An Angel Protecting a Soul in the Balance from the Devil Giclee Print
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Asmodeus
(1) The "evil demon" who appears in the Apocryphal book of Tobit. His business was "to plot against the newly wedded and . . . sever them utterly by many calamities." In Tobit Asmodeus falls in love with Sara, daughter of Raguel, and causes the death of seven husbands in succession, each on his bridal night. After her marriage to Tobias, he was driven into Egypt by a charm, made by Tobias of the heart and liver of a fish burnt on perfumed ashes, and being pursued was taken prisoner and bound.
In the Talmud Asmodeus is called "king of the devils."
(2) A much better known Asmodeus is the engaging devil-companion of Don Cleofas in Le Sage romance The Devil on Two Sticks (Le Diable boiteux, 1726) sometimes entitled Asmodeus in English translations. He is a "diable bon-homme," with a great deal more gaiety than malice; not the least like Mephistopheles, yet with all his wit, acuteness, and playful malice, we never forget the fiend.
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