"This meticulous charting of monstrous female creatures of legend is endlessly fascinating, and shot-through with formidable wit, wisdom and fresh takes on history."
From Lilith, the demonic temptress who ensnared Adam, to lesser-known creatures like Lamia, who lured “shipwrecked sailors to her with her beautiful face and chest before eating them alive”, Sarah Clegg’s Woman's Lore takes readers on a thrilling journey through 4000 years of culture that’s cast women as sirens, serpents and succubi. Noting that “the similarities between these serpentine, child- and mother-killing succubi are no coincidence,” the author seeks to understand how and why this tradition has “spanned almost the entirety of human history”. And what a journey it is.
In these pages, we discover the Mesopotamian origins of these monstrously-cast women courtesy of Lamashtu, a baby-murdering, dog-headed demon with grotesquely clawed fingers who was the subject of incantations, rituals and amulets. Somewhat turning expectations on their head, it seems incantations to Lamashtu were one of the ways women sought to protect themselves from the dangers of pregnancy and childbirth.
Citing several equally-as-fascinating examples (we move from the ancient world through to the vamps of early cinema, and beyond), the author reveals how male-controlled societies appropriated such figures and practices, before the tide turned again and the likes of Lilith were reclaimed by women, from second-wave feminists in the 1960s and 1970s, to contemporary LBGTQ+ activists.
Concluding with the rousing assertion that such demons are “a testament to the resilience of women’s traditions and beliefs: surviving for millennia, for the most part either ignored, mocked or appropriated by men, but passed nonetheless from woman to woman down through the centuries”, this fascinating book is a triumph, much like the women’s lore it explores.
| Primary Genre | History |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
