Keats, Lamia

John Keats Lamia is an extraordinary poem that follows the Romantic tendency to present a pantheistic view of good and evil. Thereby good and evil are not absolutes, they are matters of perspective and interpretation.
What Keats adds to the general portrait of his contemporaries is not the association of the women with the serpent/Satan (in Milton's account the victim and the villain) - as we have seen, Coleridge had already done that by making Geraldine a victimized villain/ victimizing sufferer - it is the way in which he introduces the figure of Hermes, the emissary of the gods.
In Keats' poem, Hermes follows a similarly pantheistic portrait. Hermes is an important figure because he is associated with healing as well as interpretation. Keats plays with these conventional associations. Rather than following the convention of conveying messages from the gods, Keats' Hermes is induced, in exchange for an amorous encounter, to speak and to swear by the feminine serpent to 'heal' it and return it to the form of a woman so that she might love a Corinthian youth by the name of Lycius.
She succeeds in her intent, and the love spell that transforms her into a woman and her beloved Lycius into her adoring husband is only broken by the cold, literalistic philosopher Apollonius, whose appelation of her as "Lamia" not only causes her to disappear once more, but her youthful lover Lycius to die.
Keats's engagement with this topic draws our attention to the central role of hermeneutics in a pantheistic worldview.
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[@anastasiiacherkasova113]

I am grateful beyond words for all your sophisticated, elaborated videos and the effort you put into them. The parallels you draw between works and the perspectives you open are simply inspiring👍🏻

[@LitProf]

Very kind, and glad you find the videos helpful.

[@archanasingh8724]

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[@michaeldavidarcher5155]

Wow all hands kant seize

[@tooth8551]

Lamia.
Zeus cheats on Hera.
Lamia has babies by Zeus.
Hera jealous and peesed about Zeus betrayal, kills Lamia's children in front of her.
Lamia is traumatized beyond ability to understand.
Lamia hears and sees others children.
This causes anguish and triggers need to stop the pain.
She devours those children.
Lamia is forever the monster now. Because she had children with an adulterer and a psycho wife.
She's forced to live forever with those memories of watching her own children murdered. Thats the part no one adds in.
Have you ever wondered why our government has more money funded into international adoptions and CPS?
TRAUMA

[@LitProf]

This is very good additional bit of background myth to Keats’ text.

[@tooth8551]

@@LitProf Covens are real. So is the use of duality. Children, the ultimate resource in life force 💗