ADRAMALECH

Adramelech: God, Demon and Chancellor of Hell

Adramelech, whose name also appears as Adrammelech, Adramelek and Adramalek, is a figure whose identity changed dramatically as he passed from ancient Near Eastern religion into Jewish demonology and later European occult literature.

In later demonological tradition, Adramelech became a powerful chieftain of Hell. Earlier sources, however, connect the name with a deity worshipped by the people of Sepharvaim, making him another example of an ancient god who was eventually absorbed into the developing mythology of demons.

The precise origin of Adramelech remains uncertain. His name has been interpreted as meaning something close to “the lordship of Melech, the king.” Some writers have regarded him as a solar deity, while others have attempted to connect him with older Mesopotamian and Near Eastern gods.

The God of Sepharvaim

Adramelech appears in the Hebrew Bible in connection with the people of Sepharvaim.

According to 2 Kings 17:31, the Sepharvites sacrificed their children by burning them in honour of Adrammelech and Anammelech, whom the text identifies as their gods. This biblical association with human sacrifice profoundly influenced the sinister reputation Adramelech acquired in later religious literature.

Some later interpretations consequently described him as a Samarian or Sepharvite sun god. His association with the sun may have been inferred from the fiery nature of the sacrifices attributed to his worshippers, although the precise historical identity of the deity remains uncertain.

Another theory attempts to derive Adrammelech from elements associated with the Babylonian god Anu and the Ammonite deity Moloch. Moloch was himself traditionally associated with the sacrifice of children, creating another possible connection between Adramelech and the terrifying sacrificial traditions attributed to ancient Near Eastern religions.

Whatever his original character may have been, Adramelech eventually suffered the fate of numerous foreign gods mentioned within biblical tradition. A deity once worshipped as divine was reinterpreted by later Jewish and Christian writers as an infernal being.

Adramelech Becomes a Demon

In later Jewish folklore, Adramelech became one of the ten Archdemons.

The transformation was considerable. The ancient god of Sepharvaim was no longer merely condemned as a foreign deity. He had become an active member of the hierarchy of Hell.

Some traditions connect Adramelech with the demonic counterpart of the Tree of Life found in Kabbalistic interpretations. He is described as the eighth of the ten evil demons associated with the sephirot, where he operates beneath the authority of Samael.

Such later associations placed Adramelech inside a much more elaborate occult cosmology than anything suggested by the biblical references to Sepharvaim.

The Peacock Demon

Adramelech acquired several remarkable physical manifestations in later demonology.

His most famous appearance is that of a peacock. Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal helped popularise this image through its nineteenth-century depiction of the demon.

The peacock form has sometimes encouraged comparisons with Iblis, whose association with the peacock appears in certain Islamic and later folkloric traditions.

Adramelech may also manifest as a mule. Other traditions expanded his possible animal forms further, describing him as appearing as a horse or lion.

The contrast between the splendour of the peacock and Adramelech’s infernal reputation is particularly striking. The magnificent plumage traditionally associated with majesty and pride gives the demon an appearance very different from the grotesque monsters commonly imagined when Hell is depicted in popular culture.

Chancellor of Hell

European demonologists eventually bestowed extraordinary political authority upon Adramelech.

He became known as the Grand Chancellor of Hell.

Within this infernal bureaucracy, he was also described as president of the Devil’s general council. Another wonderfully peculiar tradition makes him the governor of the Devil’s wardrobe.

These titles reflect a recurring feature of European demonology. Hell was frequently imagined not as a realm of uncontrolled chaos but as an enormous supernatural monarchy whose rulers possessed courts, governments and offices resembling those of earthly kingdoms.

Adramelech therefore emerges as something resembling an infernal statesman rather than merely a monstrous spirit.

Charles Berbiguier and the Order of the Fly

The early nineteenth-century French demonologist Charles Berbiguier further developed Adramelech’s infernal status in his extraordinary work Les Farfadets.

Berbiguier described Adramelech as the Lord High Chancellor of Hell.

He also claimed that the demon had received the Grand Cross of the Order of the Fly.

According to Berbiguier’s demonological mythology, the Order of the Fly was a demonic knightly order established by Beelzebub. The image places Adramelech within an elaborate parody of aristocratic honours, transforming Hell into a supernatural court complete with its own offices and decorations.

The occultist A. E. Waite repeated some of Berbiguier’s claims in his Book of Black Magic. Waite, however, incorrectly attributed these traditions to the sixteenth-century scholar Johannes Wierus.

This confusion helped ensure that Adramelech’s supposed governmental position in Hell continued to circulate through later occult literature.

Agrippa and the Demonised King

Another tradition appears in connection with Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa.

Agrippa identifies Adramelech as an ancient king who became demonised over time.

This interpretation fits comfortably within the wider history of demonology, where historical rulers and foreign gods could gradually be transformed into supernatural enemies of the dominant religious order.

It also illustrates why determining an original identity for Adramelech is so difficult. The figure encountered in nineteenth-century demon dictionaries is the product of many centuries of reinterpretation.

Behind the demon may stand a god. Behind the god may lie an even older title or royal concept whose original meaning has been lost.

Adramelech in Paradise Lost

Adramelech also entered European literary tradition.

He appears in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. In Book VI, Adramelech fights among the rebellious spirits during the war in Heaven.

His power does not save him.

The angels Uriel and Raphael ultimately defeat him.

Milton’s use of Adramelech demonstrates how thoroughly names drawn from biblical references to foreign gods had become incorporated into Christian demonology by the early modern period. A deity once worshipped far beyond the world of Christianity could now appear naturally among Satan’s fallen forces.

Adramelech in Klopstock’s The Messiah

The German poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock gave Adramelech an even darker character in his epic poem The Messiah.

Klopstock describes him as:

“the enemy of God, greater in malice, ambition, and mischief than Satan, a fiend more curst, a deeper hypocrite.”

Here Adramelech becomes considerably more than a subordinate demon.

He represents a degree of calculated evil that can exceed even Satan himself. The description helped reinforce his literary identity as one of the exceptionally dangerous personalities of Hell.

The Other Adrammelech

The name Adrammelech also appears in the Bible in an entirely different context.

In 2 Kings 19:37, Adrammelech is the name of one of the sons of the Assyrian king Sennacherib.

Together with his brother Sharezer, he murders his father while Sennacherib is worshipping in the temple of the god Nisroch.

One later tradition adds a particularly grim explanation for the murder. The brothers discovered that their father intended to sacrifice them to Nisroch, and they killed him before the sacrifice could take place.

This human Adrammelech should not automatically be identified with the deity of Sepharvaim, although the recurrence of the name contributed to the complicated body of traditions surrounding it.

Adramelech Under Other Names

Ancient and classical writers preserve forms of the name that differ considerably from the spelling familiar to modern demonology.

In Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, specifically Book XVI, Chapter 8, the name appears as Andromachos.

Greek sources preserve additional forms such as Adramelos and Ardumuzan.

These variations demonstrate how easily ancient Near Eastern names changed when transmitted through Hebrew, Greek and later European languages. The different forms also help explain why the names of demons can vary so dramatically between grimoires and demonological dictionaries.

Collin de Plancy and the Dictionnaire Infernal

Adramelech became especially recognisable through Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal.

Published and repeatedly revised during the nineteenth century, the work attempted to catalogue demons and supernatural beliefs from an enormous range of traditions.

The famous 1863 edition contains the illustration through which many modern readers recognise Adramelech.

Through works such as the Dictionnaire Infernal, the ancient deity of Sepharvaim completed an extraordinary transformation. He had travelled from biblical descriptions of forbidden worship into Jewish demonology before emerging in European occult literature as a peacock-shaped aristocrat presiding over the political machinery of Hell.

Adramelech as depicted in Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal, 1863 edition

From Forgotten God to Archdemon

Adramelech demonstrates how complicated the genealogy of a demon can become.

There is no single moment at which the historical god of Sepharvaim simply became the Grand Chancellor of Hell.

The transformation happened through centuries of religious reinterpretation.

A foreign deity condemned in scripture became associated with forbidden sacrifice. Later folklore placed him among the great demons. Christian writers incorporated him into their visions of Hell. Poets turned him into an enemy of Heaven. Demonologists eventually assigned him rank and office within an elaborate infernal government.

By the nineteenth century, Adramelech had acquired the identity by which occult readers most often know him today.

Behind the magnificent peacock demon, however, remains the shadow of an ancient deity whose original worship is still imperfectly understood.

Stop Reading Demonology Like a Dictionary

Adramelech proves exactly why demonology cannot be understood by memorising names and seals.

Behind a single demon can lie thousands of years of religion, mythology and occult transformation.

Most people never get beyond the picture of the peacock.

You should.

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