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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

second century is quoted as the authority). Similarly, Ashmedai's service in the construction of the Temple is probably an echo of the elaborate legend in the Testament of Solomon, according to which the demons were the chief laborers at the building of the Temple. This cycle of legends in the Testa-

ment

of Solomon

is

the source also of the

myth

con-

cerning the wonderful ring whose inscription tames the demons, as well as of the incident that by virtue of the ring the demons were forced to assist in erecting the Temple. (Test. Solomon v. compare vi. " Throw this ring at the chest of the demon and say to him, In the name of God, King Solomon calls thee

Asmodeus

"Originally a mere epithet of the storm flend, .<Eshma was afterward converted Into an abstraction, the demon of rage and anger, and became an expression for all wickAsmodeus, edness, a mere name of Ahriman ["IntroAshmedai, duction to Vendidad,"iv.221. This description and of iEshma, as he appears In the Zend-Avesta, -ffishma. tallies with the dominant conception in Pahlavi writings. Thus in Dabistan, i.. Dink, xxxvli. 164: 'The Impetuous assailant, Wrath (^Eshm), when he does not succeed in causing strife among the righteous, flings discord and strife amid the wicked and when he does not succeed as to the strife even of the wicked, he makes the demons and the flends flght together.'



'

hither.

'

")

Furthermore, it is improbable that the Shamir legend was originally an element of the Ashmedai legend. The Testament of Solomon (ix.) narrates

how

a demon, forced by Solomon to hew stones for the Temple, was afraid of the iron instruments and,

as Conybeare rightly observes ("Jew. Quart. Rev." xi. 18;, the fear of iron on the part of evil spirits is a feature common to both old and recent folk-lore. In the Talmud this fear is given a Jewish setting by connecting it with the legal precept against the use of iron tools, and by causing the demons to render

the blocks of stone fit for use in the Temple structure without the use of iron. comparison of the Ashmedai legend with the Testament of Solomon reveals also that many other points in the representation of demons by the former are general characteristics of demons. Thus Ashmedai's wings correspond to the wings of Ornias in the Testament (x.). Ornias likewise daily visited heaven; and just as Ashmedai learned the fate of human beings in heaven, so, according to the Testament (cxiii.), did all the demons. Consequently, Ornias could laugh at the king who was on the' point of condemning a youth to death who was destined to die at the end of three days (cxi.), just as Ashmedai laughed at the man who ordered shoes to last seven years, when he had not seven days to live. Hence it follows that the passage in the Talmud provides little information concerning the moi'e particular characteristics of Ashmedai. That he overturned a house and uprooted a tree indicates nothing for with any demon, however insignificant, such things are trifles. Ashmedai is not represented as doing these things- from a mere desire to destroy,

A



but apparently through carelessness. The common opinion that in the Talmud, Ashmedai is depicted as particularly lustful and sensual, has no sufficient basis. The Talmud simply states that Ashmedai, while playing the part of Solomon, did not observe the Jewish precepts pertaining to the separation of women (m}), and that he attacked Bath-sheba, Solomon's mother. These facts, in reality, were to prove only that Ashmedai was not Solomon. The question now arises whether Asmodeus and Ashmedai may be considered as closely allied with each other, and identical with the Persian archdemon, iEsHMA or jEshma-dseva, as was first suggested by Benfey, and developed by Windischmann and Kohut. In regard to ^Eshma, very frequently mentioned in the Zend-Avesta and the Pahlavi texts, Darmesteter says

In "Shayast ha-Shayast" (xviii.) iEshm is described, quite unlike Ahriman, as the "chief agent of the evil spirit [Ahriman] in his machinations against

mankind, rushing into his master's presence in hell to complain of the difficulties he encounters." A consideration of the linguistic arguments does not support the hypothesis of an identification of Ashmedai with ^Eshma-dseva, as "dai" in Ashmedai hardly corresponds with the Persian "dreva," in view of the Syriac form "dawya" (demon) with the consonant " w " nor is there any instance of the linking of "iEshma" and "dreva" in Persian texts. The Asmodeus of the Apocrypha, and iEshma, however, seem to be related. In the Testament of Solo;

mon Asmodeus

appears as seducing man to unchaste deeds, murder, and enmity, and thus reveals many points in common with iEshma. The " Bundehish " the most striking resemblance: "There, wherever JEshm lays a foundation, many creatures perish. Ashmedai of the Solomonic legend, on the other (xxviii. 15-18) furnishes

hand, is not at all a harmful and destructive spirit. Like the devil in medieval Christian folk-lore, he is a "king of demons" (Pes. 110a), degraded and no longer the dreaded arch-fiend, but the object of popular humor and irony. The name Ashmedai "Ashmedai" was probably taken as and signifying "the cursed," iDt5> (comShamdon. pare NOldeke, in Euting's "Nabataische Inschriften," pp. 31, 32), just as "la'in " (the cursed), is the Arabic name of Satan. Thus the name Shamdon (pOtJ>), is found in Palestinian Midrashim. It is related of Shamdon that at the planting of the first vine by Noah he helped with the work, but said to Noah " I want to join you in your labor and share with you; but have heed that you take not of my portion lest I do you harm" (Gen. R. xxxvi. 3);

Midrash Abkir, and cited in Yalk. i. Satan figures as the chief personality. The second thing told of this Shamdon is that in the Golden Age he had an encounter with a new-born child wherein he was worsted (Lev. R. v. 1, according to the reading of the 'Aruk, s.r. IE*)In later sources, Shamdon is held to be the father of Ashmedai, whose mother they say was Naamah, sister of Tubal Cain (Nahmanides on Ashmedai Gen. iv. 22; from this comes the same statement in Bahya b. Asher, Zioni, in Later and Recauali in their commentaries, Sources, ad loc). This legend of Ashmedai's birth tallies with the assertion of Asmodeus in the Testament of Solomon "I was born of angel's seed by a daughter of man " (xxi.). In the Zohar, Ashmedai is represented as the teacher of Solomon, to in the legend in 61,