Chapter XLVII: Appendix: VI

HEKATE AND THE ~Hekatika\ pha/smata~, GORGYRA, GORGO, MORMOLYKE, MORMO, BAUBO, GELLO, EMPOUSA, ETC.

Hekate herself is addressed as ~Gorgô\ kai\ Mormô\ kai\ Mê/nê kai\ polu/morphe~: _Hymn._ ap. Hipp., _RH._ iv, 35, p. 102, 67 D.-S. Sch. A.R. {591} iii, 861, says of Hek. ~le/getai kai\ _pha/smata_ epipe/mpein~ (cf. Eur., _Hel._ 569; D. Chr. iv, p. 73 M. [i, p. 70 Arn.]; Hsch. ~antai/a), ta\ kalou/mena _Heka/taia_ (pha/smata Hekatika/~, Marin., _V. Procl_. 28) ~kai\ polla/kis _autê\ metaba/llein to\ ei=dos_ dio\ kai\ _E/mpousan_ kalei=sthai~. Hekate-Empousa also in Ar. _Tagen. fr._ 500-1: Sch. Ar., _Ran_, 293; Hesych. ~E/mpousa~. Thus Hekate is the same as Gorgo, Mormo, and Empousa. Baubo also is one of her names: _H. Mag._, p. 289 Abel. (Baubo probably identical with the _~Babô/~_ mentioned among other ~chtho/nioi~ in an inscr. from Paros: ~Athê/naion~, v, 15; cf. the male personal names ~Babô/, Babei/s~. ~Baubô/~ can hardly be etymologically connected with ~baubô/n~ unpleasantly familiar in Herond. (though the mistake has been repeated in Roscher, _Myth. Lex._ ii, 3025); one does not see how a female daimon could be named after a male _~o/lisbos~_. The nature of Hekate makes its more probable that she got her name from _~bau/~_ the noise of the baying hound: cf. ~bauku/ôn~, _P. Mag. Par._ 1911.) Baubo, too, is elsewhere the name of a gigantic nocturnal spectre: Orph. _fr._ 216 Ab.; Lob., _Agl._ 823.--Elsewhere these ~epiklê/seis~, or forms in which Hekate, Gorgo, Mormo, etc., appear, are found as the names of separate infernal spirits. ~_Gorgu/ra_; Ache/rontos gunê/~ Apollod. ~p. theô=n~ ap. Stob., _Ecl._ i, 49, p. 419, 15 W.; cf. [Apollod.] 1, 5, 3. ~Gorgô/~ is probably only the shortened form of this daimon (she is alluded to as an inhabitant of Hades as early as _Od._ ~l~ 634; in the ~kata/basis~ of Herakles [Apollod.] 2, 5, 12; ~chthoni/a Gorgô/~, Eur., _Ion_, 1053). Acheron, whose consort she is, must have been regarded as the lord of the underworld. We also hear of a mother of the underworld god: in Aesch., _Ag._ 1235, Kassandra calls Klytaimnestra _~thu/ousan Ha/idou mête/ra~_. In this very striking phrase it is impossible to take ~ha/|dou~ in its generalized sense (as Lob. does: _Aj._^3, p. 292), and the whole phrase as merely metaphorical = ~ainomê/tora~. Why ~mête/ra~ in particular? And, above all, what would be the point of ~thu/ousan~? Klytaimnestra, of course, it goes without saying, is only metaphorically called the "raging mother of Hades", i.e. a true she-devil; but the thing with which she is compared, from which the metaphor is taken, must have been a real figure of legend. In exactly the same way, in Byz. Greek, _~tô=n daimo/nôn mê/têr~_ is a figurative expression for a wicked woman: see ~Kalli/m. kai\ Chrusorro/ê~ 2579 ed. Lambros; cf. ib., 1306, ~tô=n Nêrêi/dôn ma/mmê~. In German too "the **devil's mother", or grandmother, or the devil's wife or bride, are of frequent occurrence in a metaphorical sense: Grimm, p. 1007; 1607. But in all these cases the comparison invariably implies the existence of real legendary figures to which the comparison refers: and often enough in mediæval and modern Greek folk-lore these creatures actually occur. We may therefore conclude that the ~thu/ousa Ha/idou mê/têr~ was a real figure of Greek legend. "Hades" in this connexion cannot be the god of the underworld, common in Homer and a regular poetic character elsewhere, the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. In that case his mother would be Rhea who certainly cannot be identified with the ~thu/ousa Ha/idou mê/têr~. In local mythology there were numerous other underworld {592} gods any of whom might be loosely called ~Ha/idês~, the word being used as a general name for such deities. But the "raging" mother of the underworld god has the most unmistakable resemblance to Hekate who flies about by night on the wind (see above, chap. ix, p. 297 f.; below, App. vii) ~psuchai=s neku/ôn me/ta bakcheu/ousa~ (Reiss, _Rh. Mus._ 49, 181 n., compares her less well with the "huntsman of Hades"). It seems almost as if the two were identical: local legend could quite well have made Hekate the mother of the underworld god (just as she was the daughter of Admetos, or of Eubouleus, i.e. of Hades). If she is the same as ~Mormô/~ (cf. the _Hymn._ ap. Hipp., _RH._ iv, 35) then she was also known to folk-lore as the foster-mother of Acheron. This title is applied to ~_Mormolu/ka_; tithê/nê~ of Acheron in Sophron _fr._ 9 Kaibel. But _~Mormô/~_ is simply the abbreviated form of ~Mormolu/kê~ as ~Gorgô/~ is of ~Gorgu/ra~, and cf. also ~Mommô/~ Hsch., and with metathesis of ~r~, ~Mombrô/~ id. (~Mormol.~ is mentioned together with ~Lamia/, Gorgô/, Ephia/ltês~ as a legendary creature in Str., p. 19, and see Ruhnken, _Tim. Lex._, p. 179 ff., ~Mormolu/keion~.) ~Mormô/~ also in plural: ~hô/sper mormo/nas paida/ria (phobou=ntai)~, Xen., _HG._ 4, 4, 17; Hsch. ~mormo/nas; pla/nêtas dai/monas~ (i.e. "wandering", as in Hesiod, and like the Erinyes in the Pythagorean ~su/mbolon~, and the ~ala/stôr~, the unquiet and wandering soul whose name is derived from ~ala=sthai~--so Lob., _Paralip._ 450). Besides this we have ~Heka/tas~ too in the plural: Luc., _Philops._ 39 fin. (perhaps only generalizing); ~trissô=n Hekatô=n~, _P. Mag. Par._ 2825 f.; ~E/mpousai~ (with ~a/lla ei/dôla~), D.P. 725, etc., to say nothing of ~Gorgo/nes~. ~Mormô/~ as a bogey to frighten children: ~Mormô\ da/knei~, Theoc. xv, 40 (cf. ~[ana/]klêsis Mormo[u=s]~, a theatrical piece, probably a farce: _IGM. Aeg._ i, 125g). So too is the monster ~_La/mia_~ that kidnaps children: Duris, _fr._ 35 (2 _FHG_); D.S. 20, 41; Heraclit., _Incred._ 34, etc. Some details in Friedländer, _Darstell. a. d. Sitteng._^4, i, 511 f. (as a nickname ~Lamô/~: Sch. Ar., _Eq._ 62). Mormo herself is called Lamia, ~Mormou=s tê=s kai\ Lami/as~, Sch. Greg. Nz. ap. Ruhnken, _Tim. Lex._, p. 182a. With Mormo and Lamia ~_Gellô/_~ is also identified (Sch. Theoc. xv, 40), a ghost that kidnaps children mentioned already by Sappho, _fr._ 44; Zenob. iii, 3, etc. _~Karkô/~_, too, is the same as ~La/mia~ (Hesych.). Lamia is evidently the general name (see above, chap. iv, n. 115), while Mormo, Gello, Karko, and even Empousa, are particular Lamiai, who also merge into one another. Just as Mormo and Gello coincide, so also do Gello and Empousa: ~_Gellô\_ ei/dôlon Empou/sês~, Hsch. (Empousai, Lamiai, and Mormolykai the same: Philostr., _V. Ap._ 4, 25, p. 145, 16 K.). Empousa, who appears in continually changing shapes (Ar., _Ran._ 289 ff.), is seen by human beings at night (~nukterino\n pha/sma hê E/mpousa~, _V. Aeschin._ init.; Philostr. _V. Ap._ 2, 4), but even more commonly at midday (like the Hekate of Lucian): ~mesêmbri/as ho/tan toi=s katoichome/nois enagi/zôsin~, Sch. Ar., _Ran._ 293. She is, in fact, the _daemonium meridianum_ known to Christian writers as Diana (Lob., _Agl._ 1092; Grimm, 1162). For devils appearing at midday see Rochholz, _Glaube u. Br._, i, 67 ff.; Mannhardt, _Ant._ {593} _Wald u. Feldc._ ii, 135 f.; Haberland, _Ztschr. Völkerpsych._ xiii, 310 ff.; Drexler in _Myth. Lex._ ii, 2832 ff; Grimm, 1661. Hekate, in so far as she appears as an ~ei/dôlon~ in the upper world is identical with Emp. and with Borbo, Gorgo, Mormo, as well as Gello, Karko, Lamia. (Acc. to Sch. A.R. iv, 828 Stesichoros, ~en tê=| Sku/llê| _ei/dous_ [Eidou=s~ Bergk on Stes. _fr._ 13 quite unconvincingly] ~_tino\s Lami/as_ tê\n Sku/llan phêsi\ thugate/ra ei=nai~. Here Hek. herself seems to be described as "a kind of Lamia", for she was generally regarded as the mother of Skylla, e.g. by Akousilaos [73 B, 27 _Vors._], in the Hesiodic _Eoiai_, 172 Rz. [Sch. A.R.], and even in A.R. himself who in iv, 829, explains the Homeric Krataiis [~m~ 124] as merely a name of Hekate.)--The vagueness of feature and confusion of personality is characteristic of these ghostly and delusive apparitions. In reality the individual names (in some cases onomatopoeic formations to suggest terror) were originally the titles of local ghosts. In the long run they all come to suggest the same general idea and are therefore confused with each other and are identified with the best known of them, Hekate. The underworld and the realm of ghosts is the proper home of these feminine daimones as a whole and of Hekate too; most of them, with the possible exception of Empousa, give way entirely to Hekate in importance and are relegated to children's fairy-tales. In the case of Gorgyra (Gorgo) and Mormolyke (Mormo) this fact is clearly attested. Lamia and Gello carry off children and also ~aô/rous~ from this life, like other daimones of the underworld, Keres, Harpies, Erinyes, and Thanatos himself. The Lamiai rise to the light from their underground lairs--~_lami/as_ tina\s historou=ntes~ (the oldest writers of histories) ~en hu/lais kai\ na/pais _ek gê=s anieme/nas_~, D.H., _Thuc._ 6. Empousa appears on earth at midday because that was the time when sacrifice was offered to the dead (Sch. Ar., _Ran._ 293; sacrifice to Heroes at midday: above, chap. iv, n. 9). She approaches the offerings to the creatures of the lower world because she herself is one of their number. (In the same way the chthonic character of the _Seirenes_--they are closely related to the Harpies--is shown by the fact that they too appear like Empousa at midday and oppress sleepers, etc., according to the popular demonology. See Crusius, _Philol._ 50, 97 ff.)