Mormo
Template:Short description Template:For Mormo (Template:Langx, 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 Template:IPAc-en ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}; pl. mormolykeia {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), also spelt mormolyceum Template:IPAc-en ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} mormolukeîon), is considered equivalent.
EtymologyEdit
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".<ref name=johnston/>Template:Sfnp
The variant mormolyce translates to "terrible wolves", with the stem -lykeios meaning "of a wolf".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfnp
DescriptionEdit
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.Template:Refn Mormolyca Template:IPAc-en (as the name appears in Doric Greek: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) is designated as the wetnurse (Template:Langx) of Acheron by Sophron (Template:Floruit 430 BC).Template:Refn
Mormo or Moromolyce has been described as a female specter, phantom, or ghost by modern commentators.<ref name=dict-grbm/><ref name=dict-grbm-mormolyce/>Template:Sfnp A mormolyce is one of several names given to the female phasma (phantom) in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana.Template:Refn<ref>Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 4.25, quoted by Template:Harvp</ref>
Mormo is glossed as equivalent to Lamia and mormolykeion, considered to be frightening beings, in the Suda, a lexicon of the Byzantine Periods.<ref name=suda-mormo>"Template:Plain link", Suda On Line, tr. Richard Rodriguez. 11 June 2009.</ref> Mombro ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) or Mormo are a bugbear ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} phóbētron), the Suda also says.<ref name=suda-mobro>"Template:Plain link", Suda On Line, tr. David Whitehead. 27 July 2009.</ref>
"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.Template:Refn
BugbearEdit
The name "Mormo" or the synonymous "Mormolyceion" was used by the Greeks as a bugbear or bogey word to frighten children.<ref name=dict-grbm/><ref name=dict-grbm-mormolyce/>
Some of its instances are found in Aristophanes.<ref>Aristophanes. Archanians, 582ff. "Your terrifying armor makes me dizzy. I beg you, take away that Mormo (bogey-monster)!"</ref><ref>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."</ref> The poet Erinna, in her poem The Distaff, recalls how her and her friend Baucis feared Mormo as children.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Mormo as an object of fear for infants was even recorded in the Alexiad written by a Byzantine princess around the First Crusade.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
Modern interpretationsEdit
A mormo or a lamia may also be associated with the empusa, a phantom sent by the goddess Hekate.Template:Sfnp