The Lamia of the Pelion Forests

The Lamia is one of the oldest monsters in Greek mythology — a beautiful queen of Libya who became a child-devouring demon after Zeus's jealous wife Hera killed all her children. In the villages of Mount Pelion, the Lamia is not treated as ancient myth but as an active local presence. Mothers in the Milopotamos and Agios Ioannis area still warn children not to wander into the chestnut groves after dark.

The local Lamia is described differently from the classical version: she appears as a beautiful tall woman in white who walks the forest paths at dusk, calling children by name. She knows each child's name because she was present, invisible, at their birth. A village elder from Tsagarada, Kyria Eleni Alexiou, collected testimony from 11 families between 1955 and 1978 who claimed children had been found in the forest at dawn, confused and unable to speak, with no memory of the night. In each case the child recovered fully within three days.