Lamia plays an important part in modern Greek nursery tales, where she is portrayed as a monster, hideous and deformed, hungry for human flesh, partaking of the nature of the Harpy, the Gorgon, and the Empusa.[[234]] Belief in her is so common in Greece that Wachsmuth says when a child dies suddenly they say: τὸ παιδὶ τὸ ἔπνιξε ἡ Λάμια.[[235]]
With Lamia, Strabo groups: Γοργὼ καὶ ὁ Ἐφιάλτης καὶ ἡ Μορμολύκη.[[236]] That the hideous aspect of the Gorgon was used as a bugbear, may be gathered from Aristophanes, Acharnians, 582, where Lammachus is bidden to take away his shield which has the Gorgon for a device: ἀπένεγκε μου τὴν μορμόνα. As if the speaker said: “Take away the representation of the Gorgon which strikes terror into me, as μορμώ does into children.” Mormolyke is called the nurse of Acheron, husband of Gorgyce by Sophron.[[237]] The significance of the name is derived from μορμολύκεια, the general term for “bogey” of which Plato, speaking of the fear of death, says: μὴ δεδιέναι τὸν θάνατον, ὥσπερ τὰ μορμολύκεια.[[238]]
To the apotropaic nursery tales belong also the stories of Acco and Alphito which are classed together by Plutarch: τῆς Ἀκκοῦς καὶ τῆς Ἀλφιτοῦς δ’ ὦν τὰ παιδάρια τοῦ κακοσχολεῖν αἱ γυναῖκες ἀνείργουσιν.[[239]] According to Hesychius the word Acco is etymologically connected with ἀσκός and ἀκκόρ, so that by Acco was originally meant a bugbear which carried off naughty children in a bag. In a similar manner Alphito, from ἄλφιτα is explained.
Another favorite of the nurses was Gello: δαίμων ἣν γυναῖκες τὰ νεογνὰ παιδία φασὶν ἁρπάζειν. (Hesychius.) Zenobius, iii, 3, explaining the proverb, Γελλὼ παιδοφιλωτέρα, says of her: Γελλὼ γάρ τις ἦν παρθένος, καὶ ἐπειδὴ ἀώρως ἐτελεύτησε, φασὶν οἱ Λέσβιοι αὐτῆς τὸ φάντασμα ἐπιφοιτᾶν ἐπὶ τὰ παιδία, καὶ τοὺς τῶν ἀώρων θανάτους αὐτῇ ἀνατιθέασι. Μέμνηται ταύτης Σαπφώ.[[240]] Hesychius also styles her εἴδωλον Ἐμπούσης. The Empusa here referred to is placed in the same category with Lamia and Mormolyke: ἡ χρηστὴ νύμφη μία τῶν Ἐμπουσῶν ἐστιν, ἃς Λαμίας τε καὶ μορμολοκίας οἱ πολλοὶ ἡγοῦνται.[[241]] She possessed the property of assuming any form she pleased: “For they were travelling by a bright moonlight when the figure of an empusa or hobgoblin appeared to them that changed from one form into another until finally it vanished into nothing.”[[242]] According to the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, iii, 860, Hecate often sends out ghosts, the so-called Ἑκαταῖρα and often changes her form, wherefore she is called Empusa. Aeschines’ mother acquired the nickname Empusa ἐκ τοῦ πάντα ποιεῖν,[[243]] according to the Scholiast πάντα τὰ αἰσχρὰ καὶ ἀνόσια.
Another bogey was the Strigla, the Roman Strix (Mod. Greek στρίγλαις), of which mention is made in a fragment of an ancient nursery song:
Στρίγγ’ ἀποπομπεῖν νυκτιβόαν, στρίγγ’ ἀπὸ λαῶν,
ὄρνιν ἀνωνυμίαν ὠκυπόρους ἐπὶ νῆας.[[244]]
The wolf had also its place in this literature, since its name was used in the same manner as the bugbears mentioned above:
Ἄγροικος ἠπείλησε νηπίῳ τίτθη
κλαίοντι ‘Παῦσι· μή σε τῷ λύκῳ ῥίψω.’[[245]]