Agrat bat Mahlat

Agrat bat Mahlat (אגרת בת מחלת) is a demon in Jewish mythology.

Etymology

Mahlat and Agrat are proper names, "bat" meaning "daughter of" (in Hebrew). Therefore, Agrat bat Mahlat means "Agrat, daughter of Mahlat."

In ancient texts

In the rabbinic literature of Yalquṭ Ḥadash, on the eves of Wednesday and Saturday, she is "the dancing roof-demon" who haunts the air with her chariot and her train of 18 messengers/angels of spiritual destruction. She dances while her mother, or possibly grandmother, Lilith howls.^[1]

She is also "the mistress of the sorceresses" who communicated magic secrets to Amemar, a Jewish sage.^[1]

In the Zohar

In Zoharistic Kabbalah, she is a queen of the demons and an angel of sacred prostitution, who mates with archangel Samael along with Lilith and Naamah,^[1] sometimes adding Eisheth as a fourth mate.^[2]^[3]

According to legend, Agrat and Lilith visited

King David. Agrat then mated with him a night and bore him a demonic son, Asmodeus, who is identified with Hadad the Edomite.^[4]

In other sources

In a

Kabbalistic treatise by Nathan Nata Spira (d. in 1663), it is explained that Mahalath was daughter to Ishmael and his wife, who was herself daughter of Egyptian sorcerer Kasdiel. Mother and daughter were exiled to the desert, where the demon Igrathiel mated with Mahalat and engendered Agrat or Igrat.^[4] Mahalat later became Esau

's wife.

About 1000 years after the era of Solomon and David, another widely known intervention occurred known as "The spiritual intervention of Hanina ben Dosa and Rabbi Abaye" which ended up curbing her malevolent powers over humans.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Jewish Encyclopedia demonology
^ Julia Cresswell, The Watkins Dictionary of Angels: Over 2,000 Entries on Angels and Angelic Beings
^ Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Angels, 2nd edition
^ ^a ^b Raphael Patai (1990). The Hebrew Goddess. Wayne State University Press.
^ Geoffrey W. Dennis, The encyclopedia of Jewish myth, magic and mysticism. p. 126

Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (edited and annotated by Donald Tyson), Llewellyn Sourcebook Series.

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[shed-1] Jewish Encyclopedia demonology

[2] Julia Cresswell, The Watkins Dictionary of Angels: Over 2,000 Entries on Angels and Angelic Beings

[3] Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Angels, 2nd edition

[Patai-4] Raphael Patai (1990). The Hebrew Goddess. Wayne State University Press.

[5] Geoffrey W. Dennis, The encyclopedia of Jewish myth, magic and mysticism. p. 126

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