The devil made you do it, but which one? There's more to the red guy with the horns, including
the fact that he's actually seven guys with very particular specialties to boot. Or cloven hoof.
The Seven Princes of Hell are a collection of fearsome foes spread across various religions
and cultures, but they find their origins in the writings of notorious witch hunter
and German bishop Peter Binsfeld. Binsfeld tortured confessions out
of supposed witches that turned into what he perceived as the chief villains behind
witchcraft — these seven princes. Each one lorded over a specific sin and has
made appearances across various religious texts, from the Bible to the book of Tobit.
The demon princes have also found their way into literature. Works such as Paradise Lost
and Dante's Inferno feature the Princes in various forms. And demonology experts across the centuries
have kept them nice and organized in encyclopedias like the 1818 Dictionnaire Infernal or Infernal
Dictionary by Jacques Collin de Plancy. Descriptions differ from source to source,
but a few core ideas remain the same. For instance, each Prince is his own entity,
and each possesses significant power that's been seen throughout history.
For example, Lucifer presided over pride and Satan presided over wrath. Beelzebub
represented gluttony, Belphegor symbolized sloth, Leviathan was in charge of envy,
Asmodeus encouraged lust, and finally, Mammon presided over greed.
None of them are friendly by any means, but here are some untold truths about them.
The name "Lucifer" has many meanings and interpretations, including light-bearer,
giver of light, morning star, and the super cool "lightbeard." The story of
his name comes from his creation by God himself.
"Satan at that time was Lucifer, or "the daystar." He was the brightest of the angels."
Lucifer is often conflated with Satan, and also with Beelzebub,
but they are three separate entities. And in Lucifer's case, his name sets him up as one of
the most interesting princes of hell, given the power he had before his failed rebellion. This
failed rebellion gives another interpretation of what his name means: "he who shuns the light."
The Book of Revelations tells the story of a battle fought in heaven between Michael and
his angels against the rebel future-demons and their angels. The leader of the rebels
was Lucifer himself. Lucifer was fed up with the state of the universe. He
saw himself as superior to humankind and couldn't understand God's love for them.
So he convinced a third of the angels to side with him and rise up against the rule of God.
The war lasted for years. Lucifer turned himself into a dragon. Fellow demons
Leviathan and Behemoth showed up to help, but in the end, Lucifer lost the fight and was cast
out. This is where there are several versions of the story. It's possible that Lucifer's
rebellion continued after his exile. Perhaps, knowing how much God loved his humans, it was
Lucifer who corrupted Adam and Eve to stick it to God out of pride — his deadly sin — and envy.
There's a lot of overlap between historical accounts of witches and warlocks and the
power of demons. Binsfeld himself was a notorious witch hunter who used confessions obtained through
torture to build out his seven princes of hell. That being the case, it makes sense that outbreaks
of witchcraft, if you will, are often attributed to the intervention of a demon or evil entity.
According to Puritan Cotton Mather in Of Beelzebub and His Plot, Beelzebub was behind the witchcraft
in his backyard. Mather was a prominent figure in the notorious Salem witch trials. And it's
interesting that he chose to write about Beelzebub out of all the other princes of hell. It could
be a conflation of the devil and his various monikers, but throughout history, specific demons
are chosen for specific instances that back up Binsfeld's demonic descriptions. For instance, in
the Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures by Theresa Bane, Beelzebub is linked to
divination and possession, traits that Mather and his contemporaries piled on the accused witches.
On top of that, in Arabic, Beelzebub means "the patron god of witches."
Beelzebub is often conflated with Satan and Lucifer, along with the more generic "devil,"
but Binsfeld identified unique characteristics in each. For instance, Beelzebub has a very specific
connection to flies. Flies tend to show up at demonic events — they were out in force
at the Amityville horror house, for example. Beelzebub is the demon most often hailed as
the "Lord of the Flies." So much so that he's often depicted as a giant fly himself, though
there are variations on his appearance including horns, tails, goose feet, and other delights.
However, it's the connection to flies that separates Beelzebub from his contemporaries.
According to the Infernal Dictionary, he has complete power over flies on earth
and uses them to ruin harvests. And he's also the leader of the Order of the Flies,
a specific entourage in hell made up of all Beelzebub's lieutenants and underlings.
And there's a third reason he's known as the Lord of Flies. Beelzebub, himself, was
capable of flying. In fact, his title is sometimes translated as "Lord of Fliers" for that reason.
In what has to be one of the strangest tidbits surrounding a Prince of Hell, the patron prince of
sloth, Belphegor, has a curious preference when it comes to sacrifices. According to various demonic
grimoires, Belphegor accepts human excrement as an offering. According to the Infernal Dictionary,
"One renders homage to him on a toilet and [...] offers
him the ignoble residue of ones' digestion."
Or, as the Encyclopedia of Demons puts it,
"Belphegor accepts offerings of excrement."
Mm. Mm mm mm."
What this has to do with his status as the nefarious figurehead of sloth is a
bit befuddling, but it explains his frequent representation on a toilet
himself. One such illustration appears in the Infernal Dictionary, but there are
memes galore depicting the goat-horned deity in deep contemplation on the can.
While Belphegor was assigned to the sin of sloth, his abilities actually go much deeper. He was
inventive enough to create devices to do his work, and even tricked humans into doing his work then
claimed credit for himself. So, in a sense, sloth gave way to ingenuity. He's slippery,
too. Belphegor's able to take whatever form is most beneficial for him in the moment.
That meant that Belphegor could appear as anything from a young girl to a giant phallus — whatever
was necessary to get the job done. When we trace Belphegor back to his origins as Baal-Peor,
he was both a sun god and a moon goddess to the Moabites who worshiped him. Again,
whatever got people to do what he wanted. Call him a crowd pleaser.
Leviathan is the figurehead of envy. While Beelzebub, Lucifer, Satan,
and the like are often conflated, Leviathan has always been a separate creature who was,
quite literally, a monster. More specifically, a monster of the sea. In the Bible, Leviathan
is the female counterpart to Behemoth, the male beast on land. If you want specifics,
Leviathan is described in the Encyclopedia of Demons as:
"a monstrous female sea creature three hundred miles long with
eyes glowing as brightly as twin suns."
Although she isn't named, Leviathan makes an appearance in Revelations 12:3, when a great
red dragon with seven heads emerges from the sea. According to Howard Wallace's article,
"Leviathan and the Beast in Revelation," this is the sea monstress fighting the war between
good and evil, since Leviathan was known to have seven heads.
Since Leviathan was a sea monster, it makes sense that the rulers of hell found a use for
her monstrous size — as the gates of hell itself. Along with swallowing all those guilty of envy,
Leviathan's gullet also served as the general entry point into eternal damnation.
This concept arises through Anglo-Saxon art depicting the fires of hell spewing
forth from a massive mouth. In the artistic renditions,
and as a concept dating back to the middle ages, this maw is known as "hellmouth."
The hellmouth motif can be seen in various works of Renaissance art,
for instance "The Last Judgment" by Giacomo Rossignolo, as well as a slew of other examples.
Asmodeus is the prince that presides over the sin of lust. There are many interpretations
and variations of this dark prince, but most agree that he looked terrifying.
You may think the prince of lust would be sexier, or, if nothing else, human-like. But Asmodeus is
a three-headed creature. The first head is a bull, the second is a ram or sheep, and the
third is a fire-breathing man. Infernal Dictionary also adds that he has the foot of a goose and,
because apparently all that isn't enough already, he rides a dragon and carries a lance with a flag.
Pick and choose which physical traits from which compendium, you've still
got a monstrous visage that is understandably feared throughout his appearances in the Talmud.
The Talmud offers one of the best stories about a prince of hell,
and it occurs in the book of Tobit. As the story goes, King Solomon asked God for wisdom. Then he
made a stupendously unwise decision. Solomon needed guidance about building the temple,
so he took a rabbi's advice and bound some demons to find the instructions given by God.
There are multiple versions of this story. In one, the demon is helpful and friendly. In another,
the demon is used to build the temple. And in the third, he deposes Solomon and takes his
place on the throne. In this version, Solomon unbound the demon as a sort of challenge,
at which point Asmodeus literally punted Solomon across the world. This left the unwise ex-king
with the task of retaking his throne, which — spoiler alert — he does in the end. Still,
for a while there, the temple was ruled by a prince of hell.
It may not seem like a prince of hell thing to fall in love, but if ever one was going to,
surely it would be the prince of lust, the three-headed Asmodeus.
"My dream is of eternity with you."
According to the book of Tobit, Asmodeus fell in love with a woman named Sarah,
but given that he was a horrid three-headed demon, he watched from afar, only coming
close enough to kill her would-be husband every time she attempted to marry an actual human man.
This happened seven times. Then Sarah met a man named Tobias and, ever optimistic,
planned to marry for the eighth time. And this time, with the help of the Archangel Raphael,
Tobias defeated Asmodeus with a fish heart and a liver placed over burning coals. Apparently,
Asmodeus couldn't stand the smell and fled the scene in horror.
While nothing explicitly says that Jesus had a specific rivalry with Mammon,
it was the Christian Messiah who mentioned this particular prince by name in Matthew 6:24:
"You cannot serve both God and Mammon."
"You can't serve God and Mammon both. Mammon being money."
The simplest interpretation is that Mammon is the figurehead
of greed. There are countless references to Mammon in conjunction with capitalism,
including links to the British empire and whether or not it was in service of Mammon. Of course,
this would refer to the figurative Mammon, being the face of greed and empire,
but the usage of the specific demonic entity can be seen in the Infernal Dictionary,
which states how Mammon taught humanity to "wrest away" the treasures of the earth.
Satan is by far the most common of the seven princes of Hell to be associated with the
devil in general, but Binsfeld sorted him as the patron prince of the deadly sin of wrath. He was
supposedly the primary opponent of Jesus in the battle for humanity, but Satan was
so prevalent in the realm of man that his name became a common noun. In the Hebrew scripture,
there was a difference between the Satan and a satan. The latter referred to a human
adversary or obstacle, while the former was the actual prince of Hell himself.
According to The Devil Made David Do It... or 'Did' He? by Ryan E. Stokes,
early Hebrew writings didn't necessarily subscribe to a belief in malevolent beings such as demons,
let alone the seven princes. So when it came time to reprint the Bible,
they used satan as a general term. The word often took on supernatural connotations,
but the Bible doesn't commit to Satan being a specific entity.
Elaine Pagels digs even deeper in The Social History of Satan,
the "Intimate Enemy": A Preliminary Sketch, highlighting how, at the time,
Jews didn't believe that a satan operated on his own volition, and that all of these
supernatural beings were of Godly nature and therefore working according to his will.