The ''kobalos'' (pl. ''kobaloi'') (
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
: Κόβαλος, plural: Κόβαλοι) was a
sprite from
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...
, a mischievous creature fond of tricking and frightening mortals. The kobaloi were companions of
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
and could shapeshift as Dionysus in the guise of Choroimanes-Aiolomorphos. According to one myth, they robbed
Herakles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...
while he slept. He captured them in revenge but took pity on them when he found them amusing. In one version of the myth, Herakles gave them to the Lydian queen
Omphale
In Greek mythology, Omphale (; Ancient Greek: Ὀμφάλη) was queen of the kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor. Diodorus Siculus provides the first appearance of the Omphale theme in literature, though Aeschylus was aware of the episode. The Gree ...
as a gift. The ''kobaloi'' were thought to live in
Euboea
Evia (, ; el, Εύβοια ; grc, Εὔβοια ) or Euboia (, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest ...
or near
Thermopylae
Thermopylae (; Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: (''Thermopylai'') , Demotic Greek (Greek): , (''Thermopyles'') ; "hot gates") is a place in Greece where a narrow coastal passage existed in antiquity. It derives its name from its hot sulphur ...
.
Parents used tales of the ''kobaloi'' to frighten children into behaving.
Definition
Greek myths depict the ''kobaloi'' as "impudent, thieving, droll, idle, mischievous,
gnome-
dwarfs",
[Brown 230.] and as "funny, little tricksy
elves
An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "lig ...
" of a phallic nature.
[Brown 230–231.] The term also means "impudent knave, arrant rogue" in ancient Greek, and such individuals were thought to invoke ''kobaloi'' spirits. Depictions of ''kobaloi'' are common in ancient Greek art.
Modern associations
The ''kobalos'' is related to two other Greek sprites: the ''
kabeiroi'' (pygmies with large phalluses) and the ''
kerkopes''.
The ''kobalos'' and ''kabeiroi'' came to be equated.
Nineteenth Century classicists proposed that other European sprites may derive from belief in ''kobaloi''. This includes spirits such as the Northern English
boggart
A boggart is a creature in English folklore, either a household spirit or a malevolent '' genius loci'' (that is, a geographically-defined spirit) inhabiting fields, marshes, or other topographical features. Other names of this group include ''bu ...
, Scottish
bogle
A bogle, boggle, or bogill is a Northumbrian''Rambles in Northumberland, and on the Scottish border ...'' by William Andrew Chatto, Chapman and Hall, 1835 and Scots term for a ghost or folkloric being,''The local historian's table book, of r ...
, French
goblin
A goblin is a small, grotesque, monstrous creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearances depending on t ...
, Medieval gobelinus, German
kobold
A kobold (occasionally cobold) is a mythical sprite. Having spread into Europe with various spellings including "goblin" and "hobgoblin", and later taking root and stemming from Germanic mythology, the concept survived into modern times in G ...
, and English
Puck. Likewise, the names of many European spirits may derive from the word ''kobalos''. The word entered Latin as ''cobalus'', then possibly French as ''gobelin''. From this, the English ''goblin'' and Welsh ''coblyn'' may derive.
[Franklin 108.]
Notes
References
* Brown, Robert (2004
xxx. ''The Greek Dionysiak Myth'', Part 2. Kessinger Publishing. .
*
Davis, William Stearns (1914). ''A Day in Old Athens: A Picture of Athenian Life''. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
* Franklin, Anna (2002). "Goblin", ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies''. London: Paper Tiger. .
*
Hardwick, Charles (1980
872. ''Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore, (Chiefly Lancashire and the North of England:) Their Affinity to Others in Widely-distributed Localities; their Eastern Origins and Mythical Significance''. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co.
* Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press. {{ISBN, 0-19-864226-1
Online versionaccessed 25 February 2008.
Greek legendary creatures
Sprites (folklore)
Shapeshifters in Greek mythology
Companions of Dionysus
Gnomes
Elves