Astaroth

Overview#

Astaroth is a named spirit in European demonological and grimoire literature. Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire infernal describes him as a powerful infernal figure and presents an appearance involving a mounted being and a serpent. These details belong to the dictionary’s nineteenth-century compilation.^[1]

The name also appears in earlier spirit catalogues. Historical comparison should therefore identify a text and edition rather than treat the popular illustrated dictionary as the beginning of the figure’s entire history.^[2][3]

Catalogue traditions#

Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum gives Astaroth a place in its ranked catalogue of spirits. The later Ars Goetia has its own entry. These sources attribute forms of knowledge and other capacities to the spirit, within ritual and theological frameworks supplied by their compilers.^[2][3]

The descriptions are statements made by magical texts. Their existence documents the circulation of an idea; it does not demonstrate that the promised knowledge could be obtained through the described procedure. An encyclopedia should preserve that difference without making the text’s religious setting disappear.

Appearance and later images#

The Dictionnaire infernal helped give named spirits a durable visual identity. Astaroth’s illustration has often circulated separately from the surrounding French entry. Reading the accompanying text makes it easier to distinguish the artist’s representation from a manuscript’s description and from additions made by later publishers.^[1]

An image caption should record the edition and artist where known. It should also explain whether an image illustrates an older description or creates a new visual arrangement. A familiar drawing may be a strong source for the history of art while remaining a weak source for claims about antiquity.

Names and identifications#

Modern discussions sometimes connect Astaroth with ancient divine names, including Astarte. Such a historical or theological relationship requires linguistic and textual evidence. Resemblance of names is a reason to investigate; it is insufficient by itself to establish an unchanged identity, gender, or devotional tradition.

The same principle applies to a present-day practitioner’s identification. A community may deliberately reinterpret a demonological name through an earlier deity. The article should describe that decision as the community’s interpretation, with a source for it, rather than retroactively attributing its whole theology to Weyer or the Goetia.

Specific contemporary correspondences should likewise be sourced individually. Rank, image, etymology, and religious meaning are different kinds of claims. Keeping their evidence visible prevents a modern summary from becoming an apparently ancient biography assembled from incompatible materials.

See also#

• Pseudomonarchia Daemonum
• Ars Goetia
• Dictionnaire infernal

This encyclopedia covers traditions beyond the High Satanic Church. Church doctrine is identified as such when it appears.