Lamia is a figure in Greek mythology who began as a beautiful mortal queen who angered the Olympian gods when she had an affair with the chief god Zeus - in a fit of jealous rage, his wife Hera (a goddess known for her cruelty) cast a curse upon the queen and killed her children. Driven insane by the deaths of her children Lamia became a child-eating demon that devoured many children, in the original myth, her face was said to become horribly deformed as a result, but in later tellings of the tale, she takes on serpentine features (a trait that has remained associated with her).