Demons in the ancient world

Your goal in this lesson: to see how ancient peoples imagined harmful spirits, and which of their ideas reached the Goetia.

Mesopotamia: protection, not worship

Historical Mesopotamian texts from the second and first millennia BCE describe many demons, often as causes of illness and bad luck. The fearsome Lamashtu threatened pregnant women and babies. Pazuzu, a winged demon king of the winds with a dog-like face, was himself dangerous, but his image was used to drive Lamashtu away. Small Pazuzu heads in bronze or clay, worn as amulets, are in many museums. Healers called āšipu recited incantations and performed rites to send harmful spirits off. The main relationship was protection: you kept demons away.

Jewish texts: fallen angels and named demons

Historical The Book of Tobit, a Jewish story from about the third or second century BCE, has a named demon, Asmodeus, who kills the seven husbands of Sarah until the angel Raphael teaches Tobias to drive him off with the smoke of a fish’s heart and liver. Asmodeus later reappears as Asmoday, spirit 32 of the Goetia.

The Book of the Watchers, the first part of 1 Enoch (third century BCE), tells of angels called Watchers who came down to earth, took human wives and taught forbidden arts, including spells, root-cutting and astrology. Their giant children died, and their spirits became evil spirits on earth. The Dead Sea Scrolls also speak of Belial, a leader of the forces of darkness. Belial is spirit 68 of the Goetia.

The New Testament

Historical The Gospels show Jesus casting out unclean spirits. In Mark 5, a man in the tombs is possessed by many spirits who give their name as “Legion, for we are many”, and they are sent into a herd of pigs. These stories made exorcism by a holy name central to Christian ideas about demons, and the Goetia’s later conjurations use holy names in the same way, as authority over spirits.

What carried forward

• From Mesopotamia: the idea that demons can be named, depicted and driven off by ritual.
• From Jewish texts: fallen angels, forbidden knowledge and named demons such as Asmodeus and Belial.
• From the New Testament: command by holy names and the idea of legions.

The Goetia would later give each of its spirits a number of legions, an echo of Mark 5.

If you are struggling right now, call your local emergency number (112 in Europe, 911 in the US and Canada) or see Getting help.

Try this

Today’s exercise: make a three-row table with Mesopotamia, Jewish texts and New Testament. In each row, write one sentence on what demons did and how people protected themselves.

Quick recap

• Mesopotamian demons such as Lamashtu were driven off with amulets and rites.
• Tobit’s Asmodeus and the Scrolls’ Belial reappear in the Goetia.
• 1 Enoch’s Watchers are fallen angels who taught forbidden arts.
• New Testament exorcism made holy names the tool of command.

Keep going

Press “Mark as done” and continue with Solomon and the grimoires.

Need a refresher? Go back to What is a demon? or see the whole course.

Sources

• The Book of Enoch, translated by R. H. Charles (Oxford, 1912), chapters 6 to 16.
• Mark 5:1 to 20, King James Version (1611).
• Book of Tobit, chapters 3 and 8.
• British Museum and Musée du Louvre, collection records for Pazuzu head amulets.

Go deeper: the Goetia pages on this site

Mark as done