Ketev Meriri
Jewish mythology (rabbinic–kabbalistic) · numen · Jewish mythology (rabbinic–kabbalistic) traditional religion; continuing · numen
HIS POWER IS GREATEST IN THE THREE WEEKS OF MOURNING, between the breaching of Jerusalem's walls and the destruction of the Temple — so the tradition locates a heat demon inside its own calendar of catastrophe. The registry does not ingest generic creature classes; he is a NAMED INDIVIDUAL with a folio, a description and a season, not a class of demon.
Domains
- noonday heat
- lethal sight
- the season between the seventeenth of tammuz and the ninth of av
Sources
- Reference treatment of Ketev Meriri: a destructive demon mentioned in Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 111b, whose midday appearance is considered lethal; the demon appears in a jug of Babylonian spice and continuously revolves around inside it; Ketev is the personification of overpowering noonday heat, known also to Greek and Roman demonology; one rabbi describes it as 'completely full of eyes, scales, and hair', while another claims that 'one eye is situated on its heart, and anyone who sees it falls and dies'; its power is greatest between the seventeenth of Tammuz, the date the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans, and the ninth of Av, the day the Temple was destroyed.
- Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 111b
Open in the interactive app →