Astaroth

📷 Wikimedia Commons — domaine public — Lambert de Saumery, Pierre — 1751

SpiritualityMythologyMiddle AgesMiddle Ages — medieval Christian demonology and theology (13th–16th century)

Astaroth is a grand duke of Hell from medieval demonology, considered a corrupted form of the Phoenician goddess Astarte. Described in the Goetia as riding a dragon and holding a serpent, he embodies vanity and sloth. His name illustrates the process by which medieval Christian theology demonized the deities of ancient religions.

Key Facts

Mentioned in the Goetia (16th century) as one of Solomon's 72 demons, he holds the rank of grand duke of Hell
His name and figure derive from Astarte, the great Phoenician and Babylonian goddess associated with fertility and war
The Goetia describes him riding an infernal dragon and holding a serpent in his left hand
He is associated with the sins of vanity and sloth in medieval demon classification
His existence illustrates how the gods of ancient polytheistic religions were reinterpreted as demons in the medieval Christian tradition

Works & Achievements

Pseudomonarchia Daemonum — Johann Weyer (1563)

The first systematic list of demons, appended to his De Praestigiis Daemonum. Weyer describes Astaroth as a grand duke who teaches the liberal arts and reveals secrets of the past and future — a foundational text of modern demonology.

Ars Goetia (The Lesser Key of Solomon, Part I) (17th century (compilation))

A grimoire describing 72 demons with their seals, ranks, and powers. Astaroth appears as the twenty-ninth spirit, a grand duke commanding forty legions; this text remains the canonical reference of Western occultism.

Malleus Maleficarum — Heinrich Kramer (1486)

The "Hammer of Witches," an inquisitorial manual describing demonic pacts and the methods used to detect them. It helped place high-ranking demons such as Astaroth at the center of European witchcraft trials.

De la Démonomanie des Sorciers — Jean Bodin (1580)

A treatise by the French jurist defending the reality of diabolical pacts against Weyer's skepticism. Bodin establishes a hierarchy of demonic powers, helping to cement Astaroth's status in learned culture.

Dictionnaire Infernal — Jacques Collin de Plancy (1818)

An illustrated encyclopedia of demons and supernatural beings. The engraving of Astaroth by Louis Le Breton (1863 edition) became the definitive image of the figure for the following two centuries, shaping both Romantic and popular imagination.

Anecdotes

The name "Astaroth" is a Hebrew distortion of the name of the Phoenician goddess Astarte (Ashtaroth in the Bible). In 1 Kings 11:5, King Solomon is condemned for worshipping "Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians." This semantic shift illustrates how a goddess venerated by millions was gradually transformed into a demon by Christian and Jewish theology.

In the Goetia — compiled around the 17th century but heir to a long medieval tradition — Astaroth is described as a "grand duke" commanding forty legions of demons. He is depicted riding an infernal dragon and holding a serpent in his left hand. His stench is so terrible that grimoires advise magicians to hold a silver ring before their nose to protect themselves from his breath.

Johann Weyer, a Flemish humanist physician, published the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum in 1563, the first systematic catalogue of demons. In it, he claimed to have debunked witchcraft, arguing that people accused of demonic pacts were simply ill. Paradoxically, his work helped spread descriptions of Astaroth across learned Europe, fueling the very witch trials he sought to criticize.

The theologian and inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, author of the Malleus Maleficarum (1486), emphasized the ability of demons like Astaroth to deceive human senses and disguise themselves in seductive forms. This treatise, used by inquisitorial courts, illustrates how fear of the devil and his lieutenants had devastating consequences for thousands of men and women accused of witchcraft.

Religious historian Peter Brown has shown that the "demonization" of ancient gods is a documented process dating back to the 4th and 5th centuries: Augustine of Hippo asserts in The City of God that the gods of the Gentiles are in reality demons. Astaroth is a paradigmatic example of this mechanism: from a great goddess of fertility, she became one of the most feared princes of darkness in medieval demonological literature.

Primary Sources

Pseudomonarchia Daemonum — Johann Weyer (1563)

Astaroth, magnus dux, procedit in forma angeli, foetidus nimis, equitat super draconem infernali, gestat in manu dextra serpentem. Docet libenter de rebus praeteritis, praesentibus et futuris, et de omni re arcana.

Liber Officiorum Spirituum (English manuscript) (c. 1583)

Astaroth is a great and a strong duke, and he cometh forth in the likeness of a foul angel, sitting upon an infernal dragon, and carrying in his right hand a viper.

Hebrew Bible — First Book of Kings, 11:5 (9th–6th century BCE (Deuteronomistic redaction))

For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD.

The City of God — Augustine of Hippo, Book VIII (413–426)

The demons are called gods by the Gentiles, yet they are nothing but evil spirits who seek to turn men away from the true God through deceitful rites and displays of power.

Malleus Maleficarum — Heinrich Kramer (1486)

The higher demons, such as those who govern the infernal legions, possess knowledge of past and future things and can impart to sorcerers unlawful knowledge contrary to divine law.

Key Places

Sidon (present-day Lebanon)

A great Phoenician city and major center of the cult of Astarte, of whom Astaroth is the demonized version. The title 'deity of the Sidonians' (1 Kings 11:5) historically anchors this figure to this geography.

Tyre (present-day Lebanon)

Another great Phoenician metropolis where the temple of Astarte was one of the most important in the ancient Mediterranean world. Herodotus describes its sanctuary as thousands of years old.

Worms (Germany)

The city where Johann Weyer, physician to William of Jülich, was based when he wrote the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum in 1563 — a foundational work in spreading the description of Astaroth throughout learned Europe.

Loudun (France, Vienne)

Site of the famous 1634 possession case, in which Astaroth was named among the demons said to have possessed the Ursuline nuns. The trial and execution of Father Grandier made it an emblematic episode of the witch hunts.

Paris — Faculty of Theology (Sorbonne)

The institution that officially condemned necromancy and demonic magic in 1398, helping to forge the legal and theological framework that made figures like Astaroth into real threats in the eyes of medieval society.

Gallery

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Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — El Greco

The daughter of the air: a mythic tragedy, in five acts

Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Raupach, E[rnst Benjamin Salomon] [from old catalog]

The courtship of Miles Standish

Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882

Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa

Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Clarke, Edward Daniel, 1769-1822

Catalogue of printed books and manuscripts belonging to Henry Ward Poole, [Esq.], now residing in the city of Mexico, comprising many rare and curious books, in many departments of literature, and in

Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Leonard & Co.