Wait a sec — is Yoshiko's "Lili/Riri" little demon name for Riko supposed to be an abbreviation of Lilith?
I mean, I've long thought that "Yohane" is probably a nipponization of the Latin name "Johannes", and a reference to Dutch demonologist Johannes Wier (1515-1588, disciple of Agrippa and author of De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantationibus ac Venificiis — "Of the Illusions of Demons and on Spells and Poisons" — and the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, a hierarchy of demons), Johannes Faust (purported author of a 1612 German grimoire, Magia Naturalis et Innaturalis), or Johannes Junius (mayor of the German town of Bamburg, who confessed to and was executed for witchcraft in 1628, but who is primarily known for a letter he wrote to his daughter, claiming innocence and describing the tortures that forced a false confession from him). Probably Wier; the Psuedomonarchia is the easiest to find, and it's been translated into many languages, often with cool illustrations.
(Neither Yohane nor Johannes are legitimate angel names, which all come from Hebrew and usually contain part of one of the names of God, ending either in -el or -iel, for "Elohim", or containing "yah" for YHVH. But we are talking about the name choices made by a Japanese girl, probably 14 or so at the time, who was picking up cheap-but-cool-looking grimoires in used book shops and doing internet searches, both probably in half-understood English.)
last edited at Apr 24, 2022 1:21AM