Tradition: Albanian mythology
Alternative Names: Ljubi, Mother Lubia
Category: Dragon
The Myth
Lubia is a gigantic female serpent-dragon with numerous heads, a terrifying water and storm demon whose appearance reflects the violence of the sea during a storm. She is said to possess anywhere from seven to one hundred heads, and like the Hydra of Lerna, whenever one of her heads is cut off, another grows in its place. She has an enormous appetite and an especially fierce craving for human flesh, with little girls said to be among her favorite prey.
Lubia is believed to live in a magnificent vegetable garden, despite her monstrous nature. As a powerful spirit of water and storms, she can bring destruction upon the waters and is said to cause them to dry up unless a virgin is sacrificed to her. The people who feared her imagined the terrifying force of bad weather as a monstrous woman with an insatiable hunger, giving the storm a living and dreadful form.
In southern Albanian tradition, Lubia is regarded as a storm deity and is also called Mother Lubia. Her enormous appetite, strange personality, and terrible power all mirror the frightening impression of the sea when storms turn its waters violent.
Lubia closely resembles the Kulshedra, another enormous multi-headed female dragon of Albanian folklore. Like Lubia, the Kulshedra is associated with water and storms and must be placated through human sacrifice. The two beings are therefore sometimes treated as closely related or even as different names for the same kind of powerful dragon-demon, with Kulshedra possessing greater fame and power in Albanian tradition.
Her many heads and regenerative nature also recall the Lernaean Hydra, giving Lubia the form of an ancient multi-headed serpent whose destruction becomes nearly impossible as each severed head gives rise to another.
Sources
“Ljubi.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed October 2, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ljubi