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maidenandherlamia · 8 months

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Sweet mother, I cannot weave

First picture I drew of a "cow-tailed lamia," seen here talking to a weaver (the design copied from a vase depicting Penelope).

Some background info for the cow-tailed lamias.

Back when I was designing lamias with the idea of Maiden and Her Lamia being an imaginary toy line, I tried to imagine what kind of different gimmicks could the toy line have. Winged lamias, colour changing lamias, lamias that had extra long brushable hair. One idea that I was very fond of was the concept of "jewel-tailed lamias." These toys would have cow-like tails made of see-through plastic filled with plastic gems.

This gimmick was inspired by Ellen Jokikunnas, the kitchy cow figurine I received as a gift from the flower shop I used to work in (the store also sold various kitchy interior decoration items, I miss working there).

In my drawings the jewel-tails turned into tails decorated with bands of gold or silver, with plenty of gems in each tail-ring. This in turn translated to making the cow-tailed lamias even gaudier, giving them clothing (well, more like saddles than actual clothes) and much more jewelry. Their skin is gold or silver coloured and their scales shine like gems.

I decided to make these lamias the most human-like, appearence-wise. They are the smallest and weakest of the four species and are more comfortable walking on two legs than the other three. Most of their upper body is bare from the protective scales while the other three species only have their breasts and head from neck up exposed. They have human-like hands with opposable thumbs, which makes them good at very delicate crafts. They are rather vain, deciding to decorate their bodies gaudily while the other lamia species prance around fully naked most of the time.

Cow-tailed lamias, also sometimes called Athenian lamias, are the most cultured of the lamias, working as teachers, librarians, scientists, artists and at any work where their opposable thumbs gives them an advantage over the other lamias. They shun the idea of venturing outside Vinnus to seek women in need of refuge or men in need of being judged, like the winged lamias do. They are also unlikely to become hunters and warriors like the hunting lamias do. There is prejudice both ways between the cow-tailed lamias and the hunting lamias, the former considering the other primitive, uncultured and barbaric, while the latter looks down upon the other for being weak cowards who think they are too good to do any dirty work such as defending the city. That being said, I do wish to write a love story between these two species some day, with all the juicy drama that it brings along.

#the maiden and her lamia #lamia #hunting lamia #cow-tailed lamia

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maidenandherlamia · 2 years

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Love Among the Lamias

“Will you let me place this around your neck? It’s not because of a bet or even out of pity. This is a sacred ritual.”

#lamia #pelican in her piety

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maidenandherlamia · 4 years

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Goring the Lustful Beast

Another drawing made for The Lustful Beast

The gray-haired lady is Phaia, she controls the Crommyonian Sow, the pig goring the onocentaur here.

The story of The Lustful Beast is inspired by the legend of Actaeon, the man who was turned into a stag and killed by his own hunting dogs as punishment for peeping at bathing Artemis. I chose to have the rapists turned into onocentaurs, since in medieval bestiaries the onocentaur is the beast that represents male lust.

I decided to limit the colours of hunting lamias to match natural horse colours. They come in a variety of white, gray, brown and black, the two exceptions from these are yellow (like a palomino horse) and orange (the colour of a tiger’s fur).

The hunting lamias (also known as forest lamias, horse-tailed lamias or wild lamias) are the fiercest, most blood thirsty warriors among the lamias. They mostly inhabit the enchanted forest surrounding the city of Vinnus, living in tents rather than houses. They are the only species of lamia exempt from the Blood Taboo.

The Blood Taboo is an important part of lamia culture. Basicly, all lamias are expected to abstain from drinking the blood or eating the meat of any female creatures, both human and animal. A popular tragedy play tells a story of a lamia who was tricked to drink the blood of a female hyena and after having the truth revealed to her, she killed herself by tearing at her own flesh. Meat and blood handled in butcheries in Vinnus are clearly marked to make sure only humans will eat meat from female animals.

The hunting lamias pleaded that they should be exempt from the Blood Taboo, reasoning that since they lack toes, they can’t wield weapons and so can only hunt by using their sharp teeth. Such a primitive hunting method would obviously mean, that they couldn’t avoid tasting the blood of female animals. Limiting their hunting to just male animals wouldn’t be fair to the humans who live in the hunting lamia communities, since they too deserve their share of the spoils of the hunt and with just male animals, there wouldn’t be enough meat for everyone.

While the other three lamia species have accepted this, some lamias have prejudices against hunting lamias because of it, considering them primitive, wild and uncivilized. There being one species that’s free from the Taboo has however proven a necessity. Couple of times there have been attempts to conquer Vinnus by sending female mercenaries, in hopes that lamias would hesitate to fight such warriors. Hunting lamias have crushed these armies. Most lamias acknowledge that the existence of warriors who won’t hesitate to defend the city even against female enemies is necessary, even if they are uncomfortable with this fact.

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Introduction to Maiden and her Lamia:

https://maidenandherlamia.tumblr.com/post/615612601858129920/introduction-to-this-blog

#lamia #onocentaur #the maiden and her lamia #hunting lamia

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maidenandherlamia · 4 years

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The Lustful Beast

In the lands bordering the city of Vinnus, it's common knowledge that the human citizens inhabiting the lamia city are all women. Some philosophers are uncomfortable with this knowledge, since women running a city without the aid of men disproves their claims of the worthlessness of females as incomplete men. Many loudly claim that Vinnus can only thrive with the help of the lamias, that without them the city would fall swiftly into disorder. If you were to point out that despite being magical creatures, the lamias are also all female, you might get silenced in an unpleasant manner.

Men dislike living near the lamia city. No matter how much they boast not fearing the witches and their monstrous companions, no matter how many mocking songs and plays they write to make fun of their neighbors, in their hearts they know that Vinnus is a powerful military might and that both the human and inhuman citizens are not to be underestimated. At least once every century, some boastful general will lead an army to attempt to conquer the city, thinking his brilliant new strategies or much greater armies will make him succeed where everyone before him failed, but none has returned victorious. History has taught the villagers living near Vinnus, that crossing the border to the land of the lamias means certain death for any man.

However, in one such village, there lived four men, who had for the longest time dreamed of crossing the border one day. Their wish was not fueled by a desire to heroically slay the man-eating monsters and return the natural order by bringing the city under their rule. These four men were plagued with lust. The more they thought of a city full of women, the more excited they got of the idea of being the only men for these women to love. They imagined, that if they could only get past the lamias guarding the borders, they could introduce themselves to the women, who would all obviously fall in love with them, since they were the only men around. Maybe some of the women would need to be persuaded, maybe they would need to be forcibly embraced to make them understand the joys of earthly passions, since many of them were adopted by lamias when they were only infants and so had never seen a man before. The men were confident in their plan, after all, they were all very handsome, so surely no woman would rather choose a life without any men over them.

The lamias proved a problem, though. Once they'd have the women on their side, they would have allies to help hide them from the monsters. But first, they would have to get into the city. The men chose to cross the border at night, disguising themselves by wearing the skins of wild donkeys. In the dark of the night, the lamia guards wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

So the four men set their plan in action, wearing the skins of two wild donkeys, two men inside each skin, the one in the rear end leaning over and the one in the front standing straight, holding up the donkey's head. They did indeed get past the border, entering the woods that surrounded the city. But they didn’t know that the forest was enchanted so that any males entering it would never find their way to the city. In the forest the men got lost and wandered around in circles until dawn. They were tired and uncomfortable in their disguise, but their lustful nature drove them onwards, determined to get the reward they so desired.

It was then, when the morning dew dampened the skins they hid inside, the rising sun's first rays appearing from the east, when they heard the sound of something rushing through the forest. Startled, they peeked under their disguise and saw a deer leap gracefully across the clearing and then disappearing again among the greenery. After a moment of relief that they hadn't encountered any dangerous animals, the men realized there were sounds of galloping horses coming from the direction where the deer had appeared. They all realized immediately what it meant. Hunters were chasing the deer. They knew they had very little time to either run or hide. Swiftly they tried to find a hiding spot, but two men don't run very fast while inside a donkey skin. They weren't fast enough. The hunters rode in sight and noticed the two wild donkeys, switching their targets. To make things worse, they weren't riding horses, but riding on the scaly backs of hunting lamias.

The men were surrounded, and one of the hunters was already lifting her spear to pierce the donkey's side. Fearing for their lives, the men who had walked at the front side of the donkey skins let the donkey's head drop down, pushed their head and arms through the neck-hole and waved their arms around, exclaiming, ”Don't hurt us, we are humans!”

The leader of the hunting lamias spoke to them, ”Humans do not sneak around disguised as wild animals. No, you have chosen to play the role of the wild donkey, the lustful beast so obsessed with females the stallion castrates any male foals born into his herd out of fear of competition. This is the role you chose, so keep playing it until the end!”

After saying this, she struck her hoof to the ground three times and sparks flew in the air every time her hoof struck the cold earth. By doing so, she cast a spell, and the men were horrifically transformed into beasts. The donkey skins grew into their flesh and the two men sharing each skin merged together to form a monster that was half-human half-wild donkey. The four lustful men had been turned into onocentaurs. The two beasts thrashed and screamed in horror at their fate but their voices were no longer human and, like the words of all lustful men, resembled only the braying of donkeys.

”Now then,” said the leader of the hunting lamias to her sisters, ”Let us continue the hunt!”

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Introduction to Maiden and her Lamia:

https://maidenandherlamia.tumblr.com/post/615612601858129920/introduction-to-this-blog

#lamia #the maiden and her lamia #hunting lamia

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maidenandherlamia · 4 years

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The first winged lamia I drew

The winged lamia’s design was partially inspired by the Mesopotamian fantastic beast Mushussu, namely giving this avian version of lamias the fore-legs of a lion and eagle’s talons on the hind-legs. I considered drawing the wings folded when in rest, since that would be more biologically accurate, but chose to keep them spread, because this reminds me of winged beasts drawn in bestiaries and heraldry, where they often have spread wings even when the animal is clearly not flying. Winged lamias are always drawn like this, with spread wings.

One of the reasons I started the Maiden and her Lamia project, was my disgust at men sexualizing things aimed for little girls, like Hello Kitty and My Little Pony. It infuriated me to bump into gross, non-tagged mature content when looking for stuff, clearly made and left there for all audiences to see by some jerk who thinks the most hilarious thing ever is some little girl innocently googling a toy she likes and seeing something inappropriate. When men want to insult something, they make sex jokes about it, much like immature little boys drawing dicks on everything. And men generally don’t like it when women and girls have anything specially for ourselves, they just have to come and metaphorically piss all over it to mark their territory.

Once after having involuntarily bumped into yet another rapey piece of “fan art”, I started to daydream if there could exist a toy line with a basic premise so openly hostile for males, so entirely made for girls and with a strong feministic messages written in, that even if some pathetic dudebro drew porn out of it, he wouldn’t be able to ruin it for girls. Because everyone would just think that the reason he did it was because his weak and fragile masculinity felt threatened at a toy line where wicked men get the bad endings they deserve. I wished that there’d be a franchise for girls that men couldn’t claim for themselves, no matter how much they’d try, because the very core idea of the series would be against it.

So I began drawing pretty, colourful lamias and imagined the world they lived in. No toy company would ever produce figures like these, not just because of fear of controversy (the lamias being true to their bestiary origin and thus having fake breasts, and I’d imagine conservative parents would riot at the introduction of a toy that teaches girls to become “””man haters”””), but because I don’t think lamias are on the top list of little girls favourite fantasy creatures (dragons and unicorns and mermaids have better market value). But either way, it was fun to speculate, so I drew some lamias, imagined what kind of accessories they’d come with, what kind of playsets would be in the line and what the packaging would look like.

In the 80s My Little Ponies had short stories written on the back of their packaging, to introduce the toy character and give some inspiration for playing. I started writing short stories for the lamia characters to mimic this.

Now, the project has moved on, it’s no longer a “My Little Lamia” drawn and written to visualize an imaginary toy line. My drawings and writing are very childish, and in some stories it’s very clear it was originally written for a child audience. But even so, I don’t consider Maiden and her Lamia to be a thing specificly for little girls. It’s now a fantasy universe with feministic escapism fantasies for adults (for example, I no longer feel the need to hold back on showing the blood). But one thing it’s not and never will be, is for men.

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Introduction to Maiden and her Lamia:

https://maidenandherlamia.tumblr.com/post/615612601858129920/introduction-to-this-blog

#lamia #the maiden and her lamia #winged lamia

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maidenandherlamia · 4 years

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Measuring the Blood

Lamias do not come for you in the dark of the night or when you're walking alone on a remote path. Maybe you think you are safe from them because you live far away from their fabled city, Vinnus. So thought the philosopher, who was captured and carried off at midday on a crowded street. The brightness of the sun had hidden the winged lamia who had set her eyes on him. Swiftly she dove down like a falcon after its prey and wrapped her front paws around the man. She held him securely against her chest and, without ever landing, she returned to the skies with her catch.

Seeing how high up they had flown, the philosopher soon stopped struggling and instead hang on for dear life. They travelled many hours in silence, the man too afraid to speak, but finally he dared to ask,”Where are you taking me? Must you prolong my suffering? If you have decided to eat me, let us land now and get it over with!”

The lamia did not turn to look at him when she answered,”I am taking you to Vinnus. And what makes you think I'm going to eat you?”

The philosopher was confused. ”That's what lamias do. You seduce and devour men. Unless you're the type of lamia who likes to eat children.”

”We do not eat children.”

”Then why does every village have stories of little children carried away by lamias?”

”We don't steal away your children to eat them. Your children are lost to you because they can't ever again return to home. You did not deserve them.”

”What do you mean by that?”

The lamia's voice was darkened by anger as she replied, ”Have you never noticed that the stories are always about the carrying away of girls. We do not steal your sons. We take your daughters, the ones you did not want. The ones you left out in the woods for wolves – or lamias – to take. Every child we steal from you was a child you did not want, because you wanted sons, not daughters.”

The philosopher was afraid to ask any more questions. The sun was setting when they finally reached the city of Vinnus. Overlooking the city was a row of mountains, and on the top of the highest mountain the lamia made her landing. There she was greeted by a maiden and another, wingless, blue-coloured lamia. The winged lamia unceremoniously dropped her prey to the ground and turned towards the maiden, who offered her some water to drink and gently wiped sweat from her sides with a damp cloth.

”You will come with me!” commanded the blue lamia, swatting the philosopher with her paw like a cat toying with a mouse. To avoid the sharp claws, he got up and hurried in the other direction. He noticed now a decorative gate at the mountainside. The heavy doors were unfastened, opened just enough for the man and his guard to fit through. There was no escape, no other way to go except to enter the dark cave. Here I will die, eaten by these monsters in their den! he thought as he kept going deeper, avoiding the claws that kept swatting at his ankles whenever he strayed from the correct path.

At the end of the tunnel, a light shone. The cave widened and led to a room that resembled the inner sanctum of a temple. There, by the light of the flickering fire sat a green, red-masked lamia, looking straight at the philosopher as if she had been anticipating him. Beside the green lamia stood a maiden, also looking at him directly.

”Do you know why you are here?” asked the green lamia and her voice echoed in the chamber, striking fear to the Philosopher.

”No, I do not. Why was I taken, out of all the men in the world? Surely there are men living much closer to your city. Surely there is no need to fly for prey so far away that flying back takes all day.”

”Worry not, you are not here to be eaten.” replied the green lamia, ”We have brought you here to have your blood measured. It is a request made by your daughter.”

The philosopher was not much relieved to hear that instead of being eaten, he would have his blood measured. Whatever that meant, it did not sound good. All he could say was, ”I don't know what you mean. I have no daughter.”

Now it was the maiden's turn to speak. ”You don't recognize me now as an adult, because when you sold me, I was but a child.”

Hearing this, the philosopher turned pale.

”Korinna has made accusations against you.” said the green lamia, ”As the oracle of Vinnus it is my duty to judge whether she speaks truth or not. For this purpose you were carried here. Now, you must hold out your arm and allow Korinna to let some of your blood, so that I may measure it.”

”Measure my blood?” exclaimed the philosopher, ”What is this nonsense! You're going to kill me anyway!”

”If you are an innocent man, we will take you back home.”

”That is a lie! No man carried away by lamias has ever returned home.”

”That is because so far none of the maidens we adopted have made false accusations. But even so, we will not judge anyone blindly. You will have your trial here and I, Ligeia the oracle, am your judge. You may already know that we lamias are blood drinkers. Our taste for blood is much more sensitive, much more sophisticated than that of mortal beasts. Blood is like a mirror upon which your true self is reflected. If you are an innocent man, you have no reason to not let me taste your blood. After all, the blood of an innocent man tastes bitter.”

Korinna the maiden stepped towards the philosopher, holding a cup and a lancet. Startled, he took a step back, but the blue lamia was standing behind him, forcing him to come forward.

”If my blood tastes bitter, you will let me go?” he asked, his voice angry yet pathetic like that of an animal caught in a trap, trying to intimidate its captors.

”Then you will be free to go back, the first man to set foot on the land of the lamias and return to tell the tale.” Ligeia answered, then raised her paw and pointed at the philosopher. ”But if your blood tastes sweet, you will never return home. The blood of a wicked man tastes sweet.”

Korinna held out the cup for the blood offering. The philosopher couldn't look her in the eyes. For a moment he couldn't speak, could hardly breathe. Then he clenched his hands into fists, and spoke, ”If my blood tastes sweet, what will you do to me?”

Ligeia gestured towards the blue lamia and answered, ”Alethea here is a great sorceress. She will turn you into a pig.”

”And then? What will happen to me then?”

”You tell me.” Ligeia said, her serpent-tail lashing from side to side to mark that she was growing impatient, ”What do you usually do with pigs?”

Held prisoner there, in the lamia oracle's cave, the philosopher had no other choice but to face the accusations of a woman who claimed he had committed against her crimes that turn the blood of men sweet for lamias to drink. Resigned to his fate, he held out his arm over Korinna's cup, not feeling the sting of the lancet as it opened his vein.

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Introduction to Maiden and her Lamia:

https://maidenandherlamia.tumblr.com/post/615612601858129920/introduction-to-this-blog

#lamia #maiden and her lamia #ligeia

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maidenandherlamia · 4 years

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Introduction to this blog

I am Pellicano Sanguino. I draw lamias for fun and make up short stories to my drawings. Thought it wouldn’t hurt to share my doodles and scribblings somewhere, in case they may entertain at least someone besides me. However, it’s important to note that I make my drawings first and foremost for my own amusement. I have no desire to change them or to attempt to improve my skills to better please an audience.

I am not an artist. I’m a doodler. My drawing skills have not improved since I was twelve, and I’m fine with it. If you’d like better art, Tumblr is full of wonderful art, this blog will not have any. You won’t find art here, just simple drawings with fucked up perspective, bad understanding of anatomy and humans who have muppet-like mouths. I do not look for constructive criticism, so please do not point out all the parts in my drawings that are messed up (trust me, I’m aware of them and don’t care). It should also be noted, that English is not my native language, so any short stories or descriptions added to the drawings are going to have poor grammar and such.

So what is The Maiden and her Lamia all about? It’s a fantasy universe in which lamias are scaly, four-legged monsters (that come in four different types) that are born from the tears of women and girls who have suffered in the hands of men. It is, basically, a feministic escapism fantasy, a day dream of living in a world where magical creatures protect women and help them build a society free from the rule of men. Also inspired a bit by legends about Amazons, who originate from Greek myths much like lamias do. This being said, do not expect my drawings to be historically accurate. They are not and never will be (because I’m lazy and don’t want to spend hours researching what such-and-such looked like in ancient Greece).

If you’re thinking “Your lamias look weird. Shouldn’t lamias be stupid sexy snake women?”, here’s the deal with my interpretation of lamias. The original myths about lamias are pretty vague about their appearance, though the name suggests they have big mouths/jaws. The popular image of lamias as humans who are snakes from waist down is probably due to Keats, whose poem describes Lamia as a serpent that transforms into a human. This half-human half-serpent type of lamia is what I call “keatsian lamia.” Other types of lamias exist. My lamias are vaguely related to what I like to call “bestiary lamias.”

When I was a kid, I borrowed from the local library a big book that had illustrations of monsters and fantastic animals. It had a picture of a lamia from an old bestiary. This lamia had the head and (fake) breasts of a woman, fore-paws of a bear, hind-legs and tail of a goat and a body covered in scales. After I returned the book, I tried to draw this lamia from memory, but I remembered some parts wrong. I somehow mixed the goat-hooves and bear-paws together, giving all of its feet two toes with sharp claws, a bit like T-Rex arms. Instead of a short, fluffy goat tail, I gave it a serpent tail. This is how I drew lamias for the longest time, misremembering how they looked. And this is how the first of my four types of lamias, the serpent-tailed lamia, was originated.

Now that I’m older and saw the original bestiary images in the internet again, I know my lamias aren’t “correct.” But I have decided that I don’t care and will keep drawing them incorrectly. They are fantasy animals, so there’s no reason why I can’t get a little creative with their design. And so, I created three more types of lamia; the hunting lamia, the cow-tailed lamia and the winged lamia. They all have their original inspiration in bestiary lamias (as opposed to keatsian lamias) but I make no claim for their authenticity. These are imaginary creatures, based on the drawings I made as a kid, trying to draw the bestiary lamia from memory. And that’s why my lamias are not snake ladies.

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