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Athena: The Abrahamic Inversion
author: High Priest Zevios Metathronos
co-author: Novice Priest Karnonnos
This page reads the she-wolf Marchosias as an inversion of Athena. The Gods are never to be invoked by the names of Their slanderers; Athena is approached as Athena, through Her legitimate and eternal name.
The demon Marchosias first appears as Margoas or Margotas from Florence's Laurentan Medici Library, a late-fifteenth-century magical manuscript called the Plut. 89 sup. 38, partly copied in Rome on January 4, 1494. This name may come from the Greek stem μαργ-, meaning furious, lustful or greedy the complete opposite of Athena's attributes by inversion. It may also relate to the Latin margō, meaning margin or edge. γόητας (goetas) in Greek means magician or wizard.1,2,3,4
The basic facts are iterated. Margoas is a marquis who appears like the strongest wolf with a serpent's tail. He spits his tail out of his mouth. When taking human form, the demon is a most excellent commander and fighter. All questions are answered faithfully by him, and he cooperates with the exorcist, in contrast to the etymology. It is said he wishes to return to being a commander of thirty legions after 1,200 years, but this is non est credendum (not to be believed).5
Margoas, ut Margodas, ut Mardoas, ut Margutas magnus
marchio apparet in similitudinem lupi fortissimi,
cauda eius serpentina. Caudam ex ore proicit,
et cum suscipit humanam formam ductor est Armorum
et pugnator optimus. Dat ad plenum vera responsa
de omnibus interrogatis: et est fidelis in omnibus
mandatis exorciste: fuit de ordine dominationum:
habet sub sua potestate 30. legiones: et spectat
post 1200. annos remeare, quod non est credendum:
Plut. 89 sup. 38
Command and strategy shown when taking human form are a clear reference to Athena's shapeshifting nature to influence various battles. The faithful answer to the questions is a faint evocation of her wisdom to heroes.
Marchocias magnus Marchio est.
Se ostentat specie lupæ ferocissimæ cum alis gryphi, cauda serpentina,
& ex ore nescio quid evomens.
Quum hominis imaginem induit, pugnator est optimus.
Ad quæsita verè respondet: fidelis in cunctis exorcistæ mandatis.
Fuit ordinis Dominationum. Huic subjacent legiones triginta.
Sperat se post mille ducentos annos ad septimum Thronum reversurum:
sed ea spe falsus est.
Johann Weyer, Pseudomonarchia daemonum
In Johann Weyer's renedition based on the Liber officiorum spirituum sources he used, Marchocias is said to relate to the Late Latin marcho, meaning marquis. The Latin shifts somewhat. Marchosias appears as a fierce she-wolf (lupæ ferocissimæ), seemingly recognizing the feminine power of Athena, yet contradicting the nature of the placid demon. The wolf gains the wings of a griffin and nescio quid evomens (vomits [something] I know not) out of its mouth, which later becomes fire. Marchosias is 'deceived' in the hope of commanding legions again. The Sloane MS 3825 manuscript begins the tradition saying the entity vomits fire, which ends up in the Lemegeton.6,7,8
The griffin is one of Athena's primary symbols, being shared in divine function with Nemesis. The wolf symbolism recalls the devil stealthily stalking the Christian flock of sheep. Christian writers had long categorized Athena-Minerva as a dangerous goddess wearing the trappings of maidenly virtue. Isidore in his medieval bestiary relates that it was a commonly held belief that if a wolf sees a man first, it takes away his voice; if the man sees the wolf first, the wolf loses its fierceness. Feeding the wolf at the teet was another medieval maxim that meant nourishing what will destroy.9,10,11
That may be a source for the apparent amenability of Margoas. It may, however, point too to the symbolism of the origin of Rome, with Minerva and the shewolf Lupa's symbolism overlapping. Another possibility is the deliberate conflation of Minerva and the more aggressive Mars in language and symbolism. The theme of deception in the wolf may be related too to numerous church fathers' attack on the fifth Pallas-Minerva, where it is claimed by Clement of Alexandria (among numerous others) that she slaughtered her father Pallas and wore his skin, though Cicero claimed she simply kills him in self-defense against incest. 12,13
Another possibility is that the mountain created by and dedicated to Athena, Mount Lycabettus, was the last place where wolves roamed free in ancient Attica. The serpentine symbolism definitely relates to Athena's serpent on the Acropolis.14, 15
The evocation of the number thirty (triginta) and the number 1,200 (mille ducentos) shows a numerological mystery relating to the number three. Interestingly, a group of Christian Gnostics named the Marcosians (after their leader, Marcus), known as heretics among Christians due to Tertullian and Irenaeus' prolonged attacks on them, oriented their system around thirty aeons, with the primordial figures Bythus and Sige generating Nous (Reason) and Aletheia (Truth). They took the Tetrad of divine entities to appear as a woman, and interpreted the life of Jesus as relayed in early scripture as a numerological exercise. This may be the true core etymology of Marchosias too.16,17,18
Marchosias is related in many ways to the similar demon Morax.
In Dr. Rudd's angelology, Marchosias is opposed by Chauakiah (כוקיה). Lazare Lenain later expounded on this angel's qualities. Those who fall under it will love to be in peaceful alignment with everyone, and they will make it their duty to repay the fidelity and good offices of those in their service. Chauakiah is emblematic of peace in families, and it rules over contracts, successions, and amiable distributions, while astrologically, this spirit deals with reconciliation. The comparison with Athena's role as the divine sponsor of heroes is obvious.19,20,21
I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications [cry for mercy].
Psalm 116:1 is used to evoke Chauakiah.
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.
- Beekes, Robert S. P. Etymological Dictionary of Greek. With the assistance of Lucien van Beek. 2 vols. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Relevant entry: μάργος, with related forms such as μαργαίνω, μαργάω, μαργότης; origin treated as Pre-Greek. For semantic glosses, see Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, and Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940, s.v. μάργος.
- Glare, P. G. W., ed. Oxford Latin Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Relevant entry: margō, marginis, “margin, edge, flange, rim, border.”
- Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, and Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940. Relevant entry: γόης, -ητος, ὁ, “sorcerer, wizard”; form γόητας as accusative plural. See also Tribulato, Olga, ed. Digital Encyclopedia of Atticism, s.v. γόης, on the basic meaning “magician, sorcerer.”
- 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.
- Weyer, Johann. Pseudomonarchia daemonum. In De praestigiis daemonum, 5th ed. Basel: Oporinus, 1577.
- Hoorens, Vera. “Why Did Johann Weyer Write De praestigiis daemonum? How Anti-Catholicism Inspired the Landmark Plea for the Witches.” BMGN, Low Countries Historical Review 129, no. 1 (2014): 3–24.
- Peterson, Joseph H., ed. The Lesser Key of Solomon: Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis. York Beach, ME: Weiser Books, 2001. Marchosias entry, “vomiting up fire out of his mouth,” and for the manuscript basis, especially British Library Sloane MS 3825, fols. 105r–105v.
- Lactantius, ca. 250–ca. 325 CE. Divinae institutiones. In Divine Institutes, translated by William Fletcher. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.
- Isidore of Seville. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. Translated by Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, and Oliver Berghof. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
- Ripa, Cesare. Iconologia overo Descrittione di diverse imagini cauate dall’antichità, & di propria inuentione. Rome: Lepido Facii, 1603.
- Clement of Alexandria. Exhortation to the Greeks. Translated by G. W. Butterworth. Loeb Classical Library 92. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1919. Relevant sections: 2.20–21. See also Arnobius and Firmicus Maternus repetition of the claim.
- Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.59, trans. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library 268. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933.
- Antigonus of Carystus, Ἱστοριῶν Παραδόξων Συναγωγή / Collection of Marvellous Accounts. Translated by Rachel Hardiman. Paradoxography, 2021.
- Hesychius of Alexandria, Hesychii Alexandrini Lexicon. Vol. 2, part 2, Κ–Ο. Edited by Kurt Latte and revised by Ian C. Cunningham. Sammlung griechischer und lateinischer Grammatiker 11/2. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2020. “Λυκαβηττός.”... “Λυκαβηττός: ὄρος τῆς Ἀττικῆς. εἴρηται δὲ οὕτως διὰ τὸ λύκοις πληθύειν”
- Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies. Translated by Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885.
- Tertullian, Against the Valentinians. Translated by Peter Holmes. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885.
- Hippolytus of Rome, The Refutation of All Heresies. Translated by J. H. MacMahon. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.
- Skinner, Stephen, and David Rankine, eds. The Goetia of Dr Rudd: The Angels and Demons of Liber Malorum Spirituum seu Goetia Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis. London: Golden Hoard Press, 2007.
- 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: 35e génie, Chavakiah, whose attribute is “Dieu qui donne la joie,” and who is invoked for return to favor/reconciliation.
- Ambelain, Robert. La Kabbale pratique. Paris: Niclaus, 1951.