Marchosias

In demonology, Marchosias is a great and mighty Marquis of Hell, commanding thirty legions of demons. In the Ars Goetia, the first book of The Lesser Key of Solomon (17th century), he is depicted as a wolf with gryphon's wings and a serpent's tail, spewing fire from his mouth, but at the request of the magician he may take the form of a man. He is a strong fighter and gives true answers to all questions, and is very faithful to the magician in following his commands. Before his fall he belonged to the angelic order of Dominations (or Dominions), and when he was bound by Solomon he told him that after 1,200 years he hoped to return to Heaven ("unto the Seventh Throne").[1]

Marchosias appears as a fire spitting chimeric wolf with wings of a griffon and tail of a serpent.

In the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577) of Johann Weyer the demon is called Marchocias and his description is much the same as that given in the Goetia except that his gender when appearing as a wolf is female ("a cruel she wolf") and spewing forth "I cannot tell what" from his mouth. He likewise hopes to eventually return to the Seventh Throne but is "deceived in that hope." [2]

Collin de Plancy in his Dictionnaire Infernal (1818) draws on both sources for his description of Marchosias in his catalogue of demons.

The name Marchosias comes from Late Latin marchio, "marquis".

Marchosias appears in the Legends of Tomorrow season 5 episode "Ship Broken", where he is a hellhound that was previously the dog of famed serial killer Son of Sam. He was taken from Hell by Gary Green and brought aboard the Waverider timeship, before nearly massacring the whole crew, only to be sent back to hell by John Constantine.

In Wolf's Curse by Kelley Armstrong, a demon claiming to be Marchosias appears with her hell beasts and she claims to be the creator of werewolves. This is said by a werewolf to be one of many legends as to their creation and that he doesn't know doesn't know or care if the demon is actually Marochosias.

gollark: I mean, they are right about it being popular. They're wrong about that making it good.
gollark: What's their email address?
gollark: Your boss is wrong, see.
gollark: I mean, yes, humans love something something peer-norming something something social consensus, but this is actually bad.
gollark: No.

See also

Sources
  1. S. L. MacGregor Mathers (trans.) and A. Crowley (ed.), The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King (1904). 1995 reprint: ISBN 0-87728-847-X.
  2. Pseudomonarchia Daemonum


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