Lamia and The Soldier, John William Waterhouse (1905) I love, love Lamia And The Soldier because it’
Lamia and The Soldier, John William Waterhouse (1905) I love, love Lamia And The Soldier because it’s been, for a long time, one of my favourite picture of romantic love, wrapped in the hybrid fantasy of greek mythology and medieval influences that makes symbolism to me so exquisite; until I became curious about Lamia herself. In fact, Lamia was a child-and-men-eating, demon-fuelled seductress; her true nature is symbolised by the draped snake-skin around her arm and waist. I fell in the trap head-first. The picture is inspired by Keats’ Lamia, “about a bridegroom who discovers on his wedding night that his bride is a monstrous half-serpent who preys on young men.” A second version of the painting shows Lamia after the deed, and the calm savagery of her newly-shed submission is extraordinary. -- source link
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