#lauma

i know most people are well aware that she’s named after the lauma (latvian) or laumė (lithuanian) because of. well. the elephant in the room. but i actually couldn’t find anything credible about them being naked in the myths (i am not trusting sources that use ai generated images or follow the ai generated article structure).

here’s a description translated [by google] from lithuanian: “In Lithuanian fairy tales, the laumė is one of the most frequently mentioned creatures. It is said that laumės usually appear near water bodies, springs, and forests. People meet them in cultivated fields and in bathhouses. Laumės look either as young beautiful girls with very large breasts and braided hair, or as old women, sometimes with the body of a hen or a mare, or as giantess.” (source)

and wikipedia:

with lauma, we have the centaur form, the one eye covered by her hair, the large breasts, and the rainbow in her splash art (and maybe also her height?) all tying her to lithuanian depictions of the laumė.

but i think her inspiration goes beyond that, specifically with the greek goddess artemis. there are a lot of overlapping themes: the moon (especially represented by a crescent), the forest, wild animals, and maidenhood (lauma is also called “the maiden of the grove”). also, artemis’s sacred animal is the deer, notably the animal lauma is most associated with, despite laumės not being specifically associated with them.

maybe this is a reach, but i wonder if her splash art was at all inspired by this statue of artemis.

imo it would make sense, with her being a descendant of hyperborea, to have some greco-roman influence on her design.

also, lauma’s birthday is 1 march, the same day of the ancient roman celebration of matronalia

i know lauma isn’t much associated with childbirth (though the circumstances and veneration of her own birth are something she often thinks about, according to her character story 1). but what i think is interesting about the connection to juno lucina is this prayer to diana that the people of tsurumi island referenced in these murals in their prayer to the moon goddesses:

and lastly, to me the flowers on lauma’s arms look like light blue morning glories. there are two species in particular that stand out, i. tricolor and i. alba, “heavenly blue” and “moonflower” respectively, one being used by priests, the other being a night-blooming flower.

& that’s all i got!