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Amphion: The Enemy Inversion
author: High Priest Zevios Metathronos
co-authors: Karnonnos
Amphion, whose music raised the walls of Thebes, survives in the grimoires as the count Halphas. That name belongs to the slander against the Original Gods and is not to be invoked: call on Amphion by the name that is truly and lastingly Amphion.
The demon Halphas is first found in Johann Weyer's demonological treatise the Pseudomonarchia daemonum of 1577. Here he is a great count who appears in the form of a stork (ciconia, also a Latin name for device measuring trenches) with rauca uoce, a hoarse voice, which is clearly designated as a sly insult1,2:
Halphas Comes magnus, prodit similis ciconiæ rauca uoce.
Insigniter ædificat oppida ampla armis plena: bellum mouet,
& iussus, homines bellicosos ad designatum locum mittit obuiam …
He builds large fortified towns like the classical Thebes with its gigantic fortress in the days of Epaiminondas, ones filled with weapons as in the classical accounts reporting that the Boeotian city hoarded much of the weaponry of Greece. Plutarch for example claimed the colonnades of Thebes possessed captured weaponry. This too is allusion to the use of sound by Amphion, a weapon in black magic.3,4
If you wish to be the leaders of Greece, you must devote yourselves to the camp, not to the palaestra.
Epaiminondas speech in Cornelius Nepos, Lives of Eminent Commanders 3.4.1–2, trans. Watson
Halphas also stirs up war and sends legions of belliocose men to enact it. Another Theban myth this touches on is the founding of Thebes by king Cadmus. In the Theban foundation myth, Cadmus follows the Delphic oracle to the future site of Thebes. After killing the dragon guarding the spring of Ares, he sows its teeth5:
When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called Sparti.
Apollodorus, the Library 3.4.1–2, trans. Frazer
The Sparti become the ancestors of the five great noblemen of Thebes. Variations of Halphas manuscripts like the Sloane MS 3825 circa 1641 say he appears in the form of a stock dove instead6:
The 38th spirit is called Halphas … and appeareth in ye forme of a stock dove, and speaketh wyth a hoarse voyce.
In Dr. Rudd's angelological correspondence, Halphas is opposed by the astrological angel Haamiah who can acquire all the treasures of heaven and earth, guarding against weapons and infernal beasts, a clear evocation of vibration's power. He is equated with Psalm 91:9.7,8,9
Bibliography:
- Weyer, Johann. Pseudomonarchia daemonum. In De praestigiis daemonum, 5th ed. Basel: Oporinus, 1577.
- Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, On Agriculture, vol. 1, Books 1–4, trans. Harrison Boyd Ash, Loeb Classical Library 361 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941), 3.13.11–12, 317–19.
- Cornelius Nepos. Lives of Eminent Commanders. Translated by John Selby Watson. London: George Bell and Sons, 1886..
- Plutarch. Lives. Vol. 5. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Loeb Classical Library 87. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1917.”
- Apollodorus. The Library. Translated by James G. Frazer. 2 vols. Loeb Classical Library 121 and 122. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921.
- London. British Library. Sloane MS 3825. Magical miscellany containing treasure-spirit conjurations. Dated 1641.”
- Rudd, Thomas. The Goetia of Dr Rudd: The Angels & Demons of Liber Malorum Spirituum seu Goetia Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis. Edited by Stephen Skinner and David Rankine. Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic. Singapore: Golden Hoard Press, 2007. Relevant sections: introduction to the Shem-ha-Mephorash angelic control of the Goetic spirits; Haagenti, spirit 48; angelic seal and Psalm correspondence.
- Lenain, Lazare-Républicain. La Science cabalistique, ou l’art de connaître les bons génies qui influent sur la destinée des hommes; avec l’explication de leurs talismans et caractères mystérieux, et la véritable manière de les composer. Amiens: Chez l’auteur, 1823. Specific reference: 38e génie, Haamiah.
- The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: King James Version. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1769. Psalm 91:9