A young man named Eutychus sat in a third-story window, listening to Paul preach late into the night. He fell asleep, tumbled backward, and died. Paul raised him. That is the whole story in Acts 20. Agares appears in no biblical text at all. Yet the comparison between them persists in occult and esoteric circles, and it rests on a single question: what kind of fall is being described, and who catches you?
Agares is a Goetic duke who falls from heaven, then teaches men how to make others fall. Eutychus is a young man who falls from a window, then is raised by apostolic hands. One fall is theological rebellion. The other is physical accident. The Bible records only one of them.
The two falls, defined
Agares is a duke of hell in the Ars Goetia, the first book of the Lesser Key of Solomon (compiled circa 1640). He appears as a handsome man riding a crocodile, carrying a goshawk. His office is to make men run, to teach languages, and to cause earthquakes. He is a fallen angel, one of the spirits who followed Lucifer and was cast out. His name is sometimes spelled Agreas or Agares.
Eutychus is a young man from Troas, mentioned only in Acts 20:7-12. His name means “fortunate” or “well-fortuned” in Greek. He sat in a window during Paul’s long sermon, fell asleep, dropped three stories, and died. Paul embraced him and declared he was alive. The congregation returned upstairs, broke bread, and talked until dawn.
The two figures share nothing except a name that sounds similar in English and a theme of falling. That is the entire basis of the comparison. It is also the source of a persistent confusion in online occult forums, where Agares is sometimes mistaken for a biblical figure and Eutychus is occasionally misidentified as a demon.
Where the names come from
The name Agares appears first in the Testament of Solomon, a Greek pseudepigraphon likely written between the first and third centuries CE. In that text, Agares is a spirit bound by King Solomon to help build the Temple. He is described as a “demon of the south” who causes earthquakes and can reveal hidden treasures. The Testament presents him as a servant, not a fallen rebel. That changes in the grimoire tradition.
The Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis, or Lesser Key of Solomon, compiled from earlier manuscripts in the mid-17th century, lists Agares as the second spirit. He commands 31 legions. His seal is used in evocation rituals. He is classified as a duke of hell, which in Goetic hierarchy places him below kings but above presidents and earls.
Eutychus appears only in the New Testament. His story is preserved in a single passage. No other ancient source mentions him. His name, Eutychos, was common in the Greek-speaking world. It appears on inscriptions and papyri from the period. The name means nothing sinister. It means lucky.
The confusion between them likely began in the 19th century, when occult revivalists in England and France began cross-referencing biblical names with grimoire lists. A reader unfamiliar with Greek might see “Eutychus” and “Agares” and assume they were variant spellings of the same entity. They are not. They share no etymological root. Agares is of uncertain origin, possibly Hebrew or Aramaic. Eutychus is straightforward Greek.
What each fall means
Agares falls from grace. In the Christian cosmology that the grimoires inherited, he is one of the angels who rebelled under Lucifer and was cast out of heaven. The fall is permanent, theological, and cosmic. He does not seek redemption. He commands legions. He teaches languages and makes men run, which in the grimoire tradition means he can cause panic or flight in battle.
Eutychus falls from a window. The fall is physical, accidental, and reversible. He does not rebel. He does not command. He is a young man who got tired during a long sermon. Paul had been speaking since sundown, and the lamps burned in the upper room. Eutychus sat on the window ledge, probably for air. The heat, the oil smoke, the late hour. He fell asleep and fell out.
The contrast is the point. One fall is an act of cosmic rebellion. The other is a mundane accident. One fall is permanent. The other is undone by a miracle. One fall produces a demon. The other produces a resurrection story.
That is why the comparison matters for anyone working with Goetic texts or reading the New Testament. The two figures occupy opposite ends of a spectrum. Agares is a spirit to be bound and commanded. Eutychus is a person to be pitied and raised. Confusing them means misunderstanding both traditions.
How each appears in practice
In Goetic evocation, Agares is summoned using his seal, drawn on parchment or engraved on metal. The practitioner stands inside a protective circle and recites the appropriate conjurations from the Ars Goetia. Agares is said to appear as a handsome man riding a crocodile, carrying a goshawk on his fist. The crocodile is the detail that most often appears in descriptions. It marks him as a chthonic figure, one who moves between water and land, between the underworld and the surface.
His powers include teaching languages, causing earthquakes, and making men run. In practical terms, a practitioner might call on Agares to learn a foreign language quickly or to break a stalemate in a conflict. The Goetia warns that he must be commanded firmly. He is a duke. He expects respect.
Eutychus has no ritual tradition. No one summons Eutychus. No one draws his seal. He is a narrative figure, not a spirit. In Christian homiletics, he is used as a warning against falling asleep during sermons and as an example of apostolic power. Some commentators note the parallel between Eutychus and the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:11-17) or Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:21-43). Paul raises him by embracing him, not by commanding him. The gesture is physical, not ritual.
The two figures never meet in any text. They never appear in the same manuscript. The only place they coexist is in the mind of a reader who mistakes one for the other.
Common misconceptions
The most common error is the claim that Eutychus is a demon. This appears in online lists of “biblical demons” and in some occult forums. It is false. Eutychus is a human being. He dies and is revived. No ancient Christian source treats him as a spirit.
The second error is the claim that Agares appears in the Bible. He does not. The name does not occur in any canonical text. The Testament of Solomon is not part of the biblical canon. It is a pseudepigraphon, influential but not scripture.
The third error is the claim that Agares and Eutychus are the same figure under different names. This is impossible. Agares is a fallen angel. Eutychus is a resurrected human. One is a spirit. The other is a corpse that became a living person again. They share no identity.
The fourth error is the claim that the name Agares means “fortunate” in Greek. It does not. That is Eutychus. Agares has no clear Greek etymology. Some sources link it to the Hebrew agar, meaning “to gather” or “to collect.” Others suggest an Aramaic origin. Neither is certain.
FAQ
Is Agares mentioned in the Bible? No. Agares appears in the Testament of Solomon and the Ars Goetia, but not in any canonical biblical text.
Did Eutychus actually die? The text says he was taken up dead. Luke uses the Greek word nekros, meaning corpse. Paul then declares he is alive. The plain reading is that a death and resurrection occurred.
Can you summon Agares? Yes, within the Goetic tradition. The Ars Goetia provides his seal, rank, and conjurations. Practitioners should understand the protective measures required before attempting any evocation.
Why do people confuse Agares and Eutychus? The names sound similar in English, and both involve a fall. One is a fallen angel. The other is a fallen human. The similarity is phonetic, not theological.
The pattern behind the confusion
The comparison of Agares and Eutychus is not a comparison of equals. It is a comparison of categories. One figure belongs to the grimoire tradition, the other to the apostolic tradition. One is summoned, the other is saved. One falls by choice, the other falls by accident.
What binds them is the human tendency to see patterns where none exist. A name sounds like another name. A fall looks like another fall. The mind reaches for connection. But the connection is not in the text. It is in the reader.
For the practitioner of Goetic magic, the lesson is to read carefully. Know which spirit you are calling. Know which text you are using. Agares is a duke of hell. Eutychus is a young man from Troas. One commands legions. One needed a nap.
Related guides
For a full list of the 72 Goetic spirits, see our demonology and Goetia hub. For the seals and conjurations of the dukes, see the Goetic dukes guide. For the pseudepigraphal sources that shaped the grimoire tradition, see our glossary of occult texts.