Alastor
Alastor (/əˈlæstər, -tɔːr/; Greek: Ἀλάστωρ, English translation: "avenger") refers to a number of people and concepts in Greek mythology:[1]
- Alastor was an epithet of the Greek god Zeus, according to Hesychius of Alexandria and the Etymologicum Magnum, which described him as the avenger of evil deeds, specifically, familial bloodshed. As the personification of a curse, it was also a sidekick of the Erinyes.[2] The name is also used, especially by the tragic writers, to designate any deity or demon who avenges wrongs committed by men.[3][4][5][6][7] In Euripides' play Elecktra, Orestes questions an oracle who calls upon him to kill his mother, and wonders if the oracle was not from Apollo, but some malicious alastor.[8] There was an altar to Zeus Alastor just outside the city walls of Thasos.[9]
- By the time of the 4th century BC, alastor in Greek had degraded to a generic type of insult, with the approximate meaning of "scoundrel".[2]
- Alastor, a son of Neleus and Chloris. When Heracles took Pylos, he killed Alastor and his brothers, except for Nestor.[10][11] According to Parthenius of Nicaea, he was to be married to Harpalyce, who, however, was taken from him by her father Clymenus.[12]
- Alastor, a Lycian, who was a companion of Sarpedon, and was slain by Odysseus.[13][14]
- Alastorides is a patronymic form given by Homer to Tros, who was probably a son of the Lycian Alastor mentioned above.[15]
- Another, unrelated Alastor is mentioned in the Iliad of Homer.[16]
- Alastor, in Christian demonology, came to be considered a kind of possessing entity.[17] He was likened to Nemesis. The name Alastor was also used as a generic term for a class of evil spirits.
In Popular Culture
- Alastor is a sentient sword and a winged devil in the first Devil May Cry game by Capcom. His first appearance is a scene where the sword moves on its own, stabbing the protagonist Dante through the chest. In the game, Alastor has his own will, but is overpowered by Dante, and becomes his primary weapon for most of the game; the spirit of Alastor warns Dante of impending danger via an electric surge through the blade.
- Alastor also appears in a more active role and with a different appearance in all of the Viewtiful Joe games, also by Capcom. In most of the games he serves as a middle level boss, and sometimes as a playable character. As a playable character he has a Devil Trigger form much like Dante's, and a conversation between the two characters in the PlayStation 2 version of Viewtiful Joe confirms that he is the same devil that animated the Alastor sword in Devil May Cry. He has somehow escaped the sword, but still uses it as his own weapon.
- Alastor is the name of a character in the book Troy. He is betrothed but falls in love with and becomes lovers with Helen of Troy's handmaiden Marpessa.
- Alastor Moody is a character appearing in the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.
- A'Lastor appears as a demon bounty hunter in the novel "Seton Rax & Company" by Elliot Symonds.
- Alastor has also appeared as an enemy in the famous Konami series, Castlevania, specifically in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. He appears as a translucent silhouette of a Demon with its only visible feature being a broken dark sword. Earning Alastor's soul in that game grants the user the summoning of Alastor's Sword as a Familiar that follows the user and attacks in tandem. He returns in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin again his only visible feature being a sword, but instead of becoming a familiar (as they are not present in this game) there is a very small chance that you can obtain his "damascus sword" after killing him.
- Alastor has also appeared as the leader of Hell's army in Painkiller, and the final boss in Battle out of Hell, the first Painkiller addon. He appears as a towering winged demon with massive jaws in Painkiller, and a heavily armoured version of said demon in Battle out of Hell.
- In the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade by White Wolf Game Studio the Alastors are an elite group of enforcers (Archons) of the Camarilla whose sole responsibility is tracking and destroying the Anathema (those listed on the Red List).
- Jack Vance wrote three loosely related novels set in a fictitious globular cluster called the Alastor Cluster.
- Alastor's Hood -- late-game headgear in Golden Sun: The Lost Age; this hood can be used in battle "to Haunt a foe."
- A poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley is named "Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude."
- Alastor makes an appearance as a mini-boss in the PC game Titan Quest. He is referred to in-game as "The Scourge of Acheron."
- In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Alastor is the grim, silent pit fiend who serves as the Executioner of Baator. He is also the bodyguard of the Dark Lord of Nessus and is that power's most trusted servant.
- Alastor plays his demonic self in Night Play, a Dark-Hunter novel by Sherrilyn Kenyon, where he is called upon by Were-Hunters to cause mischief. Bryani, Vane's mother, conjures Alastor to bring Bride back in time to Dark Age Britain.
- In the 1994-1998 animated TV series "Spider-Man", there is a character named Alistair Smythe who was the former accomplice of Kingpin. After being forcefully re-engineered by Kingpin, Smythe was turned into a cyborg with demonic wings. This is possibly in reference to Alastor, as his name is pronounced as such.
- In the book The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop, Alastor is an evil wizard that turns people to lead and tortures them with magic.
- In the anime Shakugan no Shana, "Tenjō no Gōka" Alastor is a King of Guze, taking the form of a pendant.
- In the TV series Supernatural, Alastair is portrayed as a master torturer and the equivalent of Hell's high inquisitor. While Dean was in Hell, Alastair tortured him daily offering to stop only if Dean started torturing souls. He would later torture Ruby in the episode "Heaven and Hell."
- In the light novel/anime series Full Metal Panic!, the Alastor Arm Slave is the smallest Arm Slave in the world, under the antagonist organization, Amalgam.
- Alastor is also found in the PC game series Disciples.
- Alastor appears as a boss spirit in the iOS MMORPG Shadow Cities.
- Alastor is a boss and downloadable costume for the iOS rhythm game by Square Enix Demons' Score
- In the second season of Bitten - Alastor is the name of the main antagonist
- Alastor, as depicted in Jacques Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal, appears as a character in two novels by Donald Hounam. In Gifted (2015), the Superior General of the Society of Sorcerers, Matthew Le Geyt, has Alastor summoned from hell to destroy his former pupil, Frank Sampson. In Pariah (2016), Sampson has turned the tables, leaving Le Geyt trapped inside the flimsy protection of a magic circle by his own demon...
- Alastor, Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky's 1912 symphonic poem (Op. 14) based on Shelley's poem.
- "Alastor" - Atlanta indie rock band released 3 albums, lead singer went on to form The Swear.
- Alastor - Polish thrash metal band.
- ALASTOR (US Band) - Southern California heavy metal band.
- Alastor's name is used by Costa Rican Black Metal Band Alastor Sanguinary Embryo
See also
References
- ↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Alastor", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, p. 89
- 1 2 Rose, Herbert Jennings (1996), "Alastor", in Hornblower, Simon, Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece viii. 24. § 4
- ↑ Plutarch, De Defectu Oraculorum 13, &c.
- ↑ Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1479, 1508, The Persians 343
- ↑ Sophocles, The Trachiniae 1092
- ↑ Euripides, Phoenician Women 1550, &c.
- ↑ Euripides, Elecktra 979
- ↑ Cole, Susan Guettel (1994), "Civic Cult and Civic Identity", in Herman Hansen, Mogens, Sources for the Ancient Greek City-State: Symposium August, 24-27 1994, Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, p. 310, ISBN 978-87-7304-267-0
- ↑ Bibliotheca i. 9. § 9
- ↑ Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, i. 156
- ↑ Parthenius of Nicaea, c. 13
- ↑ Homer, Iliad v. 677
- ↑ Ovid, Metamorphoses xiii. 257
- ↑ Homer, Iliad xx. 463
- ↑ Homer, Iliad viii. 333, xiii. 422
- ↑ Sorenson, Eric (2002), Possession and Exorcism in the New Testament and Early Christianity, Mohr Siebeck, p. 78, ISBN 3-16-147851-7
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