Alphito () is a supernatural being first recorded in the ''

Moralia The ''Moralia'' (Latin for "Morals", "Customs" or "Mores"; , ''Ethiká'') is a set of essays ascribed to the 1st-century scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea. The eclectic collection contains 78 essays and transcribed speeches. They provide insigh ...

'' of

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, where " apotropaic nursery tales" about her are told by nursemaids to frighten little children into behaving. Her name is related to ''alphita'', "white flour" (compare

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''albus''), and '' alphitomanteia'', a form of

divination Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...

''(-manteia)'' from flour or barley meal. She was presumably old, with white hair the color of flour. Although Alphito has been called a mere boogeyman, the 19th-century folklorist Wilhelm Mannhardt, forerunner of J.G. Frazer, classified her as originally a " corn mother" because of her name, and others have considered her a vegetation spirit. According to

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...

, Frazer thought Alphito was actually

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over cro ...

Persephone In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Persephone ( ; , classical pronunciation: ), also called Kore ( ; ) or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the Greek underworld, underworld afte ...

. Although evidence for Alphito rests in the minimal reference in Plutarch and an indirectly relevant entry in the

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

Hesychius, Graves developed an elaborate thesis that Alphito was "' the White Goddess', who in Classical times had degenerated into a nursery bugbear but who seems originally to have been the Danaan Barley-goddess of Argos." In ''The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth'', Graves describes the whiteness of the goddess as a dichotomy:

In one sense it is the pleasant whiteness of pearl-barley, or a woman's body, or milk, or unsmutched snow; in another it is the horrifying whiteness of a corpse, or a spectre, or
leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...
. … Alphito, it has been shown, combined these senses: for ''alphos'' is white leprosy, the vitiliginous sort which attacks the face, and ''alphiton'' is barley, and Alphito lived on the cliff tops of Nonacris in perpetual snow."

No ancient source connects Alphito to leprosy nor the Arcadian site of Nonacris. In recent scholarship, Alphito is classed with spirits or demons that threaten reproduction and child-nurturing such as Acco, Gello, and Mormo.Jan N. Bremmer, ''The Early Greek Concept of the Soul'' (Princeton University Press, 1987), pp. 101–10
online
John Kevin Newman, ''Roman Catullus and the Modification of the Alexandrian Sensibililty'' (Georg Olms, 1990), p. 223, note 46.

References

{{Reflist Women in Greek mythology European demons Bogeymen Female legendary creatures Greek legendary creatures