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Ares: The Abrahamic Inversion
author: Temple of Zeus Ministries
The war God Ares was written into the grimoires as the marquis Andras, and this page reads Him back out of the slander. No God is to be invoked by a name made to slander Him: call on Ares by His legitimate and eternal name.
Andras is first shown as Andras or Vandras in Florence's Laurentan Medici Library, from the Plut. 89 sup. 38, a late-fifteenth-century magical manuscript, copied in Rome on January 4th, 1494. The name clearly has a link to the Greek word ἀνήρ which simply means man, having an oblique stem root ἀνδρ- (the Greek plural accusative being ἄνδρας or andras) to do with all things male in nature which Ares rules over.1, 2, 3
Possibly the demon is related to the Iranian demon Indra (Andra), the adversary of Asha Speshita in the Zoroastrian texts. The equivocation of Bahram with Mars makes this a high possibility.
He is a great marquis who appears in angelic form with the head of a night raven (the Latin here is somewhat broken, noctico rati possibly meaning nocticoracis aligning with other texts), on the back of a wolf of might. The gladium magnum (great sword) he wields is sharp and powerful. Andras sows discords and quarrels, such as inter duo fratres (between two brothers), or as it is implied by the text albeit with almost illegible writing, inter ductum et secuutum (between a leader and follower). He possesses thirty legions beneath his command.
Andras, ut vandras magnus marchio Apparet
in angelica forma, caput assimilatur noctico
rati [sic] magni: equitat super lupum magnum, et fortissimum
gladium portat magnum, et accutissimum: ab eo
procedunt rixae, discordiae et eas bene scit seminare
videlicet inter duos fratres, Inter <ductum>, et <secuutum>:
et habet sub se 30. legiones:
Plut. 89 sup. 384
The reference to causing strife between brothers is a clear allusion to the Romulus and Remus myth of Rome, where they are born to Mars, and Romulus himself was often taken to be a form of Mars. The strife between leader and follower is a direct reference to the Iliad where Ares disguises himself as Acamas, the leader of Thrace, inciting the Trojans to reckless battle, leading Sarpedon to rebuke Hector.5
“Always dear to you are strife, wars, and battles.” Homer, Iliad 1.176–177
Andras magnus Marchio: visitur forma angelica
capite nycticoraci nigro simili,
in lupo nigro & fortissimo equitans,
bajulansque manu gladium acutissimum.
Novit interficere dominum, servum
& coadjutores: author est discordiarum.
Dominatur legionibus triginta.
Johann Weyer, Pseudomonarchia daemonum
The Liber officiorum spirituum that Weyer uses gives a different variation. Andras now as a ferocious demon is said to know how to kill the master, the servant and all assistants indiscriminately, adding at the end that he is author est discordiarum (author of discords). His wolf is now a large black wolf who is very strong, but he still retains an angelic shape and dons the head of a raven.6
The Lemegeton changes this to an emphasis on killing the exorcist if he has no care in being able to direct the demon properly, reinforcing the fierce reputation even more. The wolf appears as a general symbol of war. Possibly the wolf and raven are references to the dogs and birds feeding on corpses in the Iliad in the wake of Ares' wrath.5, 7
Since Marchosias is depicted as a wolf vomiting fire, the black lupine steed that Andras rides may be a codeword for Athena herself, particularly in her warlike symbolism paired with Ares. Another possibility is that it refers to Aphrodite, as lupae was a byword for a harlot, a common invective levelled at the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite in myth and Aphrodite's cult as a whole by early Christian authors. The raven is also turned black by Apollo for reporting on the adultery of Coronis by Ovid.8, 9
Bibliography:
- Juste, David. “Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 89 sup. 38.” Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus: Manuscripts. Updated April 10, 2020. Cited for manuscript identification, contents, and the Rome colophon dated January 4, 1494.
- Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, and Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940. S.v. ἀνήρ: forms ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός, ἀνδρί, ἄνδρα, ἄνερ, ἄνδρες; meanings “man,” “husband.”
- Heggarty, Paul, Cormac Anderson, and Matthew Scarborough, eds. “Cognate Set 2316, Meaning: Man.” IE-CoR: Indo-European Cognate Relationships. Relevant sections: reference form *h₂ner-; Greek ἀνήρ, genitive ἀνδρός; Modern Greek ántras remodeled from Ancient Greek ἄνδρα;
- Johnson, Brian, trans. and intro. Necromancy in the Medici Library: An Edition and Translation of Excerpts from Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, [306r], MS Plut. 89 sup. 38. Foreword by Alexander Cummins. West Yorkshire: Hadean Press, 2020.
- Homer. The Iliad. Translated by A. T. Murray. Revised by William F. Wyatt. Loeb Classical Library 170. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999. Cited sections: 1.176–177
- Weyer, Johann. Pseudomonarchia daemonum. In De praestigiis daemonum, 5th ed. Basel: Oporinus, 1577.
- Peterson, Joseph H., ed. The Lesser Key of Solomon: Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis. York Beach, ME: Weiser, 2001. Relevant passage: Ars Goetia, spirit 63, Andras: “his office is to sow discords … he will kill him and his fellows.”
- Arnobius of Sicca. Against the Heathen. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Translated by Archibald Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.
- Ovid. Metamorphoses. Vol. 1, Books 1–8. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library 42. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977.