Lamia of Argos

This story is again a result of a god impregnating a young and innocent

girl and everyone paying for it. There are differing versions of the story,

and in some they refer to Lamia and in others to Poene, who was

Apollo’s Spirit of Punishment. Either way, it is a story of cruelty and

death.

There was once a girl named Psamathe, who was the daughter of King

Crotopus of Argos who was intimate with the god, Apollo and this

resulted in a pregnancy. When her son was born, she named him Linus

and abandoned him in the wilds because she was scared of her father’s

anger.

The child was found by some shepherds and raised by them, and

everything would have gone unnoticed, but tragically Linus was killed by

one of the shepherd’s dogs and this sent Psamathe in a spiral of grief.

Her father, realising something was wrong, demanded to know and

when he found out that she had given birth to a child he was furious.

King Crotopus did not believe Psamathe when she said that the father of

her child was the god Apollo and thought that she was trying to hide the

fact that she had been intimate with a man. In anger, Crotopus executed

his daughter.

Now, Psamathe had been telling the truth and Linus was Apollo’s son.

When he found out that Psamathe had been executed, he was furious

and vowed to punish not only King Crotopus but, in his anger, he

decided to get rid of all the Argives.

Apollo sent out a monster, which some say was Lamia, to steal and

devour the children from their mothers. This continued until the monster

was killed by a hero named Coroebus and the people tore apart its

corpse.

Apollo’s fury was not sated, and he sent a plague to finish the job of

killing all the Argives. This one could not be killed by a hero, this time he

sent a plague. As more and more children died, the people were

desperate and consulted the oracle of Apollo to ask how they could get

rid of the plague.

The oracle told them that to end the plague, they must make propitiate

the spirits of Psamathe and Linus so that they would be at peace

following their violent deaths.

The people tried to do this by making sacrifices and having dirges, called

Linoi sung by virgins. None of this helped and Apollo told them that the

only way to stop the plague was for the people to offer the sacrifice of

the person who had killed the Lamia.

Coroebus did not hesitate, and he immediately went to offer himself in

sacrifice in exchange for the end of the plague. His immediate response

and willingness to be the sacrifice impressed Apollo, that he decided

rather than accept Coroebus’ offer, he would spare him and instead give

him one of his sacred tripod, which Coroebus must carry until he no long

could. Once Coroebus could go no further, he must form a city where the

tripod dropped and that is how the city of Tripodisci, or Little Tripods,

was created. Coroebus was banned by Apollo from ever setting foot in

Argos again.