LAMIA,
The most celebrated female flute-player of antiquity, was regarded as a prodigy—from her beauty, wit, and skill in her profession. The honours she received, which are recorded by several authors, particularly by Plutarch and Athenaeus, are sufficient testimonies of her great power over the passions of her hearers. Her claim to admiration from her personal charms, does not entirely depend upon the fidelity of historians, since an exquisite engraving of her head, upon amethyst, is preserved in a collection at Paris, which authenticates the account of her beauty.
As she was a great traveller, her reputation soon became very extensive. Her first journey from Athens, the place of her birth, was into Egypt, whither she was drawn by the fame of a flute-player of that country. Her genius and beauty procured for her the notice of Ptolemy, and she became his mistress; but in the conflict between Ptolemy and Demetrius Poliorcetes, for the Island of Cyprus, about B.C. 332, Ptolemy being defeated, his wives, domestics, and military stores fell into the hands of Demetrius.
The celebrated Lamia was among the captives on this occasion, and Demetrius, who was said to have conquered as many hearts as cities, conceived so ardent a passion for her, that from a sovereign he was transformed into a slave—though her beauty was on the decline, and Demetrius, the handsomest prince of his time, was much younger than herself.
At her instigation, he conferred such extraordinary benefits on the Athenians, that they rendered him divine honours; and, as an acknowledgment of the influence Lamia had exercised in their favour, they dedicated a temple to her, under the name of "Venus Damia,"