman and part animal and mainly depict the fears of woman inside the head of the man, i.
Ingri and Edgar Parin D’alaure’s. Book of Greek Myths. New York: Bantam Dowbleday Dell Publishing Group, 1962.
Mortal females cause struggles among men and are portrayed as wicked in Greek Mythology. In the story of How the World and Mankind Were Created, the Father of Men and of the Gods, Zeus, swears to get revenge upon mankind because of the poor sacrifices made to the altars. Therefore, he “[makes] a great evil for men, a sweet and lovely thing to look upon… they [call] her Pandora… the first woman… who are an evil to men, with a nature to do evil… is the source of all misfortu...
Aristrophanes. "Lysistrata." The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Maynard, Mack. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1997. 466-469.