# Lamia — Poetry character guide

> Lamia in Poetry by John Keats.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** gentle Lamia, fair Lamia, Yourself, thou, your, thee

**First appearance:** 0052-ii

## Snapshot

A serpent-woman of dazzling hues who trades her scales for a bride's body, weaving love and illusion around a young Corinthian with dangerous precision.

## Who they are

Lamia begins as a gordian shape of vermilion, gold, and silver moons, weeping that she was born so fair, before Hermes grants her human form. As Lycius's bride she is tender, watchful, and increasingly desperate to keep the world's cold gaze from their hidden palace. Her tension is between the enchantment she creates and the truth that threatens to dissolve it—making her the poem's most sympathetic and most precarious figure in its early and middle movements.

## Relationships

### [Saturn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/characters/saturn)

_psychological_

Lamia is a serpentine enchantress who manipulates Saturn with her seductive illusions, representing temptation and deception.

### [Lycius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/characters/lycius)

_romantic_

Lamia and Lycius are passionate but tragic lovers, with Lamia's supernatural nature ultimately destroying their bond.

### [Lycius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/characters/lycius)

_romantic_

Lamia and Lycius are passionate but tragic lovers, with Lamia's supernatural nature ultimately destroying their bond.

### [Saturn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/characters/saturn)

_psychological_

Lamia is a serpentine enchantress who manipulates Saturn with her seductive illusions, representing temptation and deception.

### [Lycius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/characters/lycius)

_romantic_

Lamia and Lycius are passionate but tragic lovers, with Lamia's supernatural nature ultimately destroying their bond.

### [Saturn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/characters/saturn)

_psychological_

Lamia is a serpentine enchantress who manipulates Saturn with her seductive illusions, representing temptation and deception.

## In the story

### [Lamia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/chapters/lamia)

Transforms from serpent to woman, wins Lycius's love, and orchestrates a lavish wedding feast before being exposed by Apollonius.

### [Lamia's Transformation and the Meeting with Lycius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/chapters/i)

Transforms from a serpent into a beautiful woman; uses her charm to win Lycius's love; expresses fear of Apollonius.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/chapters/ii)

Lamia fears exposure by Apollonius and reluctantly agrees to the wedding, but is ultimately destroyed.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/characters/lamia
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_14_se/characters