Sigil of Alloces
At a glance
- Entry
- 52 of 72
- Rank
- Duke
- Legions
- 36 in the text
- Also written
- Alocas
Description in the text
Alloces is credited with teaching astronomy and the liberal sciences. The source says he also brings good familiars.
Read entry 52 on page 39 of the 1916 edition
Appearance
A soldier on a large horse, with a red lion-like face and flaming eyes.
Topics attributed to this entry
- Astronomy
- Liberal sciences
- Familiars
Reading this entry
Alloces, also Alocas, is a soldier on a large horse with a red lion’s face and fiery eyes. His voice is described as loud and rough. The duke’s offices are educational: astronomy and the liberal sciences, with good familiars also promised. The conspicuously fierce appearance does not correspond to a warfare office in this passage, so a military costume should not be mistaken for an assignment to command battles.
Thirty-six legions and a seal complete the description. A printed note accompanies the word “soldier,” showing that even this vivid appearance had an editorial layer. The fiery facial details and powerful voice make Alloces visually distinctive among the several astronomy teachers. The source gives no second human form, named star, or specific scientific teaching.
Read entry 52 on page 39 of the 1916 edition or compare the 1904 transcription.
A closer reading of entry 52
What the numbered text says
Alloces arrives as an armed rider, but the face and eyes; not the armor; receive the strongest sensory detail: a red lion-like face, flames, and a large, hoarse voice. The office turns away from warfare to astronomy and the liberal sciences, followed by familiars. A reader should therefore resist making the soldier’s costume into an invented military power. The alternative Alocas is a second spelling of the same thirty-six-legion duke.
About the printed seal
Frontispiece 4 supplies seal 52. The source does not interpret its strokes as a horse, lion, star, or weapon. Its numbered pairing with the passage is firmer evidence than any proposed symbolic decoding.
Compare another entry
Compare entry 36: Stolas. Stolas also teaches astronomy, but his account begins as a raven and specifies herbs and precious stones. Alloces begins as a mounted soldier and adds liberal sciences and familiars. The shared subject is only part of each spirit’s stated office.