Mormo
A female spirit invoked to frighten misbehaving children.
Mormo (Greek: Μορμώ, Mormō) was a female spirit in Greek folklore, used by mothers and nurses as a threat to keep children from misbehaving. The name is also written as mormolyce (μορμολύκη; plural mormolykeia) or mormolyceum (μορμολυκεῖον), and these terms are considered interchangeable.
The word *mormo* has a plural form, *mormones*, meaning "fearful ones" or "hideous one(s)," and is related to several words for "fright." The variant *mormolyce* translates to "terrible wolves," with the stem *-lykeios* meaning "of a wolf."
According to a single surviving account, the original Mormo was a woman from Corinth who ate her own children and then flew away. In Doric Greek, the name appears as *mormolyca* (μορμολύκα), and the writer Sophron (active around 430 BC) identified her as the wetnurse of Acheron. Modern commentators describe Mormo or Mormolyce as a female specter, phantom, or ghost. In Philostratus's *Life of Apollonius of Tyana*, a *mormolyce* is one of the names given to a female phantom (*phasma*). The Byzantine lexicon *Suda* equates Mormo with Lamia and *mormolykeion*, calling them frightening beings. The *Suda* also states that *Mombro* (Μομβρώ) or Mormo is a bugbear (*phóbētron*). One scholiast adds that "Mormo" and "Gello" were aliases for Lamia, and that she was also queen of the Laestrygonians, a race of man-eating giants.
The name "Mormo" or its synonym "Mormolyceion" was used by the Greeks as a bogey word to frighten children. Examples appear in the plays of Aristophanes. The poet Erinna, in her poem *The Distaff*, recalls how she and her friend Baucis feared Mormo as children. The use of Mormo as an object of fear for infants was still recorded in the *Alexiad*, written by a Byzantine princess around the time of the First Crusade.
In modern interpretations, a mormo or a lamia may also be linked to the empusa, a phantom sent by the goddess Hekate.
- Field
- Greek folklore
- Known for
- Female spirit used to frighten children; associated with Lamia and empusa
- Nationality
- Greek
- Also called
- Mormolyce, Mormolyceum, Mombro
Lore & Background
According to a single attested source, the original Mormo was a woman of Corinth who ate her children then flew away. In Doric Greek, Mormolyca is designated as the wetnurse of Acheron by Sophron (fl. 430 BC). Modern commentators have described Mormo or Mormolyce as a female specter, phantom, or ghost; in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana, a mormolyce is one of several names given to a female phasma (phantom).
Reader's Guide
Mormo's significance lies in her role as a cultural bogey used by Greek mothers and nurses to discipline children, a function recorded as early as the poet Erinna's The Distaff and as late as the Byzantine princess's Alexiad. The Suda glosses Mormo as equivalent to Lamia and mormolykeion, frightening beings, and also calls Mombro or Mormo a bugbear (φόβητρον). A scholiast further equates Mormo and Gello as aliases for Lamia, whom he also claimed was queen of the man-eating Laestrygonians. In modern interpretation, a mormo or lamia may be associated with the empusa, a phantom sent by the goddess Hekate. The name's etymology—with plural mormones meaning 'fearful ones' or 'hideous one(s)' and mormolyce translating to 'terrible wolves'—underscores its function as a tool of fear.
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