21/04/2024
The Tragic Tale of Lamia: Zeus's Lover and Hera's Enemy
Ancient authors describe her as a queen of surpassing beauty, and at least one of them claims that she was one of Zeus's favorite lovers: the children of Lamia. Now, as many mortal women found out the hard way, being loved by Zeus came with a severe drawback, namely being despised by Hera. In the case of Lamia, for reasons we don't know, Hera's hatred went, arguably, the furthest: every time Lamia gave birth to a child, regardless of whether it was Zeus's or someone else's, Hera murdered it. Some say that the goddess was even crueler, inflicting upon Lamia a temporary madness during which the queen of Lybia killed her children with her own two hands. Lamia, the child-eating monster. Lamia's revenge.