Mammon
Mammon
Mammon is a demonic figure from the New Testament, a personification of material wealth and greed. Taken up in medieval literature and by Milton in Paradise Lost, he embodies the temptation of earthly riches over spiritual values.
Famous Quotes
« No one can serve two masters: God and Mammon. (Matthew 6:24) »
Key Facts
- Mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (6:24) and Luke (16:13) as a symbol of corrupting wealth
- Adopted in medieval literature as one of the demons of the seven deadly sins
- Appears in John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) as the fallen angel most attached to material possessions
- His name is of Aramaic origin and means 'wealth' or 'profit'
Works & Achievements
The two New Testament passages that introduce Mammon as an antagonistic figure to God are the founding source of the entire subsequent tradition surrounding this character.
A long allegorical poem in Middle English depicting the struggle between spiritual values and the temptation of wealth, in which Mammon embodies the corruption of medieval institutions.
A demonology treatise that officially ranks Mammon among the seven princes of Hell, assigning him dominion over the sin of greed within the demonic hierarchy.
A satirical comedy in which the character Sir Epicure Mammon embodies the greed and gullibility of the newly wealthy, popularizing Mammon as a comic and moral archetype in Jacobean theatre.
An epic poem in blank verse in which Mammon appears among the great fallen angels; Milton portrays him as the spiritual architect of infernal materialism, ever gazing downward toward the earth even in Paradise.
A critical essay on the Industrial Revolution in which Carlyle coins the phrase 'Gospel of Mammonism' to denounce the worship of profit as the religion of modern capitalist society.
Anecdotes
The word 'Mammon' comes from the Aramaic 'mamona', a common term in the language of Jesus used to refer to goods, wealth, or property. When Jesus declares in the Gospel of Matthew 'You cannot serve God and Mammon', he personifies material wealth by giving it the name of a rival deity, transforming an everyday word into a formidable spiritual figure.
During the Middle Ages, Christian theologians developed an elaborate hierarchy of demons corresponding to the seven deadly sins. Peter Binsfeld, auxiliary bishop of Trier, published an official classification in 1589 in which Mammon appears as a prince of Hell governing avarice, alongside Lucifer for pride and Beelzebub for gluttony. This list had a lasting influence on European demonic iconography.
In John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' (1667), Mammon is described as the last of the fallen angels to have left Heaven, because even before his fall he 'never looked up, but always walked with downward eyes, admiring the riches of Heaven's pavement'. Milton makes him the first to mine the minerals of Hell in order to build Pandemonium, Satan's capital.
The medieval poet William Langland, in 'Piers Plowman' (c. 1370), portrays Lady Mede — the personification of corrupt reward and greed — who is closely associated with Mammon. This allegorical poem in Middle English, read throughout England, helped cement Mammon in the popular imagination as a symbol of the corruption of feudal society by money.
Theologians such as Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century drew on the figure of Mammon to develop their doctrine of 'disordered love' (amor inordinatus): loving material goods more than God was considered a form of idolatry. This thinking directly influenced the rules of the mendicant orders — the Franciscans and Dominicans — who took vows of absolute poverty in reaction to Mammon.
Primary Sources
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.
No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell / From heav'n, for ev'n in heav'n his looks and thoughts / Were always downward bent, admiring more / The riches of Heav'ns pavement, trod'n Gold, / Then aught divine or holy else enjoy'd in vision beatific.
Mammon is the prince of Hell associated with the sin of greed, one of the seven chief demons corresponding to the seven deadly sins according to demonological classification.
Lady Mede, daughter of False, seeks to corrupt the institutions of the kingdom through her wealth, embodying the seductive power of Mammon over medieval society.
Key Places
The place where Jesus delivered his foundational teachings opposing God and Mammon, in the context of the Temple economy marked by money changers whom Jesus drove out.
Center of the Catholic Church and the birthplace of Augustinian and Scholastic theology, which established Mammon as the central figure in the condemnation of greed.
The episcopal city where Peter Binsfeld published his 1589 demonological classification, naming Mammon as the prince of the sin of avarice, in the context of the witchcraft trials.
The city where Milton wrote 'Paradise Lost' and Ben Jonson created 'The Alchemist': Mammon became a symbol of English literary criticism of the rising culture of mercantile greed.
The heart of medieval Scholasticism at the University of Paris, where Thomas Aquinas and his contemporaries developed the moral philosophy condemning the disordered love of wealth.
Gallery
Exhibition of portrait miniatures
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Burlington Fine Arts Club
Little known early American portrait painters
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Bayley, Frank W Copley Society (Boston, Mass.)
Mural painting
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Crowninshield, Frederic, 1845-1918
A study of Shakespeare's portraits
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Page, William, 1811-1885
Letters on Landscape Painting. Letter IV
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Durand, A. B.
Saturn (Ovid, Fasti, IV, 197-200) title QS:P1476,en:"Saturn (Ovid, Fasti, IV, 197-200) "label QS:Len,"Saturn (Ovid, Fasti, IV, 197-200) "label QS:Les,"Saturno"label QS:Lja,"我が子を食らうサトゥルヌス"label QS:Lfr
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Peter Paul Rubens
Thomas Crawford and art in America. Address before the New York Historical Society, upon the reception of Crawford's statue of the Indian, presented by Frederic De Peyster ... April 6, 1875
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Osgood, Samuel, 1812-1880 New-York Historical Society
Modern pictures, water-colour drawings, and sculpture
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Christie, Manson & Woods
God's image in ebony : being a series of biographical sketches, facts, anecdotes, etc., demonstrative of the mental powers and intellectual capacities of the Negro race.
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Inconnu
SUNLEY HOUSE (FORMER BARCLAYS BANK), 14-19, MIDDLE ROW, Maidstone (Invert Image Photography to highlight building)
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — John K Thorne
