Mormo

For the moth genus, see Mormo (moth).

Mormo (Greek: Μορμώ, Mormō) was a female spirit in Greek folklore, whose name was invoked by mothers and nurses to frighten children to keep them from misbehaving.

The term mormolyce /mɔːrˈmɒlɪˌsiː/ (μορμολύκη; pl. mormolykeia μορμολύκεια), also spelt mormolyceum /mɔːrˌmɒlɪˈsiːəm/ (μορμολυκεῖον mormolukeîon), is considered equivalent.

Etymology

The name mormo has the plural form mormones which means "fearful ones" or "hideous one(s)", and is related to an array of words that signify "fright".[1][2]

The variant mormolyce translates to "terrible wolves", with the stem -lykeios meaning "of a wolf".[3][2]

Description

The original Mormo was a woman of Corinth, who ate her children then flew out; according to an account only attested in a single source.[4] Mormolyca /mɔːrˈmɒlɪkə/ (as the name appears in Doric Greek: μορμολύκα) is designated as the wetnurse (Greek: τιθήνη) of Acheron by Sophron (fl. 430 BC).[6]

Mormo or Moromolyce has been described as a female specter, phantom, or ghost by modern commentators.[7][8][9] A mormolyce is one of several names given to the female phasma (phantom) in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana.[10][11]

Mormo is glossed as equivalent to Lamia and mormolykeion, considered to be frightening beings, in the Suda, a lexicon of the Byzantine Periods.[12] Mombro (Μομβρώ) or Mormo are a bugbear (φόβητρον phóbētron), the Suda also says.[13]

"Mormo" and "Gello" were also aliases for Lamia according to one scholiast, who also claimed she was queen of the Laestrygonians, the race of man-eating giants.[15]

Bugbear

The name "Mormo" or the synonymous "Mormolyceion" was used by the Greeks as a bugbear or bogey word to frighten children.[7][8]

Some of its instances are found in Aristophanes.[16][17] The poet Erinna, in her poem The Distaff, recalls how her and her friend Baucis feared Mormo as children.[18]

Mormo as an object of fear for infants was even recorded in the Alexiad written by a Byzantine princess around the First Crusade.[19]

Modern interpretations

A mormo or a lamia may also be associated with the empusa, a phantom sent by the goddess Hekate.[20]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Johnston, Sarah Iles, ed. (2013) [1999]. Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. Univ of California Press. p. 174. ISBN 9780520280182. ISBN 9-780-5202-8018-2
  2. ^ a b Stannish & Doran (2013), p. 118.
  3. ^ "Lamia & Empusa (empousa)". theoi. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
  4. ^ Scholios to Aristides (Dindorf, p. 41)[1]
  5. ^ Johnston, Sarah Iles (1995). Meyer, Marvin W.; Mirecki, Paul Allan (eds.). Defining the Dreadful: Remarks on the Greek Child-Killing Demon. p. 367. ISBN 9789004104068. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help) ISBN 9-789-0041-0406-8
  6. ^ Sophron frag. 9, ed. Kaibel.[5]
  7. ^ a b L.S. (1870), Smith, William (ed.), "Mormo", A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, London: John Murray
  8. ^ a b L.S. (1870), Smith, William (ed.), "Mormo'lyce", A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, London: John Murray: "the same phantom or bugbear as Mormo, and also used for the same purpose".
  9. ^ Stannish & Doran (2013), p. 28.
  10. ^ An empousa, or lamia, she is also called in the work.
  11. ^ Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 4.25, quoted by Ogden (2013a), pp. 106–107
  12. ^ "Mormo", Suda On Line, tr. Richard Rodriguez. 11 June 2009.
  13. ^ "Mombro", Suda On Line, tr. David Whitehead. 27 July 2009.
  14. ^ Ogden (2013b), p. 98.
  15. ^ Scholios to Theocritus Idylls 15.40.[14][1]
  16. ^ Aristophanes. Archanians, 582ff. "Your terrifying armor makes me dizzy. I beg you, take away that Mormo (bogey-monster)!"
  17. ^ Aristophanes. Peace, 474ff. "This is terrible! You are in the way, sitting there. We have no use for your Mormo's (bogy-like) head, friend."
  18. ^ Snyder, Jane McIntosh (1991). The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome. Carbondale: SIU Press. pp. 94–95. ISBN 9780809317066.
  19. ^ Anna Comnena (1969), The Alexiad of Anna Comnena, Sewter, Edgar Robert Ashton (tr.), Penguin Books, p. 61, ISBN 9780140442151
  20. ^ Fontenrose (1959), pp. 116–117.

Bibliography