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One of the least discussed entities of Hellenic paganism is Gello, usually written off as just a scary creature used to frighten children. Yet, the Gello is attested for a long spectrum of time andhas been the subject of mush hostile writing by (((christians))), so...
...maybe it;s time to look at the subject a bit deeper.
The name "Gello" is usually connected with the Greek verb "gelo", meaning "to cackle, to laugh". Alternatively, one could speculate a link with PIE *gel-, meaning "frost, cold". We will come back to etymology later, though.
The name "Gello" is usually connected with the Greek verb "gelo", meaning "to cackle, to laugh". Alternatively, one could speculate a link with PIE *gel-, meaning "frost, cold". We will come back to etymology later, though.
The first attestation of Gello is on a fragment by Sappho, quoted by the polymath Zenobius. The fragment says "Fonder of children than Gello". Zenobius connects Gello with women who died before bearing children, whose shade ("eidolon" or "phasma", lit. "apparition)...
...did harm to the children of others. In Late Antiquity and early medieval amulets, Gello is referred to as Petasia ("striker"), Apleto ("expanding, limitless") and Paidopniktria ("child-strangler"). There also occurs the appellation "Striggla", which means "hag".
"Striggla" brings back to our mind the strix, the well-known bird with transfixed eyes we have seen in Roman sources, cheifly Ovid. We have talked about the strix before, in the thread I link to at the end of this Tweet. But, back to the Gello, we should.. https://twitter.com/KomninosM/status/1203311660523503622
...notice something that appears self-contradictory, id est that she is both an "aoros" (premature) woman who has died and a hag, an old and wrinkled woman. And, if we combine this with Cretan oral folklore, where the "gelloudes" are wrinkled and lame hags that...
...lick a newobrn's head seven times and make it speak, it becones even more puzzling, for we had seen her as a negative creature. So, how is the riddle solved? Let's find out!
As we saw, Sappho refers to Gello as being "fond of children". This can have a dual meaning, for...
As we saw, Sappho refers to Gello as being "fond of children". This can have a dual meaning, for...
...it can allude to the negative aspect, of the ghost that seizes children. But, this seizure is symbolic, as you will see. Returning back to the etymology, I postulated a link with the root *gel-. If we accept this link, we can link the concepts "Gello" and "cold breath".
The cold breath is, of course, the breath of the ancestors, id est the ancestral spirits themselves! This would make Gello a sum total of them. But, even if the "cackler" etymology is right, the cackle can easily refer to a child's first cry, the proof that it is alive.
So, going to the "child-suffocator" appellation, Gello is the one who strangles the child. Suffocation (death by inability to draw breath can be connected to hanging. As we know, in Scandinavian mythology, Odinn hangs himself on the world tree, with his "self-sacrifice"...
...being his ritual death, his descent to the grave to retrieve the sacred objects and activate the ancestor inside him. Odinn receives the knwoledge of runes (secrets) by this. I shall remind you, now, of the Cretan tradition of Gello loicking the newborn's head.
We could connect this to the tale of Melampus, the Dionysiac seer/shaman who acquired his knowledge when serpents licked his head. Serpents are a clear symbol of the ancestors, which Gello also personfies. So, that's what the licking symbolizes. But, you will say, the original...
...question is still there: why both an unmarried woman and a hag? Well, I shall remind you of another deity/entity associated with the realm of the dead who was an appearance of a young woman: Persephone. And, the goddess Alphito also has a dual appearance, of both young woman..
...and old one. So, nothing contradictory here.
The tl;dr version should be that Gello personifies the sum total of the ancestors, which causes the "virgin sacrifice", the ritual death that occurs before the rebirth rite. By doing so, she also provides knowledge,...
The tl;dr version should be that Gello personifies the sum total of the ancestors, which causes the "virgin sacrifice", the ritual death that occurs before the rebirth rite. By doing so, she also provides knowledge,...
...the accumulated wisdom of the forebears.
NB: some pics in this thread show things more or less relevant to our topic, others show protective amulets associated with chthonic deities similar to Gello.
Thanks for reading.
Dixi.
NB: some pics in this thread show things more or less relevant to our topic, others show protective amulets associated with chthonic deities similar to Gello.
Thanks for reading.
Dixi.
