Mormo
mythical character
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 (μορμολύκη; pl. mormolykeia μορμολύκεια), also spelt mormolyceum (μορμολυκεῖον 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".
The variant mormolyce translates to "terrible wolves", with the stem -lykeios meaning "of a wolf".
Description
The original Mormo was a woman of Corinth, who ate her children then flew away, according to an account only attested in a single source. Mormolyca (as the name appears in Doric Greek: μορμολύκα) is designated as the wetnurse (Greek: τιθήνη) of Acheron by Sophron (fl. 430 BC).
Mormo or Moromolyce has been described as a female specter, phantom, or ghost by modern commentators. A mormolyce is one of several names given to the female phasma (phantom) in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana.
The public source identifies “Mormo” as mythical character. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mormo, mythical and character.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Mormo”, the useful work is to connect “mythical character” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q528869. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Mormo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.