Mormo
Encyclopedia
In Greek mythology
, Mormo was a spirit
who bit bad children, said to have been a companion of the goddess Hecate
. The name was also used to signify a female vampire
-like creature in stories told to Greek children by their nurses to keep them from misbehaving. This reference is primarily found in some of the plays of Aristophanes
. He is also referenced in The Alexiad, which goes to show that Mormo was still taught to children during Byzantine
times.
" by H. P. Lovecraft
, 1925, describes an inscription to Hecate
, Gorgo
, and Mormo, found in the raid of Red Hook.
Joanna Scanlan
plays a character called Mormo in the 2007 movie
Stardust, which is based on a novel by Neil Gaiman
. In this movie, Mormo is an evil witch who lives with her sisters Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer
) and Empusa
(Sarah Alexander
), all three of whom wish to devour the heart
of an anthropomorphic
star
named Yvaine so as to regain their youth
. When Mormo is dueling Tristan (Charlie Cox
) toward the end of the movie, he opens a cage
of ferret
s, used for sacrifice. These animals attack Mormo, distracting her while Tristran slashes open another cage, this time full of sacrificing wolves, who maul her to death out of revenge for killing their friends and relatives.
The name of Mormo has also been used by a relatively popular role-playing video game
called, "Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
" for the PSP
. The character, Mormo, is a "flying cat" who hails from the world of Yaoon and moved to Terresia to defeat the Devourer, a monster who destroyed his world and countless others for the creation of a superior one and has Terresia as his next target. Mormo is the one who helps the main character (the player) defeat the Devourer and other minor villains in the game, although he does no fighting himself.
James Cuomo, an American
musician, composed a dance suite, "Warraguk, a Flying Mormo" in the late 1960s
, with his sister Deborah as the winged Warraguk. This particular Australian mythology
also spawned Cuomo's eclectic Paris
-based band, "Mormos", originally "The Misty Mountain Mormos." This earlier group was composed of pit musicians from New York
's La MaMa Theater
, which Cuomo music-directed. While touring Europe
with La MaMa, Cuomo landed a recording contract with CBS France, left the troupe in 1971 and settled in Paris with several members of the original Misty Mountain Mormos — Sandy Spencer (cellist
) and Tobia Taylor (balalaika
). He later recruited vocalist
Annie (the Hat) Williams, flautist
Rick (Ernest) Mansfield and guitar
ist Elliott Delman from the U.S. Mormos lived in Paris from 1971–1973, performing throughout France, Belgium
, Switzerland
, the Netherlands
, Romania
, and England.
According to Anton LaVey
, in The Satanic Bible
, Mormo is the "King of the Ghoul
s, consort
of Hecate
."
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, Mormo was a spirit
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
who bit bad children, said to have been a companion of the goddess Hecate
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
. The name was also used to signify a female vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
-like creature in stories told to Greek children by their nurses to keep them from misbehaving. This reference is primarily found in some of the plays of Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
. He is also referenced in The Alexiad, which goes to show that Mormo was still taught to children during Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
times.
Modern references
"The Horror at Red HookThe Horror at Red Hook
"The Horror at Red Hook" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft. Written on August 1–2, 1925, it was first published in the January 1927 issue of Weird Tales.-Inspiration:...
" by H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
, 1925, describes an inscription to Hecate
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
, Gorgo
Gorgo
Gorgo is a 1961 British Giant monster movie. Directed by Eugène Lourié, it tells the story of an underwater monster's capture off the coast of Ireland. The monster is taken to London to be featured as a circus attraction. The film borrows elements from other monster movies, such as Godzilla and...
, and Mormo, found in the raid of Red Hook.
Joanna Scanlan
Joanna Scanlan
Joanna Scanlan is a Welsh actress and television writer, best known for her roles in various British comedy series, such as The Thick of It, Doctors and Nurses, Getting On and Little Britain.-Getting On:...
plays a character called Mormo in the 2007 movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
Stardust, which is based on a novel by Neil Gaiman
Stardust (novel)
Stardust is the first solo prose novel by Neil Gaiman. It is usually published as a novel with illustrations by Charles Vess. Stardust has a different tone and style from most of Gaiman's prose fiction, being consciously written in the tradition of pre-Tolkien English fantasy, following in the...
. In this movie, Mormo is an evil witch who lives with her sisters Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
) and Empusa
Empusa
Empusa is a demigoddess of Greek mythology. In later incarnations she appeared as a species of monsters commanded by Hecate ....
(Sarah Alexander
Sarah Alexander
Sarah Alexander is an English actress, known for her roles in various British comedy series such as Armstrong and Miller, Smack the Pony, Coupling, The Worst Week of My Life and Green Wing....
), all three of whom wish to devour the heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
of an anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
named Yvaine so as to regain their youth
Youth
Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood . Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary. An individual's actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals could exist at all ages.-Usage:Around the world, the terms "youth",...
. When Mormo is dueling Tristan (Charlie Cox
Charlie Cox
Charlie Cox is an English actor.-Life and career:Cox, the youngest of five children, was born in London, England and raised in East Sussex, the son of Trisha and Andrew, who is a publisher...
) toward the end of the movie, he opens a cage
Cage (enclosure)
A cage is an enclosure made of mesh, bars or wires, used to confine, contain or protect something or someone. A cage can serve many purposes, including keeping an animal in captivity, capturing, and being used for display of an animal at a zoo.-History:...
of ferret
Ferret
The ferret is a domesticated mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur...
s, used for sacrifice. These animals attack Mormo, distracting her while Tristran slashes open another cage, this time full of sacrificing wolves, who maul her to death out of revenge for killing their friends and relatives.
The name of Mormo has also been used by a relatively popular role-playing video game
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
called, "Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
is a spin-off of the Tales action role-playing game series for the PlayStation Portable. Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology's characteristic genre name is . Like some of the previous games that bear Tales of the World in their title, this game is a crossover title featuring characters from...
" for the PSP
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
. The character, Mormo, is a "flying cat" who hails from the world of Yaoon and moved to Terresia to defeat the Devourer, a monster who destroyed his world and countless others for the creation of a superior one and has Terresia as his next target. Mormo is the one who helps the main character (the player) defeat the Devourer and other minor villains in the game, although he does no fighting himself.
James Cuomo, an American
People of the United States
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
musician, composed a dance suite, "Warraguk, a Flying Mormo" in the late 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
, with his sister Deborah as the winged Warraguk. This particular Australian mythology
Australian Aboriginal mythology
Australian Aboriginal myths are the stories traditionally performed by Aboriginal peoples within each of the language groups across Australia....
also spawned Cuomo's eclectic Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
-based band, "Mormos", originally "The Misty Mountain Mormos." This earlier group was composed of pit musicians from New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's La MaMa Theater
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is an off-off Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, and named in reference to her. Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the theatre grew out of Stewart's tiny basement boutique for her fashion designs; the boutique's space acted as a theatre for...
, which Cuomo music-directed. While touring Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
with La MaMa, Cuomo landed a recording contract with CBS France, left the troupe in 1971 and settled in Paris with several members of the original Misty Mountain Mormos — Sandy Spencer (cellist
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
) and Tobia Taylor (balalaika
Balalaika
The balalaika is a stringed musical instrument popular in Russia, with a characteristic triangular body and three strings.The balalaika family of instruments includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest, the prima balalaika, secunda balalaika, alto balalaika, bass...
). He later recruited vocalist
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
Annie (the Hat) Williams, flautist
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
Rick (Ernest) Mansfield and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Elliott Delman from the U.S. Mormos lived in Paris from 1971–1973, performing throughout France, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, and England.
According to Anton LaVey
Anton LaVey
Anton Szandor LaVey , born Howard Stanton Levey, was the founder of the Church of Satan as well as a writer, occultist, and musician...
, in The Satanic Bible
The Satanic Bible
The Satanic Bible is a collection of essays, observations, and rituals published by Anton LaVey in 1969. It contains the core principles of LaVeyan Satanism, and is considered the foundation of its philosophy and dogma. It has been described as the most important document to influence contemporary...
, Mormo is the "King of the Ghoul
Ghoul
A ghoul is a folkloric monster associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh, often classified as undead. The oldest surviving literature that mention ghouls is likely One Thousand and One Nights...
s, consort
Consort
Consort may refer to:Titles:* Queen consort, wife of a reigning king* Prince consort, husband of a reigning queen* King consort, rarely used alternative title for husband of a reigning queen...
of Hecate
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
."