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The Brass VesselThe Seventy-Two Spirits · 35
A winged wolf breathes fire before taking human shape as a formidable fighter. Marchosias also tells Solomon of a hope: return to the seventh throne after 1,200 years. [1]
Goetia 1904
Marchosias first appears as a wolf with gryphon’s wings and a serpent’s tail, vomiting fire. After a time, at the exorcist’s command, he becomes human and is described as a strong fighter. The great marquis was of the Dominations and governs thirty legions. [1]
He tells Solomon, whom the passage calls his chief, that he hopes to return to the seventh throne after twelve centuries. The 1904 account reports the hope without saying that the return occurs. [1]
The translator says a badly written seventeenth-century codex might read ox instead of wolf. Crowley adds a personal report: Marchosias always appeared to him as an ox, very dazed. The main printed appearance remains a wolf. [1]
Scot’s earlier creature is a fierce she-wolf whose mouth expels an unspecified substance. In human form he is an excellent fighter who answers questions truly and faithfully serves the conjuror’s business. Scot also reports the twelve-century hope, but explicitly calls the spirit deceived in it. [1][2]
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, translated; Aleister Crowley, edited, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (1904), first-edition facsimile supplied by Keep Silence. Shemhamphorash, entry 35 and wolf/ox notes; printed pp. 21–22, PDF pp. 18–19
Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584); Brinsley Nicholson’s reprint of the first edition (1886), Project Gutenberg transcription. Book XV, chapter II, Marchosias; 1886 reprint page 320
