Abyzou
Sign in to saveIn the myth and folklore of the Near East and Europe, Abyzou is the name of a female demon. Abyzou was blamed for miscarriages and infant mortality and was said to be motivated by envy, as she herself was infertile. In Coptic Egypt, she is identified with Alabasandria, and in Byzantine culture with Gylou. In various texts surviving from the syncretic magical practice of antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, she is said to have many or virtually innumerable names.
Article
11 sectionsContents
- Origins
- In the ''Testament of Solomon''
- On medical amulets
- Names
- Gyllou, Gylou, Gello
- Antaura
- Alabasandria
- In popular culture
- See also
- References
- Selected bibliography
In the myth and folklore of the Near East and Europe, Abyzou is the name of a female demon. Abyzou was blamed for miscarriages and infant mortality and was said to be motivated by envy, as she herself was infertile. In Coptic Egypt, she is identified with Alabasandria, and in Byzantine culture with Gylou. In various texts surviving from the syncretic magical practice of antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, she is said to have many or virtually innumerable names.
Abyzou (also spelled Abizou, Obizu, Obizuth, Obyzouth, Byzou etc.) is pictured on amulets with fish- or serpent-like attributes. Her fullest literary depiction is from the compendium of demonology known as the Testament of Solomon, dated variously by scholars from as early as the 1st century CE to as late as the 4th.