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Gello (), in Greek mythology, is a female demon or revenant who threatens the reproductive cycle by causing infertility, miscarriage, and infant mortality. By the Byzantine Empire, the (γελλούδες) were considered a class of beings. Women believed to be under demonic possession by gelloudes might stand trial or be subjected to exorcism.
Gyllou, Gylou, Gillo, or Gelu are some of its alternate forms.
Greek folk etymology links the word to the root gel-, "grin, laugh," in the sense of mocking or grimacing, like the expression often found on gorgoneion, to which Barb linked demons exercising a malign influence on reproduction., "Antaura," passim, and Burkert (1992), p. 82 ("evil grinning"). Such demons are often associated with or said to come from the sea, and demonologies identify Gyllou with Abyzou, whose name is related to abyssos, the abyss or "deep."For Barb's etymology of Abyzou and the connection to the primeval sea, see .
The lexicography Hesychius of Alexandria, who wrote in the fifth or sixth century but drew from earlier lexicons, glossed gello as a ghost () who attacked both virgins and newborn babies.
Since the Early Middle Ages, Gello has often been conflated with Lamia and Mormo, two similar mythological figures. Each originated as a single individual woman (with her own origin myth or aition) in Ancient Greece, but later developed into a type of frightening apparition or demon.
The polymath Michael Psellos of the 11th century inherited the notion that the stryngai and gelloudes were "interchangeable". He described them as beings that "suck blood and devour all the vital fluids which are in the little infant". Psellus documents a widened scope of the Gello's victims in the beliefs of the 11th century. Gello were being held responsible for the deaths of pregnant women and their as well.Michael Psellos in Leo Allatius, De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinationibus epistola (1643), § 3, cited by : "The Byzantine scholar Michael Psellus reports that in his day, Gello was credited with killing pregnant women and/or their fetuses as well as infants (ap. Leo Ailatius.. ". Gello (or Gillo) was also blamed for the condition of newborn infants who Wasting, and such infants were called Gillobrota (Γιλλόβρωτα), according to Psellus., citing Michael Psellus.Michael Psellos, Philosophica minora, O'Meara, D., ed. (1989), vol. 1, p. 164, lines 1–20, cited by
Psellus sought in vain for Ancient Greek sources of these beliefs, and formulated the theory that the gello derived from the Hebrew Lilith. Psellus further stated that the name "Gillo" could not be discovered in his usual sources for demonic names in antiquity, but were to be found in an esoteric or "occult" (ἀπόκρυφος) Hebrew book ascribed to Solomon. Later, the 17th-century Greek Catholic scholar Leo Allatius would criticize Psellos's confounding of the gello and Lilith.
The 14th-century Greek ecclesiastical historian Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos still told of gelloudes that "bring the infant from the bedroom, as if about to devour him."Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos, Ecclesiasticae historiae, in PG 147, cols. 345–348, as cited by .
The strix could be regarded an "unclean spirit" ( akátharton pneuma) subject to demonic excorcism, according to an exorcism text recorded by 17th century writer Allatius.Leo Allatius, second text of gello exorcism, cited by . Cf. p. 39 A woman could also be regarded as being a gello by the populace, but the charges were dismissed in an ecclesiastical trial . The orthodox theology of the Church, expounded by Psellos or Ignatius, held that a woman's nature precluded her from turning into a demon, since a demon was officially considered sexless., pp. 88 and 91ff. Johnston prefers to use the Greek word aōros or aōrē, "untimely dead" for this form of transgressive or liminality soul or entity, finding the usual phrase "child-killing demon" to be misleading.
Equating gelloudes with the stringai, which occurred by the seventh to eighth century with John of Damascus as already noted, still continued in the times of the 17th century Leo Allatius who said that Striges (in the sense of "witches") was also called Gellones (Latinized form) according to popular belief.Allatius, quoted in translation in Allatius also recorded many variant forms, such as gelu, gello, gillo (in the singular).Leo Allatius, De opinationibus, III, p. 116, cited by Leo Allatius wrote that the people who were his contemporaries in Greece were already entrenched in the belief that these witches were generally old crones who contracted with the devil.Leo Allatius, De opinationibus, II, p. 115, quoted in translation by This, it has been argued, was a transplantation of the image of witch of Western Europe onto the Greek idea of gelloudes.
Leo Allatius in the 17th century would criticize such remnants of sorcery such as these charms, or the hanging of red coral or a head of garlic, and prescribed strictly Christian prophylactics, such as a Christian cross or image of Christ placed by a child's bed to ward off Gello or demons in general, or burning oil lamp to illuminate sacred images. The practice of baptism infants was thought to offer protection against demon-snatching, and specifically against the gello, according to Leo Allatius.
Numerous early Byzantine amulets (6th to 7th century and Appendix II. label its demon as "Abyzou" identifiable with Obyzouth, a demon that strangles newborns according to the 1st to 3rd century Greek text called the Testament of Solomon. This Abyzou (Obyzouth) has been equated with the Gello (Gyllou), albeit in later literature, for example, the writings of Michael Psellos of the 11th century.: "The two demons gello and Obyzouth were identified.. by Michael Psellos. More recently, Greenfield's analysis of the gello′s names has suggested that Obyzouth is a form of Abyzou".
Some Byzantine amulets also invoke the name of Saint Sisinnios, who is known foremost as the vanquisher of Gello., 193, note 91 . Again, the textual evidence that connect Sissinios to Gylou are from much later dates, the oldest version of the "Melitine charm" or Legend of St. Sisinnios dating to the 15th century., citing
A concrete example is the Schlumberger No. 1 amulet shown on the right. Several scholars have hinted that the she-demon here, which has been noticed to have fish- or serpent-like attributes below the waist, may refer to Gello-Gyllou. The demon is being stabbed with a lance by a mounted figure (sometimes called the "holy rider" or "rider saint") which may be St. Sisinnios or Solomon. The inscription reads "Flee, detested one, Solomon, Sisinnios and Sisinnarios pursue you".
The same amulet has a second side, which depicts an eye as "Envy" ( phthonos, φθόνος), attacked by weapons and animals.
One of the commentator has specifically connect the Evil Eye of Envy with the Gylou,: "The Evil Eye of Envy, generally related to the curse that the demon Gylou cast upon her victims. while the others connect it more vaguely to the child-stealing demon or say that the beings labeled "Envy" are the ghost-demons (''aōrē'').
In the 15th century manuscript version, the tale is set in the time of "Trajan the King". After losing six children to the Gyllou, Melitene gives birth to a seventh child inside a fortification she built at (a part of the Constantinople). When her brothers, Sisinnios, Sines, and Sinodoros demand admittance, the "filthy" Gyllou gains entry by transforming into a fly clinging to the horse, and kills the child. The saints pray and an angel appears who instructs them to pursue the Gyllou to Lebanon. The Saints compel the demon to bring back to life all of Melitene's children, which the demon accomplishes after obtaining the mother's milk from Melitene. The saints continue to beat Gyllou, who begs mercy in return for revealing that she could be kept away with a charm inscribed with the names of the saints and with all of her different names. Then she proceeds to divulge her "twelve and a half names" (although what is meant by a "half name" is unclear):
A different version of this story was given by Leo Allatius in the 17th century.
In the aforementioned Leo Allatius version of the Legend of St. Sisinnos, the twelve-and-a-half names are given as Gylo, Morrha, Abyzou, Marmaro, Petasia, Pelagia, Bordona, Apleto, Chomodracaena, Anabardalaea, Psychoanaspastria, Paedopniktria, and Strigla. Although magic words ( voces magicae) have often been corrupted in transmission or deliberately exoticized, several of these names suggest recognizable Greek elements and can be deciphered as functional epithets: Petasia, "she who strikes"; Apleto, "boundless, limitless"; Paedopniktria, "child suffocator." Byzo is a form of Abyzou, abyssos, "the Deep," to which Pelagia ("she of the sea") is equivalent.
The names of Gylo also include Chomodracaena, containing drakaina, "female dragon." In one text dealing with the gello, she is banished to the mountains to drink the blood of the drako; in another, she becomes a drako and in this form attacks human beings. In other texts, the child itself is addressed as Abouzin (Abyzou)., especially for citations on the drako.
Although the name Gylou is not found on any surviving amulets, Michael is the adversary Gylou encounters most often in medieval Byzantine texts., p. 37, note 67; there may be a discrepancy between this assertion and Johnston's claim that Sisinnius is the regular adversary of Gello.
The earliest examples, dating to the 5th or 6th century are the Aramaic language versions of the historiola found as long epigraphy on objects: a silver lamella (metal-leaf sheet) from Palestine AMB, Amulet 15 and two . AMB, Bowl 12a, Jewish National and University Library 4° 6079 and 12b, Metropolitan Museum, No. 86.11.259. In these Aramaic examples, the demon bears the name Sdrws (or Sideros, which in Greek would mean "iron"), and the female victim whose twelve sons are taken is called Smamit ("lizard" or "spider"). This reading is considered to be corroborated by the name of the female demon in the Ethiopian version, Werzelya, which also means "iron". The Ethiopian tradition explains that Werzelya was the evil sister of the Saint Sūsenyōs (which Budge identifies as Sisinnios), and the saint sought out to kill her.
The psychological aspects of Gello were observed also by Leo Allatius in his work De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinionibus ("On the beliefs of the Greeks today"). Textual sources he collected on the Gello included Sappho's poem, the Suda, Suidae Lexicon, edited by Ada Adler (Leipzig 1928), vol. 1, p. 512, no. 112. exorcisms, a church history, the Life of Tarasios, and . Allatios's purpose was to demonstrate the continuity of customs and morals, but also to show that these beliefs distorted or ran contrary to Christian doctrine. Sometimes the acts characteristic of Gello were attributed to "poor and miserable old crones," who could be accused in court as gelloudes and might even claim or confess to have acted as such.
A different penance was prescribed gelloudes, distinguished from infanticides in the of the 17th century theologian Jean-Baptiste Cotelier.Cotelier, Jean-Baptiste, cited by Michael Psellos, however, rejected the notion that human beings could transform into demonic beings, and so there would be no need for a particular penance; the official position of Orthodoxy was that such creatures did not exist.
Despite her official non-existence, the gello is named in exorcisms, which required the attendance of a priest, and in prayer formularies. The Virgin Mary is invoked against the child-harming demon gylo:
In one exorcism of the gello, no fewer than 36 saints are invoked by name along with Mary and the "318 Saints of the Fathers", with a final addendum of "all the saints."For a full list, see Some prayers resemble magic spells in attempting to command or compel the saints, rather than humbly requesting aid. Exorcisms emphasize that Christian families deserve exclusive protection. Gello continued to be named in exorcisms into the 20th century.
The old church regarded childbirth involving blood as impure, and a newborn had to wait several days before it could be baptized, while its mother could not rejoin the community for much longer. At this time, the child was considered at greater risk in the birth mother's sphere of influence, as she would be likely to attract female demons seeking blood.
In the story of Melitene, sister of the saints Sisinnios and Sisynodorus, the child is in peril until it is "returned" to the hands of men. In one version, the gello swallows the child and must be forced by the male saints to regurgitate it alive. This cycle – death by swallowing, regurgitation, new life – may be symbolized in initiation ceremonies such as baptism, which marked the separation of the child from the taint of its mother's gello-attracting blood.
One exorcism text dating from around the turn of the 19th–20th century gives Baskania as a name for the gello as well as for the evil eye., p. 148, note 71.
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