Astaroth

One of the seventy-two demons named in the Goetia.  His name appears in Wierus's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, where he is said to hold the rank of duke with command over forty legions of lesser spirits.  When he appears, he takes the shape of an obscene and loathsome angel.  He rides an infernal dragon and carries a viper in his right hand.  In de Plancy's 1863 edition of the Dictionaire Infernal, he is depicted as a naked man with angel's wings riding a dragon.  In Francis Barrett's The Magus, Astaroth is listed as the prince of the demonic order of accusers and inquisitors.  The only major difference between Astaroth's descriptions in de Plancy's work and those in The Magus is that the demons rides a wolf or a dog, not a dragon.  Astaroth is said to teach the liberal sciences, and like many of the Goetic spirits, he will also discourse on matters of the past, present, and future, as well as the secrets of occult knowledge.  Astaroth can confer heavenly knowledge as well:  he is said to speak freely about the creator of spirits, the fall of the spirits, and the various sins they committed that inspired their fall.  Wierus's Pseudomonarchia also says that Astaroth has horribly fetid breath.  For this reason the magician is warned to keep his distance from the demon and to hold a magical ring of silver against his face to protect himself from any injury.  

Astaroth appears in the Book of Oberon, an Elizabethan manual of ceremonial magic.  Here, Astaroth is one of a dozen principal spirits serving beneath Amaimon, king of the south.  When he manifests, he arrives riding an infernal dragon.  In one hand, he carries a serpent with a venomous sting.  The Book of Oberon describes him as a horrible spirit who should not be allowed near those who summon him.  For those who dare to work with him, he is said to give true answers when asked about any event from the past, present, or future.  He also teaches the seven liberal arts.  

Astaroth's name is given as Elestor in the Lansdowne text known as the True Keys of Solomon.  Here, he is said to govern all the spirits in the Americas. In the Goetia of Dr. Rudd, he is said to be constrained with the name of the angel Reiajel.  In the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Astaroth is one of eight sub-princes who rule over all other demons.  He has the power to discover mines and transmute metals.  He can reveal the location of treasure -- so long as it is not magickally guarded.  He has impressive powers of destruction, causing tempests and demolishing buildings.  He can also transform men and animals. 

This demon has his origins in the Bible, where, in the Book of Judges and in the first Book of Samuel, he is referred to as the Ashtaroth and is mentioned in connection with the Baals, other foreign gods forbidden to the Israelites.  Many later readers took both of these words to be proper names.  However, in the time of the ancient Israelites, the Balls and the Ashtaroths were general terms for deities.  Baals were the male deities, while the Ashtaroths denoted the female deities.  As this would imply, in the process of decoming a demon, Astaroth underwent a gender switch somewhere along the way.

The term Astaroth is derived from the name of the Semitic goddess Astarte, a goddess who appears in Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Akkadian sources.  She is a cognate of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.  Because she is connected with forbidden things in the Bible, namely with religions that were viewed as false and heretical by the ancient Israelites, Astarte cum Astaroth was demonized along with a host of other foreign dieties.  She, now a he, has remained a demon ever since--at least as far as most of Western civilization is concerned.

Perhaps because Astarte was such a widely revered goddess in her day, the demon Astaroth is typically depicted as holding significant rank among the hordes of Hell.  In a dubious document produced as evidence against the parish priest Urbain Grandier, who was accused to practicing witchcraft and diabolism in seventeenth-century France, Astaroth is one of the several well-known demons whose name appears as a signature witnessing Grandier's pact with Satan.  In the Grand Grimoire, Astaroth is listed as a Great Duke of Hell.  In Berbiguier's infernal hierarchy, Astaroth is one of the Ministers of Hell and is listed as the Grand Treasurer.  According to the spurious Grimoire of Pope Honorius, Astaroth is the demon of Wednesday.  Variations on this demon's name include Ashtaroth, Ashteroth, Ashtoreth, Astareth, and Astarot.  As prince of the Criminatores, he presides over the eighth order of evil spirits in an infernal hierarchy described in the Janua Magica Reserata.  According to this text, his Greek name is Diabolos.  See also AMAIMON, BARRETT, BERBIGUIER, BOOK OF OVERON, DEPLANCY, GOETIA, GRAND GRIMOIRE, JANUA MAGICA RESERATA, RUDD, SCOT, WEIRUS.
THE DICTIONARY OF DEMONS, REVISED AND EXPANDED, M. BELANGER (2021)