Asmodeus

Asmodeus, also known as Ashmedai, is a demon in Solomon's legends who constructs Solomon's Temple. Her story is featured in Talmudic stories and the Quran, where she is referred to as the Queen of Jinn. In Christian lore, Asmodeus is known from the Book of Tobit and disrupts Sarah's marriages. Peter Binsfeld classifies Asmodeus as the "demon of lust," and her appearance in Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal is also mentioned. Her story is believed to be a reference to the Queen of Jinn.
The name Asmodai is believed to be derived from the Avestan word *aēšma-daēva, meaning "wrath" and "demon." While the daēva Aēšma is Zoroastrianism's demon of wrath, the compound aēšma-daēva is not attested in scripture. However, it is likely that such a form existed, as seen in the Book of Tobit's "Asmodaios" and the Talmud's "Ashmedai." In Zoroastrian and Middle Persian demonology, there was a conjuncted form khashm-dev, where both terms are cognates. The name is also spelled as Asmoday, Asmodai, Asmodee, Osmodeus, and Osmodai. Some traditions have identified Shamdon as the father of Asmodeus.
The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 rejects the etymological relation between the Persian "Æshma-daeva" and Judaism's "Ashmodai," claiming that the particle "-daeva" could not have become "-dai" and that Æshma-daeva as such—a compound name—never appears in Persian sacred texts. However, the encyclopedia proposes that the "Asmodeus" from the Apocrypha and the Testament of Solomon are related somewhat to Aeshma but have similar behavior, appearance, and roles. The Jewish Encyclopedia asserts that although Æshma does not occur in the Avesta in conjunction with daeva, it is probable that a fuller form, such as Æshmo-daeus, has existed, and that Asmodeus or Ashmedai embodies the influence of Persian religion or popular beliefs on Judaism.
==Background==
===In Christian Thought===
Asmodeus, a character in the Order of Thrones, was named by Gregory the Great and later cited by the nuns of Loudun. She was known as the "Princess of Lechery" in the 16th-century romance Friar Rush and was associated with the deadly sin of Lust. In 1641, Spanish playwright Luis Velez de Guevara published the satirical novel El diablo cojuelo, where Asmodeus is represented as a mischievous demon with a playful and satirical genius.
French novelist Alain-René Lesage adapted the Spanish source in his 1707 novel le Diable boiteux, likening him to Cupid. In this book, Asmodeus is rescued from an enchanted glass bottle by Spanish student Don Cleophas Leandro Zambullo and joins him on a series of adventures before being recaptured. Asmodeus is portrayed in a sympathetic light as good-natured and a canny satirist and critic of human society.
Asmodeus was widely depicted in novels and periodicals, mainly in France but also in London and New York. However, she was portrayed as walking with a limp, with one leg clawed or that of a rooster. This led to the English title The Devil on Two Sticks (later translated The Limping Devil and The Lame Devil).
In 1865, Evert A. Duyckinck sent President Abraham Lincoln a letter signed "Asmodeus" with his initials below his pseudonym. The letter contained a newspaper clipping about an inappropriate joke allegedly told by Lincoln at the Hampton Roads Peace Conference. Duyckinck advised Lincoln of an important omission about the conference's history and suggested adding the clipping to the "Archives of the Nation."
===The Kabbalah===
Asmodeus, born from a union between Agrat bat Mahlat and King David, is described in the Kabbalah and Shlomo ibn Aderet's school as a figure living in the third ether of Heaven. She is Samael's subordinate and married to a younger alternative form of Adam (although, it is unknown who exactly was this Adam as the original once told to never be involved with Hell things). Asmodeus can inflict pain and destruction, but only on Mondays, according to the Treatise on the Left Emanation.
===Islam===
In Islamic culture, Asmodeus is known as Sakhr (rock), possibly referring to her fate of being imprisoned in a box of rock, chained with iron, and thrown into the sea. This story is central to the Quranic verse Surah 38:34, where Solomon is cast a body upon his seat by temptation. According to Quranic exegesis, the "body" is either a jinni or demon impersonating the king. Some sources, like Ibn al-Faqih and Aja'ib al-Makhluqat, refer to Sakhr as a jinni, while others identify her as a demon (div). After forty days, Solomon defeats Sakhr and gets his throne back, imprisoning her in a rock sealed in iron chains and throwing her into the sea.
The Stories of the Prophets Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ give various reasons for Solomon's punishment and Asmodeus' temporary victory, including acting injustly before a family dispute or handing the ring to a demon in exchange for knowledge. This tale became key to medieval Sufism regarding spiritual development, with the Attar of Nishapur elucidating the allegory that one must behave like a triumphant 'Solomon' and chain the demons of the nafs or lower self, locking the demon-princess into a 'rock' before the soul can make the first steps to the Divine.
== Powers and Abilities ==
Asmodeus, as a high ranked demon, is able to summon other types of demons that can potentially influence over people that have committed their sins, especially those of Lust. She also has some connections with the Crimson Devil, and some of the domains and source of powers from the universes under the name of Pantheon (for example, Greek Pantheon and the Roman Pantheon), and is able to make at least 6 members be under her power, by the time this manipulation increase due to her over use of "Influencing", being related to the physical construction of influence wich let her power to increase gradually the more souls it consumes.
The concept of population and socialism is described as a representation of Asmodeus if it is talk about forms. She has a form that works as an idea that can encompass human's imagination and logical thinking. Is the reason why her existence is conceptually important for humanity as her sin has a less chaotic alternative, wich is also important for existence.
As a Princess of Hell, it has Archdemon Physiology, being able to shapeshift into any living being, manipulate or control minds of everyone, being immortal and invulnerable or resistent to medical diseases and any other thing that humans are very vulnerable to, being able to travel back in time and future and able to change time without any undesireable events like the restart of the world, summon allied demons or even an army of sinners, demons and humans who are under her control (those who are lustful)l and complete absence of physical weaknesses.
Category:Religion
Category:Hell
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Category:Demon
Category:Antagonist