Nergal
Nergal: According to French demonologist Charles Berbiguier’s three-volume work Les Farfadets, Nergal is a Minister of Hell and the Chief of the Secret Police. This title seems only fitting, considering that, in his earlier days, Nergal was a fierce warrior who later became the lord of the Underworld. In Assyro-Babylonian myth, Nergal ruled the land of dust and tears with his wife Ereshkigal, who was so nasty, she tortured and killed her own sister. Since one of Nergal’s symbols was the sickle, he may have helped to influence later images of the Grim Reaper. Nergal is also described as Hells’ Chief of Secret Police in A. E. Waite’s Book of Black Magic and Pacts as well as Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal.
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SOURCE:
The Dictionary of Demons written by Michelle Belanger.
NOTE:
Edited and revised for the Web by Occult Media, the 3rd of May 2021. We use British English spelling.