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 (Template:Lang; pl. mormolykeia Template:Lang), also spelt mormolyceum Template:IPAc-en (Template:Lang 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".<ref name=johnston/>Template:Sfnp
The variant mormolyce translates to "terrible wolves", with the stem -lykeios meaning "of a wolf".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfnp
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.Template:Refn Mormolyca Template:IPAc-en (as the name appears in Doric Greek: Template: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 (Template:Lang) or Mormo are a bugbear (Template: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
Bugbear
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 interpretations
A mormo or a lamia may also be associated with the empusa, a phantom sent by the goddess Hekate.Template:Sfnp