Demons in Gnosticism

thumb|upright=1.1|The Destruction of Leviathan by Gustave Doré (1865) thumb|upright=1.4|The circular salt sea Tiamat (green) and sphere of cosmic freshwater ocean [[Abzu are pre-existent deities in Sumerian myths, from whose mating Earth was created, so the sketch's side view shows the same as Babylon's map. Referring to the Atra-Hasis epic, Abzu is the celestial reservoir from which an organisation of younger gods triggers the Flood in order to consume humanity – also a source for the dangerous cosmic sea monster Leviathan.]]

In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the Demiurge () is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. Various schools of Gnostics adopted the term demiurge.

thumb|Samael (1890) by Evelyn De Morgan thumb|A relief of the Archangel Samael in red robe, shown on the left side of the altar at Saint Bartholomew's Church, in Sydenham, London.

demonic entities subordinate to the embodiment of evil in the corresponding belief-system

thumb|A lion-faced, Snakes in mythology|serpentine [[deity found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de Montfaucon's ''L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures'', a depiction of Yaldabaoth.]]