Gello

[10][a] The lexicographer Hesychius of Alexandria, who wrote in the fifth or sixth century but drew from earlier lexicons, glossed gello as a ghost (eidolon) who attacked both virgins and newborn babies.

The plural form gelloudes (γελοῦδες), not found in Ancient Greek, came into existence in the Byzantine period,[16] and used in the 7th–8th century by the patriarch John of Damascus, in his treatise peri Stryggōn (περί Στρυγγῶν, "Regarding striges").

[17] The gelloudes were considered synonymous to the stryngai (στρίγγαι, Στρῦγγαι) or "witches" by him, and described as beings that flew nocturnally, slipped unhindered into houses even when windows and doors were barred, and strangled infants.

In the 7-8th century, John of Damascus equated the gello with the stryggai that sometimes appeared in spirit form while at other times had solid bodies and wore clothing.

[27] 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.

[30] Johnston prefers to use the Greek word aōros or aōrē, "untimely dead"[c] for this form of transgressive or liminal soul or entity, finding the usual phrase "child-killing demon" to be misleading.

[32] It has been pointed out by modern commentators that even though the original Gello was a young woman who died a virgin, the gelloudes which became synonymous with stryggai or "witches" in the Christian era, were generally regarded as being old envious crones.

[37] In the Byzantine period, mothers who had given birth customarily relied on amulets designed to protect their newborns from evil, including the Gello or Gyllou.

[40][12] The eyeballs of a hyena in a purple pouch was said to be an effective amulet against "all nocturnal terrors, also Gello, who strangles infants and troubles women in childbed".

[42] The Lithica of the late Hellenistic to early Imperial Period listed magical stones as effective charms as well, although they do not explicitly mention gello either.

[60] After losing six children to the Gyllou, Melitene gives birth to a seventh child inside a fortification she built at Chalcopratia [fr] (a part of the Constantinople).

When her brothers, Sisinnios, Sines, and Sinodoros demand admittance, the "filthy" Gyllou[k] gains entry by transforming into a fly clinging to the horse, and kills the child.

"[80] In the aforementioned Leo Allatius version of the Legend of St. Sisinnos, the twelve-and-a-half names are given as Gylo, Morrha, Byzo, Marmaro, Petasia, Pelagia, Bordona, Apleto, Chomodracaena, Anabardalaea,[n] Psychoanaspastria, Paedopniktria, and Strigla.

[78][o] Although magic words (voces magicae) have often been corrupted in transmission or deliberately exoticized,[81] 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."

[86] Parallels to the lore of a child-killing demon forced to confess its secret names occur as historiola or folktales surrounding magic spells, in medieval manuscripts of many languages, including Greek, Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, Romanian, Slavonic, Arabic, Syriac, and Hebrew.

[87] The earliest examples,[87] dating to the 5th or 6th century are the Aramaic versions of the historiola found as long inscriptions on objects: a silver lamella (metal-leaf sheet) from Palestine[88] and two incantation bowls.

[89] 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").

[92][93] In his Life of Tarasius, Ignatios the Deacon of the ninth century recounts an actual case in which two women were charged as gelloudes and brought before the father of Tarasios of Constantinople, who acquitted them.

[29] 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,[94] exorcisms, a church history, the Life of Tarasios, and proverbs.

[95] 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.

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.