Sigil of Marchosias
At a glance
- Entry
- 35 of 72
- Rank
- Marquis
- Legions
- 30 in the text
Description in the text
Marchosias is characterized as a strong fighter. His entry says he once belonged to the order of Dominations and records a claim that he hoped to return to the seventh throne after twelve hundred years.
Read entry 35 on page 33 of the 1916 edition
Appearance
A fire-breathing wolf with griffin wings and a serpent tail, later taking human form.
Topics attributed to this entry
- Warfare
- Fallen orders
Reading this entry
Marchosias is a winged wolf with a serpent tail and fiery breath, later taking human form. The passage also calls him a strong fighter and a former member of the Order of Dominations. Unlike many entries, it reports a statement attributed to the spirit: after 1,200 years he hopes to return to the seventh throne. That return story is a theological claim within the grimoire, not a dated prediction the site endorses.
A translator's footnote says one difficult seventeenth-century codex could read “ox” instead of “wolf”; the editor adds an anecdote favoring the ox. The main printed text nevertheless reads wolf. The marquis governs 30 legions and has a seal. His entry is distinguished by the reported hope of restoration, a narrative detail shared only by a few figures in this catalogue, as well as by the fierce hybrid image.
Read entry 35 on page 33 of the 1916 edition or compare the 1904 transcription.
A closer reading of entry 35
What the numbered text says
Marchosias begins as a compound creature; wolf, griffin wings, serpent tail, and fire; before the account gives a later human shape. Its description as a fighter is much briefer than that elaborate body. The reported hope of returning to the seventh throne after 1,200 years is presented as something Marchosias told Solomon, rather than as the compiler’s observed future event. The reference to the order of Dominations places that claim in a fallen-angel framework.
About the printed seal
Seal 35 appears on frontispiece 4, while the prose identifies it as a lamen. The printed sign documents the edition’s identification of Marchosias; it does not depict a literal wolf, explain the fallen order, or verify the reported prediction.
Compare another entry
Compare entry 37: Phenex. Phenex repeats a 1,200-year hope of return but pairs it with poetry and song, not combat. The repeated seventh-throne motif is a useful internal link between entries, while their voices, bodies, and attributed offices remain sharply different.