Lamia (disambiguation)

Lamia is a city in central Greece (population 75,000). Archaeological site (castle dating from the pre-classical years, reconstructed in the early middle ages). Lamia is the capital of the prefecture of Fthiotida and the region of "Eastern Sterea Ellada" (comprising 5 prefectures).

Name: According to tradition, Lamia was named after Lamos (or Lamios) son of Hercules and Omphale. Another version is that the city was named after Lamia the daughter of Poseidon queen of the Trachineans. A third version is that it is named after the Malians, the inhabitants of the surrounding area. In the middle ages (869 AD) Lamia was called Zetounion being the seat of a bishop. Conquered by the Latins after 1204 the name becomes Zirtounion, Zitonion, Girton (during the Frankish rule), El Cito (under the Catalan rule). The Turks called it Iztin.

History: inhabited from the 5th millennium BC, the city was mentioned for the first time after the earthquake of 424 B.C. Occupied by Alexander king of Macedonia; the Athenians rebelled at his death. Antipatros, the successor of Alexander, after losing the fight against the Athenians and their allies, fortified his troops in the city of Lamia (Lamian war 323-322BC). The war ended at the death of the general of the Athenian troops, Leosthenes, and the arrival of a 20,000-strong Macedonian army.

'Lamia is a mythological person: the daughter of Poseidon and Lybie. Zeus fell in love with Lamia but Hera caused each of their children to die. Lamia, jealous of mothers more fortunate than she, became a child-devouring monster with the body of a serpent and breasts and head of a woman.

In historical times mothers used to threaten their ill-born children with this story. Also: blood-drinking female vampire-spirits were called Lamiae.