SHAPELESS ELEMENTAL

SHAPELESS ELEMENTAL

"Odours of incense and corruption joined in sickening concert, and the black air was alive with the cloudy, semi-visible bulk of shapeless elemental things with eyes."

"In an instant every moving entity was electrified; and forming at once into a ceremonial procession, the nightmare horde slithered away in quest of the sound—goat, satyr, and aegipan,  incubus, succuba, and lemur,  twisted toad and shapeless elemental, dog-faced howler and silent strutter in darkness—all led by the abominable naked phosphorescent thing that had squatted on the carved golden throne, and that now strode insolently bearing in its arms the glassy-eyed corpse of the corpulent old man."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Elementals-The unseen intelligences who inhabit the four elements, of the finest essence of which thy are composed."

Lewis Spence, An Encyclopedia Of Occultism 

SILENT STRUTTER

SILENT STRUTTER

"In an instant every moving entity was electrified; and forming at once into a ceremonial procession, the nightmare horde slithered away in quest of the sound—goat, satyr, and aegipan, incubus, succuba, and lemur, twisted toad and shapeless elemental, dog-faced howler and silent strutter in darkness—all led by the abominable naked phosphorescent thing that had squatted on the carved golden throne, and that now strode insolently bearing in its arms the glassy-eyed corpse of the corpulent old man."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

TWISTED TOAD

TWISTED TOAD

"In an instant every moving entity was electrified; and forming at once into a ceremonial procession, the nightmare horde slithered away in quest of the sound—goat, satyr, and aegipan, incubus, succuba, and lemur, twisted toad and shapeless elemental, dog-faced howler and silent strutter in darkness—all led by the abominable naked phosphorescent thing that had squatted on the carved golden throne, and that now strode insolently bearing in its arms the glassy-eyed corpse of the corpulent old man."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

MISSHAPEN FAUN

MISSHAPEN FAUN 

"Incubi and succubae howled praise to Hecate, and headless moon-calves bleated to the Magna Mater. Goats leaped to the sound of thin accursed flutes, and aegipans chased endlessly after misshapen fauns over rocks twisted like swollen toads." 

H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"These beings are the offspring of the classical Greek demigod Faunus, which resembled him in their semihuman form with the legs, hooves and horns of a goat but the torso and head of a human male. They are likened to the Satyrs and are guardians of the wild life of the woods and fields they inhabit."

Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons

DIONYSUS/BACCHUS

DIONYSUS/BACCHUS

"The strange dark men danced in the rear, and the whole column skipped and leaped with Dionysiac fury. Malone staggered after them a few steps, delirious and hazy, and doubtful of his place in this or in any world. Then he turned, faltered, and sank down on the cold damp stone, gasping and shivering as the daemon organ croaked on, and the howling and drumming and tinkling of the mad procession grew fainter and fainter."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Here Laurell'd Muses all their arts reheards, 

And ivy'd Bacchus waves his budding thyrse" 

H.P. Lovecraft, Simplicity: A Poem

"DIONYSOS, the youthful, beautiful, but effeminate god of wine. He is also called both by Greeks and Romans Bacchus (Bakchos), that is, the noisy or riotous god, which was originally a mere epithet or surname of Dionysus, but does not occur till after the time of Herodotus."

"Bacchus with horns, either those of a ram or of a bull. This representation 

occurs chiefly on coins."

Sir William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology 

"But she, foaming at the mouth and twisting her eyes all about, not thinking as she ought, was possessed by Bakkhos, and he did not persuade her. Seizing his left arm at the elbow and propping her foot against the unfortunate man's side, she tore out his shoulder, not by her own strength, but the god gave facility to her hands." 

Euripides, The Bacchae

"That the Bacchanalia have for some time been going on throughout Italy and are now practiced in many parts of the City you have, I am sure, learnt not only by report, but also by the nightly noises and yells which resound all over the City; but I do not think you know what it all means."

"In the first place, then, women form the great majority, and this was the source of all the mischief. Then there are the males, the very counterparts of the women, committing and submitting to the foulest uncleanness, frantic and frenzied, driven out of their senses by sleepless nights, by wine, by nocturnal shouting and uproar."

"When once the mysteries had assumed this promiscuous character, and men were mingled with women with all the licence of nocturnal orgies, there was no crime, no deed of shame, wanting. More uncleanness was wrought by men with men than with women. Whoever would not submit to defilement, or shrank from violating others, was sacrificed as a victim. To regard nothing as impious or criminal was the very sum of their religion."
Livy, History Of Rome; Book 39

"DIONYSOS (or Dionysus) was the great Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasure and festivity. He was depicted as either an older bearded god or a pretty effeminate, long-haired youth. His attributes included the thyrsos (a pine-cone tipped staff) and fruiting vine. 

Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology 

AEGIPAN

AEGIPAN

“And God! The shapes of nightmare that float around in that perpetual daemon twilight! The blasphemies that lurk and leer and hold a Witches’ Sabbat with that woman as a high-priestess! The black shaggy entities that are not quite goats—the crocodile-headed beast with three legs and a dorsal row of tentacles—and the flat-nosed aegipans dancing in a pattern that Egypt’s priests knew and called accursed."

H.P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop, Medusa's Coil

"In an instant every moving entity was electrified; and forming at once into a ceremonial procession, the nightmare horde slithered away in quest of the sound—goat, satyr, and aegipan, incubus, succuba, and lemur, twisted toad and shapeless elemental, dog-faced howler and silent strutter in darkness—all led by the abominable naked phosphorescent thing that had squatted on the carved golden throne, and that now strode insolently bearing in its arms the glassy-eyed corpse of the corpulent old man."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Capricorn or Sea Goat. This sign resembles Aegipan, whom Jupiter (Zeus) wished to be put among the constellations because he was nourished with him, just as he put the goat nurse we have mentioned before. He, first, as Eratosthenes (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) says, when Jupiter attacked the Titanes, is said to have cast into the enemy the fear that is called 'panikos'. The lower part of his body has fish formation, because he hurled shellfish against the enemy, too, instead of stones."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 28

SILENT STRUTTER

 SILENT STRUTTER
"In an instant every moving entity was electrified; and forming at once into a ceremonial procession, the nightmare horde slithered away in quest of the sound—goat, satyr, and aegipan, incubus, succuba, and lemur, twisted toad and shapeless elemental, dog-faced howler and silent strutter in darkness—all led by the abominable naked phosphorescent thing that had squatted on the carved golden throne, and that now strode insolently bearing in its arms the glassy-eyed corpse of the corpulent old man."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

DIONYSUS/BACCHUS

DIONYSUS/BACCHUS

"The strange dark men danced in the rear, and the whole column skipped and leaped with Dionysiac fury. Malone staggered after them a few steps, delirious and hazy, and doubtful of his place in this or in any world. Then he turned, faltered, and sank down on the cold damp stone, gasping and shivering as the daemon organ croaked on, and the howling and drumming and tinkling of the mad procession grew fainter and fainter."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Here Laurell'd Muses all their arts reheards, 

And ivy'd Bacchus waves his budding thyrse" 

H.P. Lovecraft, Simplicity: A Poem

"DIONYSOS, the youthful, beautiful, but effeminate god of wine. He is also called both by Greeks and Romans Bacchus (Bakchos), that is, the noisy or riotous god, which was originally a mere epithet or surname of Dionysus, but does not occur till after the time of Herodotus."

"Bacchus with horns, either those of a ram or of a bull. This representation 

occurs chiefly on coins."

Sir William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology 

"But she, foaming at the mouth and twisting her eyes all about, not thinking as she ought, was possessed by Bakkhos, and he did not persuade her. Seizing his left arm at the elbow and propping her foot against the unfortunate man's side, she tore out his shoulder, not by her own strength, but the god gave facility to her hands." 

Euripides, The Bacchae

"That the Bacchanalia have for some time been going on throughout Italy and are now practiced in many parts of the City you have, I am sure, learnt not only by report, but also by the nightly noises and yells which resound all over the City; but I do not think you know what it all means."

"In the first place, then, women form the great majority, and this was the source of all the mischief. Then there are the males, the very counterparts of the women, committing and submitting to the foulest uncleanness, frantic and frenzied, driven out of their senses by sleepless nights, by wine, by nocturnal shouting and uproar."

"When once the mysteries had assumed this promiscuous character, and men were mingled with women with all the licence of nocturnal orgies, there was no crime, no deed of shame, wanting. More uncleanness was wrought by men with men than with women. Whoever would not submit to defilement, or shrank from violating others, was sacrificed as a victim. To regard nothing as impious or criminal was the very sum of their religion."
Livy, History Of Rome; Book 39

"DIONYSOS (or Dionysus) was the great Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasure and festivity. He was depicted as either an older bearded god or a pretty effeminate, long-haired youth. His attributes included the thyrsos (a pine-cone tipped staff) and fruiting vine. 

Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology 

 

SATYR

 

SATYR 

"In an instant every moving entity was electrified; and forming at once into a ceremonial procession, the nightmare horde slithered away in quest of the sound—goat, satyr, and aegipan, incubus, succuba, and lemur, twisted toad and shapeless elemental, dog-faced howler and silent strutter in darkness—all led by the abominable naked phosphorescent thing that had squatted on the carved golden throne, and that now strode insolently bearing in its arms the glassy-eyed corpse of the corpulent old man."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

 
"Satyrs are hybrid humanoid creatures in the classical mythology of Greece that were equated with the fauns of Roman mythology. There are several descriptions of them through the various time periods. Originally, they were depicted as a human male with the legs of a goat and small horns on the head."

"The satyrs during the latest periods are the ones with the most familiar image, with human faces, pointed ears and horns but with hairy male bodies above the body and the legs of a goat below."
Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons

HECATE

HECATE
"Satan here held his Babylonish court, and in the blood of stainless childhood the leprous limbs of phosphorescent Lilith were laved. Incubi and succubae howled praise to Hecate, and headless moon-calves bleated to the Magna Mater."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

 "Torch-bearing Hekate holy daughter of great-bosomed Nyx."
Bacchylides, The Poems and Fragments

"He (Odysseus) shall pour on the shore offerings for thee, unhappy one, fearing the anger of the three-necked goddess (Hekate), for that he shall hurl the first stone at thy (Hekabe's) stoning and begin the dark sacrifice to Haides."
Lycophron, The Alexandra

O three-formed (triformis) Hecate, and ye gods by whose divinity Jason swore to me ... I have yet curse more dire to call down on my husband – may he live."
Lucius Annaeus Senecca, Medea

"In appearance she was frightful, and serpents hung hissing around her shoulders."
Lewis Spence, An Encyclopedia Of Occultism

"Some people claimed that Hecate stood 100 feet tall and roamed the countryside with a pack of wild hounds."
Mysteries Of the Unknown-Witches and Witchcraft

"Hecate was a pagan moon-goddess so powerful that fear of her cruel ways extended even into Christian times. Keeper of the keys to hell, she was called the Mother Of Witches and the Queen Of Ghosts."
The Enchanted World, Night Creatures

 

SATAN

 

 SATAN

"Here cosmic sin had entered, and festered by unhallowed rites had commenced the grinning march of death that was to rot us all to fungous abnormalities too hideous for the grave’s holding. Satan here held his Babylonish court, and in the blood of stainless childhood the leprous limbs of phosphorescent Lilith were laved. Incubi and succubae howled praise to Hecate, and headless moon-calves bleated to the Magna Mater."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Christian art and literature, the devil is sometimes represented with three faces or three heads in antithesis to the trinity, as in Dante's description. It may also have a head on its stomach or rump or eyes for kneecaps."

Marjorie O'Rourke Boyle, Loyola's Acts: The Rhetoric Of Self

"Two mighty wings, enormous as became
A bird so vast.  Sails never such I saw
Outstretch'd on the wide sea.  No plumes had they,
But were in texture like a bat, and these
He flapp'd i' th' air, that from him issued still
Three winds, wherewith Cocytus to its depth
Was frozen."

Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy; The Vision Of Hell, Canto XXXIV

"The Devil's penis was hard, made of bone or horn (or even iron) as well as flesh; his semen was ice-cold. His penis was bifurcate, able to penetrate two orifices at once."
Erica Jong, Witches


"When these members of the devil have met together, they generally light a foul and horrid fire. The devil is president of the assembly and sits on a throne, in some terrible shape, as of a goat or a dog; and they approach him to adore him, but not always
 in the same manner. "
Fracesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium Malificarum

"At the Sabbat the demon Leonard appeared as  large goat with three horns instead of two. The Devil himself at a Sabbat was supposed to appear in the same shape."

"He is not only depicted as having cloven hooves and a tail and horns, though this is usual."           Leonard R. N. Ashley, The Complete Book Of Devils and Demons 

"To give Satan a visual representation, the early Christians borrowed heavily from earlier mythologies, and the generally accepted appearance of Satan is an amalgamation of such things as the horns and shaggy hindquarters of  the Greek god Pan." 
Richard Craze, Hell 

"Often the Devil appears monstrous and deformed, his outward shape betraying his inner defect. He has an extra face on belly, knees, or buttocks."

"Other characteristics are hooves or paws, claws, hairiness, and goat legs."
Jeffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer: The Devil In the Middle Ages


 

MOLOCH

MOLOCH
"Moloch and Ashtaroth were not absent; for in this quintessence of all damnation the bounds of consciousness were let down, and man’s fancy lay open to vistas of every realm of horror and every forbidden dimension that evil had power to mould."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Moloch was the god of the Ammonites, portrayed as a bronze statue with a calf’s head adorned with a royal crown and seated on a throne."

"Rabbis claim that in the famous statue of Moloch, there were seven kinds of cabinets. The first was for flour, the second for turtle doves, the third for an ewe, the fourth for a ram, the fifth for a calf, the sixth for a beef, and the seventh for a child. It is because of this, Moloch is associated with Mithras and his seven mysterious gates with seven chambers. When a child was sacrificed to Moloch, a fire was lit inside the statue. The priests would then beat loudly on drums and other objects so that the cries would not be heard."
Colin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernal

"First MOLOCH, horrid King besmear'd with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,"
John Milton, Paradise Lost

SAMAËL

 SAMAËL

"He had been growing shabbier and shabbier with the years, and now prowled about like a veritable mendicant; seen occasionally by humiliated friends in subway stations, or loitering on the benches around Borough Hall in conversation with groups of swarthy, evil-looking strangers. When he spoke it was to babble of unlimited powers almost within his grasp, and to repeat with knowing leers such mystical words or names as “Sephiroth”, “Ashmodai”, and “Samaël."'
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"And when she saw (the consequences of) her desire, it changed into a form of a lion-faced serpent. And its eyes were like lightning fires which flash. She cast it away from her, outside that place, that no one of the immortal ones might see it, for she had created it in ignorance. And she surrounded it with a luminous cloud, and she placed a throne in the middle of the cloud that no one might see it except the holy Spirit who is called the mother of the living. And she called his name Yaltabaoth."

"Now the archon who is weak has three names. The first name is Yaltabaoth, the second is Saklas, and the third is Samael. And he is impious in his arrogance which is in him. For he said, 'I am God and there is no other God beside me,' for he is ignorant of his strength, the place from which he had come."
The Apocryphon Of John, The Secret Book Of John

"There was another angel in the seventh heaven, different in appearance from all the others, and of frightful mien. His height was so great, it would have taken five hundred years to cover a distance equal to it, and from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet he was studded with glaring eyes, at the sight of which the beholder fell prostrate in awe. "This one," said Metatron, addressing Moses, "is Samael, who takes the soul away from man."
Louis Ginzberg, The Ascension Of Moses
 
"Red Samael, who was then a seraph, led Lilith away from the warm sunlit paths of Eden, into the refreshing shade of a huge tree which thrived in the midst of this garden, and away from the paths of virtue also."  
James Branch Cabell, The Devil's Own Dear Son

 

ASHMODAI

ASHMODAI

"He had been growing shabbier and shabbier with the years, and now prowled about like a veritable mendicant; seen occasionally by humiliated friends in subway stations, or loitering on the benches around Borough Hall in conversation with groups of swarthy, evil-looking strangers. When he spoke it was to babble of unlimited powers almost within his grasp, and to repeat with knowing leers such mystical words or names as “Sephiroth”, “Ashmodai”, and “Samaël”."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"The Thirty-second Spirit is Asmoday, or Asmodai. He is a Great King, Strong and Powerful. He appeareth with Three Heads, whereof the first is like a Bull, the second like a Man, and the third like a Ram; he hath also the tail of a Serpent, and from his mouth issue Flames of Fire. His Feet are webbed like those of a Goose. He sitteth upon an Infernal Dragon, and beareth in his hand a Lance with a Banner."
Clavicula Salomonis Regis, Lemegeton, Book I: The Goetia

GORGO

GORGO

"O friend and companion of night, thou who rejoicest in the baying of dogs and spilt blood, who wanderest in the midst of shades among the tombs, who longest for blood and bringest terror to mortals, Gorgo, Mormo, thousand-faced moon, look favourably on our sacrifices!"
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Gorgo may be a variation on Gorgon, the snake-haired female monster that could turn men to stone."
S.T. Joshi & Peter Cannon, More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

"Reflection had given it charm, made it acceptable to sanity, just as reflection had made those snakes, and the one who wore them, picturesque and not petrifying. But no amount of reflection could have conceived seeing the thing itself, nor the state of being stone."
Thomas Ligotti, The Medusa

"And I should have seen still other of them that are gone before, whom I would fain have seen- Theseus and Pirithous glorious children of the gods, but so many thousands of ghosts came round me and uttered such appalling cries, that I was panic stricken lest Proserpine should send up from the house of Hades the head of that awful monster Gorgon."
Homer, The Odyssey

"They (Gorgons) were described as having the form of women but with wings on their backs, great tusks or fangs in huge gaping mouths from which their tongues lolled, heads full of writhing snakes in place of hair, and brazen clawed hands on their arms. Their most fearsome feature, however, was their eyes, for any mortal who was foolish enough to look at them was instantly turned to stone"

"Gorgon is also the name of a monster in the early mythology of Greece. It was said to be generated by Gaia as a creature that could assist the Gigantes in their struggle against the Olympian gods. It was dispatched by Athene, who decapitated the beast and placed it beneath the meeting place, or agora. The confusion of this early legend with the later classical myth involving the hero Perseus has let to the two being totally conflated and t he earlier version almost lost."
Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons

MORMO

MORMO

"O friend and companion of night, thou who rejoicest in the baying of dogs and spilt blood, who wanderest in the midst of shades among the tombs, who longest for blood and bringest terror to mortals, Gorgo, Mormo, thousand-faced moon, look favourably on our sacrifices!"
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Infernal and earthly and heavenly Bombo, come. Goddess of waysides, of cross-roads, lightbearer, nightwalker. Hater of the light, lover and companion of the night, Who rejoicest in the baying of hounds and in purple blood; Who dost stalk among corpses and the tombs of the dead, Thirst for blood, who bringest fear to mortals, Gorgo and Mormo and Mene and many-formed one. Come thou propitious to our libations!"
Hippolytus Of Rome, Philosophumena or Refutation Of All Heresies

"The Mormo or Mormolyce, possibly meaning "Banewolf" or "Werewolf", was described as a monstrous female who had originally been deprived of her children. The grief had turned her into a monster that abducted and took the children of others in revenge."
Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons

"Oh, what a trembling the Mormo brought us then, when we were little ones!--On its head were huge ears, and it walked on all fours, and changed from one face to another!"
Erinna, The Distaff

"The belief in Mormo and Gorgo is also occasionally found; and Gello, another child-eating monster of classical times"
Henry Fanshawe Tozer, Researches In the Highlands Of Turkey

MAGNA MATER

MAGNA MATER

"Satan here held his Babylonish court, and in the blood of stainless childhood the leprous limbs of phosphorescent Lilith were laved. Incubi and succubae howled praise to Hecate, and headless moon-calves bleated to the Magna Mater."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Artemis Of Ephesus, perhaps best known from the "many-breasted" statues that have been discovered at Ephesus, is principally the Earth Mother, than Anatolian Magna Mater, or Cybele the goddess of fertility or fructification."
 Geoffrey W. Bromiley, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: A-D

"The Ephesus guidebooks say that these days most archaeologists don’t think the lumps on Artemis’ chest are really breasts, but rather the severed testicles of sacrificial bulls—fertility offerings that were part of her sacred rites. Historically, severed testicles were intimately associated with both Artemis and Anatolian Cybele; her priests cut off their genitals to honor her, and only a man thus unmanned could preside over her temple rites." 
Tim Ward, Savage Breast

LILITH

LILITH

"It was murder—strangulation—but one need not say that the claw-mark on Mrs. Suydam’s throat could not have come from her husband’s or any other human hand, or that upon the white wall there flickered for an instant in hateful red a legend which, later copied from memory, seems to have been nothing less than the fearsome Chaldee letters of the word “LILITH'".

"Somewhere dark sticky water was lapping at onyx piers, and once the shivery tinkle of raucous little bells pealed out to greet the insane titter of a naked phosphorescent thing which swam into sight, scrambled ashore, and climbed up to squat leeringly on a carved golden pedestal in the background."

"Satan here held his Babylonish court, and in the blood of stainless childhood the leprous limbs of phosphorescent Lilith were laved."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Lilith is a demoness with a human appearance except that she has wings."
The Talmud; B. Nidda 24b

"She bedecks herself with all kinds of jewelry
like an abhorrent prostitute posing on the corner to seduce men.
The fool who approaches her--
she grabs him and kisses him, [Prov. 7:13]
pours him wine from the dregs, from the venom of vipers.
As soon as he drinks, he strays after her.
Seeing him stray from the path of truth,
she strips herself of all her finery that she dangled before that fool,
her adornments for seducing men:
her hair all arranged, red as a rose,
her face white and red,
six trinkets dangling from her ears,
her bed covered with fabric from Egypt,
on her neck all the jewels of the East,
her mouth poised, a delicate opening,
what lovely trappings!"
Zohar Sitrei Torah 1:147b-148b; Jacob's Journey

"This text was used to interpret a sculpture of a woman with bird talons for feet as being a depiction of Lilith."
Lowell K. Handy, Lilith; Anchor Bible Dictionary

"The devouring hag Lilitu, here rendered in painted terra cotta, was among the most terrible spirits of Sumerian mythology and a model for the Hebrew demon Lilith. Winged and taloned, she searched fro men to seduce and children to murder."
Mysteries Of the Unknown-Witches and Witchcraft

"This Lilith -- the Merciful One save us!-- has dominion over children who issue from a man who has intercourse at candlelight, or with his wife naked, or at times when he is forbidden to have intercourse."
Naftali Bacharach, Sefer Emek ha-Melech

LEMUR

LEMUR

"In an instant every moving entity was electrified; and forming at once into a ceremonial procession, the nightmare horde slithered away in quest of the sound—goat, satyr, and aegipan, incubus, succuba, and lemur, twisted toad and shapeless elemental, dog-faced howler and silent strutter in darkness—all led by the abominable naked phosphorescent thing that had squatted on the carved golden throne, and that now strode insolently bearing in its arms the glassy-eyed corpse of the corpulent old man."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

"Some writers describe lemurs as the common name for all spirits of the dead, and divide them into two classes, the Lares, or souls of good men, and Larvae, or souls of wicked men. But the common idea was that Lemures and Larvae were the same. They were said to wander about as specters and to torment and frighten the living."
Sir William Smith, Dictionary Of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology, and Geology

DOG-FACED HOWLER

DOG-FACED HOWLER

"In an instant every moving entity was electrified; and forming at once into a ceremonial procession, the nightmare horde slithered away in quest of the sound—goat, satyr, and aegipan, incubus, succuba, and lemur, twisted toad and shapeless elemental, dog-faced howler and silent strutter in darkness—all led by the abominable naked phosphorescent thing that had squatted on the carved golden throne, and that now strode insolently bearing in its arms the glassy-eyed corpse of the corpulent old man."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook