Abstract
With deep popular roots, the topic of the "man-killing woman" has two basic variants: "La Serrana" is rural, wild, an unleashed force of nature, a giant woman who attracts her victims (mainly shepherds) through music; and "La Gallarda", urban, somewhat more refined but also "satanic", more complex, and just like "La Serrana" attracts men —in this case not shepherds but gentlemen—, seduces them and sacrifices them. Both have antecedents in classic mythology: "La Serrana" is similar to Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant from The Odyssey, of extraordinary strength, and "La Gallarda" to Circe the sorceress, also from The Odyssey, a clever woman of diabolical intelligence. In conclusion, in both of these versions of the Spanish romances, the traditional roles of domination are inverted: the man is the victim and the woman is the victimizer.