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.
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Transcription
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 of "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 poetess Erinna, in her poem The Distaff, recall 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]
Popular entertainment
- The Horror at Red Hook by H. P. Lovecraft (1925), describes an inscription to Hecate, Gorgo, and Mormo, found in the raid of Red Hook.
- According to Anton LaVey, in The Satanic Bible, Mormo is the "King of the Ghouls, consort of Hecate".
- Mormo is an evil witch in the 2007 film adaptation of the Neil Gaiman novel Stardust.[a] In the story, she is one of a triune of magically powerful sisters, the others being named Lamia and Empusa. In the book, the characters were not named.[21]
- In the film The God Makers Ed Decker claims Mormons are followers of Mormo.
- "To Switch a Witch", season 3 episode 4 of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, describes a symbol on a gravestone as "the Mark of Mormo, a witch's sign".
Explanatory notes
- ^ Mormo lives with two sisters, Lamia and Empusa in the film.
References
Citations
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Stannish & Doran (2013), p. 118.
- ^ "Lamia & Empusa (empousa)". theoi. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
- ^ Scholios to Aristides (Dindorf, p. 41)[1]
- ^ 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 - ^ Sophron frag. 9, ed. Kaibel.[5]
- ^ a b L.S. (1870), Smith, William (ed.), "Mormo", A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, London: John Murray
- ^ 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".
- ^ Stannish & Doran (2013), p. 28.
- ^ An empousa, or lamia, she is also called in the work.
- ^ Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 4.25, quoted by Ogden (2013a), pp. 106–107
- ^ "Mormo", Suda On Line", tr. Richard Rodriguez. 11 June 2009.
- ^ "Mombro", Suda On Line", tr. David Whitehead. 27 July 2009.
- ^ Ogden (2013b), p. 98.
- ^ Scholios to Theocritus Idylls 15.40.[14][1]
- ^ Aristophanes. Archanians, 582ff. "Your terrifying armor makes me dizzy. I beg you, take away that Mormo (bogey-monster)!"
- ^ 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."
- ^ Snyder, Jane McIntosh (1991). The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome. Carbondale: SIU Press. pp. 94–95. ISBN 9780809317066.
- ^ Anna Comnena (1969), The Alexiad of Anna Comnena, Sewter, Edgar Robert Ashton (tr.), Penguin Books, p. 61, ISBN 9780140442151
- ^ Fontenrose (1959), pp. 116–117.
- ^ "Stardust (novel)", Wikipedia, 2019-01-22, retrieved 2019-01-27
Bibliography
- Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy (1959). Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520040915.
- Ogden, Daniel (2013-02-28). Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199557325. ISBN 0199557322
- Ogden, Daniel (2013-05-30). "10 Lamia, Slain by Eurybatus and Others". Dragons, Serpents, and Slayers in the Classical and Early Christian Worlds: A Sourcebook. Oxford University Press. pp. 99–. ISBN 9780199925117. ISBN 0199323747* Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Mormo"
- Stannish, Steven M.; Doran, Christine M. (2013). "Magic and Vampirism in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana and Bram Stoker's Dracula". Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural. 2 (2): 113–138. doi:10.5325/preternature.2.2.0113. JSTOR 10.5325/preternature.2.2.0113. S2CID 191692706.
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This page was last edited on 13 March 2024, at 07:07