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IPOS

(Ipos, from Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal, 1863)


"Ipos, alias Ayporos, is a great earle and a prince, appeering in the shape of an angell, and yet indeed more obscure and filthie than a lion, with a lions head, a gooses feet, and a hares taile: he knoweth things to come and past, he maketh a man wittie, and bold, and hath under his jurisdiction thirtie six legions. (Scot, Discoverie of Witchcraft, page 219)

Drawing directly from the text of the Goetia in the Lamegeton (British Library manuscript Sloane 2731), Mathers writes of this demon that he "appeareth in the form of an Angel with a Lion's Head, and a Goose's Foot, and Hare's Tail." However, this is not quite the same meaning as Scot's text. Scot is trying to convey that the demon Ipos appears in the shape of an angel, yet also has another form that is more "obscure and filthie," that of a lion with a lion's head, the feet of a goose and the tail of a hare. My sense is that Scot's description is more accurate, and that two separate forms are intended for this demon.

Collin de Plancy has made a terrible mess of this demon. In spite of the explicit statement that he has a lion's head, the illustration shows the head of a goose. He has managed to preserve the hare's tail and goose's feet.


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