Banshees

A banshee is a female spirit in Irish mythology who heralds the death of a family member, usually by shrieking or keening. Her name is connected to the mythologically-important tumuli or "mounds" that dot the Irish countryside, which are known as síde (singular síd) in Old Irish.

The banshee is often described in Gaelic lore as wearing red or green, usually with long, disheveled hair (usually described as red or orange, and yellow in medieval times described to shimmer like wild fire). She can appear in a variety of forms. Perhaps most often she is seen as an ugly, frightful hag, but she can also appear young and beautiful if she chooses. In some tales, the figure who first appears to be a banshee or other cailleach (hag) is later revealed to be the Irish battle goddess, Morrígan.

On the MTV television series Teen Wolf, high school student Lydia Martin comes into her own as a banshee after being reborn from a near fatal incident. Her primary abilities consisted of harrowing visions - many of which were not entirely clear, but they always signaled a pending death, or related to someone who was recently deceased. As part of Scott McCall's "pack", Lydia's visions became immensely important in terms of giving the group a direction by which to resolve a current crisis.

As time went on, Lydia also developed a sonic scream. Though mostly designed for offensive attack, Lydia's banshee cry had other effects as well, such as determining the course of an electric current that lead to a power sub station where a man named William Barrow had kidnapped Kira Yukimura.