On re-reading Madeleine L'Engle's Many Waters, I realized that her nephilim were the reason why the names Naamah and Eisheth had looked familiar when I read Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart:
The cobra uncoiled, hood spreading, swaying as though to unheard music, then stretched up and up into the loveliness of lavender wings, and amethyst eyes that reflected the starlight. "I, Ugiel, call my brothers. Naamah!"
The vulture stretched its naked neck, until great black wings and coal-black eyes in a white face were revealed.
"Rofocale!"
A shrill drone, a mosquito whine, and then there stood on the desert a nephil with wings of flaming red and eyes like garnets.
"Eisheth!"
The crocodile opened its mouth, showing its terrible teeth. It appeared to swallow itself, and vomit forth a tall, green-winged, emerald-eyed nephil.
. . . and so on, until the twelve nephilim have taken their angelic forms, however fallen.* I cannot vouch for the rest of their names, although I have always assumed that L'Engle took them from real sources. Some, like Rumael, Estael, Negarsanel, sound plausibly Semitic: while the name of at least one nephil, Eblis, is dead obvious. But out of curiosity, and because I have always liked the color green, I decided to look up Eisheth. Naturally, I checked Wikipedia first:
In Zoharistic Qabalah, Eisheth Zenunim is one of the four angels of prostitution, the mates of the demon Samael. Her fellow succubi are Lilith, Naamah, and Agrat Bat Mahlat.
I hadn't even realized there were angels of prostitution. Why has no one done more with this concept?** And why does no one seem to know anything about Agrat bat Mahlat? That's the name that interests me: since when do demons (or even fallen angels) have patronymics? I'm aware that a whole slew of them must be the children of Lilith and Ashmedai, but Mahlat is not a name I recognize. There must be some useful text I can read. I may try the book of Enoch. Oh, apocryphal strangeness and prostitute angels. Is this where children's books lead?
*I've also realized belatedly that while L'Engle's distinction between nephilim and seraphim, fallen and unfallen, did not necessarily inform my story "Another Coming," I really think that the tendency of her nephilim to interbreed with mortals did. I read Many Waters in fifth grade—I can date it because of a school project—long before I'd picked up any translation of Genesis. The sons of God and the daughters of men: that's her legacy to my brain, right there.
**Other than Jacqueline Carey: "But when the King of Persis cast blessed Elua in chains, there were among the angels in Heaven those who took pity upon him. Naamah was first among them, and it was she who gave herself to the King to win blessed Elua's freedom with a night's pleasure . . ."
The cobra uncoiled, hood spreading, swaying as though to unheard music, then stretched up and up into the loveliness of lavender wings, and amethyst eyes that reflected the starlight. "I, Ugiel, call my brothers. Naamah!"
The vulture stretched its naked neck, until great black wings and coal-black eyes in a white face were revealed.
"Rofocale!"
A shrill drone, a mosquito whine, and then there stood on the desert a nephil with wings of flaming red and eyes like garnets.
"Eisheth!"
The crocodile opened its mouth, showing its terrible teeth. It appeared to swallow itself, and vomit forth a tall, green-winged, emerald-eyed nephil.
. . . and so on, until the twelve nephilim have taken their angelic forms, however fallen.* I cannot vouch for the rest of their names, although I have always assumed that L'Engle took them from real sources. Some, like Rumael, Estael, Negarsanel, sound plausibly Semitic: while the name of at least one nephil, Eblis, is dead obvious. But out of curiosity, and because I have always liked the color green, I decided to look up Eisheth. Naturally, I checked Wikipedia first:
In Zoharistic Qabalah, Eisheth Zenunim is one of the four angels of prostitution, the mates of the demon Samael. Her fellow succubi are Lilith, Naamah, and Agrat Bat Mahlat.
I hadn't even realized there were angels of prostitution. Why has no one done more with this concept?** And why does no one seem to know anything about Agrat bat Mahlat? That's the name that interests me: since when do demons (or even fallen angels) have patronymics? I'm aware that a whole slew of them must be the children of Lilith and Ashmedai, but Mahlat is not a name I recognize. There must be some useful text I can read. I may try the book of Enoch. Oh, apocryphal strangeness and prostitute angels. Is this where children's books lead?
*I've also realized belatedly that while L'Engle's distinction between nephilim and seraphim, fallen and unfallen, did not necessarily inform my story "Another Coming," I really think that the tendency of her nephilim to interbreed with mortals did. I read Many Waters in fifth grade—I can date it because of a school project—long before I'd picked up any translation of Genesis. The sons of God and the daughters of men: that's her legacy to my brain, right there.
**Other than Jacqueline Carey: "But when the King of Persis cast blessed Elua in chains, there were among the angels in Heaven those who took pity upon him. Naamah was first among them, and it was she who gave herself to the King to win blessed Elua's freedom with a night's pleasure . . ."
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