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Abyzou
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 ((ギリシア語:φθόνος) ''phthonos''), as she herself was infertile. In the Jewish tradition she is identified with Lilith, in Coptic Egypt with Alabasandria, and in Byzantine culture with Gylou, but in various texts surviving from the syncretic magical practice of antiquity and the early medieval era she is said to have many or virtually innumerable names.〔Mary Margaret Fulgum, "Coins Used as Amulets in Late Antiquity," in ''Between Magic and Religion: Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Mediterranean Religion and Society'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), p. 142〕
Abyzou (also spelled Abizou, Obizu, Obizuth, Obyzouth, Byzou etc.) is pictured on amulets with fish- or serpent-like attributes. Her fullest literary depiction is the compendium of demonology known as the ''Testament of Solomon'', dated variously by scholars from as early as the 1st century AD to as late as the 4th.〔A.A. Barb, “Antaura. The Mermaid and the Devil’s Grandmother: A Lecture,” ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes'' 29 (1966), p. 5; “at least to the 2nd century,” Sara Iles Johnston, ''Religions of the Ancient World'' (Harvard University Press, 2004), p. 122 (online ); “probably dates to the third century,” James H. Charlesworth, “Jewish Interest in Astrology,” '' Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II 20.2 (1987) pp. 935–936 (online. ) ''et al.''〕
==Origins==
A.A. Barb connected Abyzou and similar female demons to the Sumerian myth of primeval Sea. Barb argued that although the name “Abyzou” appears to be a corrupted form of the Greek word ''abyssos'' ("the abyss"),〔Based on a popular etymology that saw in the word Greek ''bythos'' (“depth”) with an alpha privative, to mean “without depth” or “bottomless”; Liddell and Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1843, 1985 printing), p. 4, gives no etymology for ἄβυσσος.〕 the Greek itself was borrowed from Assyrian ''Apsu'' or Sumerian ''Abzu'', the undifferentiated sea from which the world was created in the Sumerian belief system, equivalent to Babylonian ''Tiamat'',〔See also article on Assyro-Babylonian religion.〕 or Hebrew ''Tehom'' in the Book of Genesis. The entity Sea was originally bi- or asexual, later dividing into male Abzu (fresh water) and female Tiamat (salt water). The female demons among whom Lilith is the best-known are often said to have come from the primeval sea. In classical Greece, female sea monsters that combine allure and deadliness may also derive from this tradition, including the Gorgons (who were daughters of the old sea god Phorcys), Sirens, Harpies, and even water nymphs and Nereids.〔A.A. Barb, “Antaura. The Mermaid and the Devil’s Grandmother: A Lecture,” ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes'' 29 (1966), p. 6〕
In the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures, the word ''Abyssos'' is treated as a noun of feminine grammatical gender, even though Greek nouns ending in ''-os'' are typically masculine. ''Abyssos'' is equivalent in meaning to Mesopotamian Abzu as the dark chaotic sea before Creation. The word also appears in the Christian scriptures, occurring six times in the Book of Revelation, where it is conventionally translated not as “the deep” but as “the bottomless pit” of Hell. Barb argues that in essence the Sumerian Abzu is the “grandmother” of the Christian Devil.〔Barb, “Antaura,” pp. 10–12.〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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