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Mormo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 /mɔːrˈmɒlɪˌs/ (μορμολύκη; pl. mormolykeia μορμολύκεια), also spelt mormolyceum /mɔːrˌmɒlɪˈsəm/ (μορμολυκεῖον mormolukeîon), is considered equivalent.

Etymology

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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

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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

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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

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

References

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Citations

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  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

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