Lamia was once the beautiful Queen of Lybia and was seduced by the great king of the Greek gods himself - Zeus. His jealous wife, Hera, reacted by killing Lamia's children and turning her into a hateful monster - a woman above the waist and a serpent below. In this form she bore more children, the vampiric Lamiae or Lamya, which preyed particularly upon sleeping children. Their reptillian bodies have a woman's head and breasts, with cloven hind hooves, a horse's tail, and feline forelegs.

Lamia is also the name of a friendly Mermaid in Basque folklore of southern France and Northwestern Spain.