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Where did John Keats find the story for “Lamia”?
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John Keats
John Keats, drawing by Joseph Severn, 19th century.
John Keats found the story for his narrative poem Lamia in the 1621 work The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton.12
Burton had originally sourced the subject matter from the writings of the ancient Greek author Flavius Philostratus, specifically his account in Life of Apollonius of Tyana regarding a fiend who assumed the form of a beautiful woman to seduce and devour young men.12