Malphas in Greek Mythology: An Overview

A medieval manuscript shows a figure with the head of a raven, wings folded like a fallen angel, standing at the threshold of a brass vessel. He holds a hammer in one hand and a model of a tower in the other. This is Malphas, a figure classified among the 72 spirits of the Goetia but sometimes mislabeled as a “Greek mythological” entity. Neither the Greek pantheon nor the Homeric tradition contains any record of Malphas. The confusion arises from the fact that his first known appearances occur in Greek-language magical texts of the Byzantine period, centuries after the classical gods had stopped receiving cult.

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What Is Malphas? The Definition from the Primary Sources

Malphas is a spirit cataloged in the Goetia, the first section of the Lesser Key of Solomon (compiled around 1640, drawing on earlier manuscripts from the 1500s and before). He ranks as the 39th spirit and commands 40 legions of infernal subordinates. His seal appears in the Lemegeton manuscripts as a geometric sigil drawn on parchment, never metal.

The definition matters because Malphas is routinely described as a “Greek mythological figure” on blogs and social media, and those claims have no basis in the primary record. He belongs to the grimoire tradition, not to the Greek mythological canon.

Where Did the Idea That Malphas Is Greek Come From?

The misidentification has three sources, and each deserves scrutiny.

First, the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM), a collection of spells and invocations from Greco-Roman Egypt (2nd century BCE to 5th century CE), contains names that resemble Malphas. The PGM invokes “Malpam,” “Malphe,” and “Malpho” as assistants to the god Thoth. These names appear in formulas for dream divination and spirit binding, practices that later grimoires inherited. But “resemble” is not “are.” No surviving PGM fragment names Malphas directly.

Second, several of the Goetic spirits carry names that derive from Near Eastern deities — Astaroth from Astarte, Baal from the Canaanite Ba’al — which has led readers to assume that all 72 share similar pagan roots. Malphas does not. His name is absent from any known ancient Near Eastern pantheon.

Third, some modern occult writers have retroactively assigned Malphas to the Greek daimon tradition, conflating the daimones of Platonic philosophy (neutral spirits of place or nature) with the ranked demons of the grimoires. The conflation is understandable: both systems concern themselves with intermediary spirits. But the Platonic daimon was not summoned into a bronze vessel and commanded to build towers. Malphas was.

How the Grimoires Describe Malphas: The Primary Record

The Lesser Key of Solomon gives Malphas three defining characteristics:

He builds strongholds and towers, filling them with armaments and siege engines. He discovers the secrets of adversaries, revealing their thoughts and plans. He summons familiar spirits and makes offerings acceptable to the conjurer’s gods.

The text also notes that Malphas accepts sacrifices willingly. That detail deserves emphasis: the Goetia often describes its spirits as reluctant or hostile. Malphas is explicitly tractable.

The Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1583) by Johann Weyer, which predates the Lesser Key and served as one of its sources, lists “Malphas” as a great president of hell. Weyer spells the name “Malpas” in some editions and notes that he appears as a crow or raven. The Ars Goetia changes this to a dove in some manuscript variants, but the raven is the older and more common reading.

We have no earlier written record of Malphas. The name does not appear in any classical Greek text, the Bible, or the apocrypha.

Malphas in Greek Mythology: What the Symbols Actually Mean

The symbols associated with Malphas — the raven, the tower, the hammer, are the elements most often cited as evidence of a Greek origin. Each deserves a closer look.

The Raven

Ravens appear in Greek myth as messengers of Apollo and as omens of death. But the raven of the grimoires is not the raven of the Iliad. In the Goetia, the raven is the bird of the battlefield, of carcasses stripped clean, of the threshold between the living and the dead. It is the form Malphas takes when he first appears to the conjurer, before he shifts into human shape.

The Raven’s association with Malphas comes from the Hebrew orev (crow) tradition in Jewish folklore, where crows are linked to destruction and the demoness Lilith, not from the Greek korone.

The Tower

Malphas builds towers and armories. In Greek art, towers appear on the crowns of Tyche (fortune) and Cybele (the mother goddess). But the tower in the grimoires is a fortress, a practical structure meant to withstand siege. It is not a cult object. The conjurer asking Malphas to build a tower is asking for literal construction, not symbol.

The Hammer

The hammer is Vulcan’s tool, not Hephaestus’s. Malphas’s hammer in the grimoires is not the forge hammer of the craftsman god but the engineer’s hammer: the tool that drives stakes, assembles scaffolding, and raises walls.

How Malphas Is Used in Practice

The conjurer does not approach Malphas with a Greek magical formula. The standard goetic method applies: a circle drawn in the earth, the spirit’s seal worn on the breast, the conjuration spoken in a commanding tone from the Ars Goetia.

We have one dated record of a ritual involving Malphas from the 19th century. In the Grimorium Verum (a text the Library believes is of Italian origin, first printed around 1517 but possibly circulated earlier), Malphas is listed among spirits who can be bound to a crystal or a mirror. The text instructs the operator to draw his seal in virgin parchment with the blood of a black hen, a detail that the Lesser Key does not include.

Contemporary practitioners (we count ourselves among them) find Malphas useful for three operations:

1. Protection of physical spaces. The stronghold-builder lends itself to rituals that seal doors, windows, and boundaries.
2. Revelation of hidden information. Malphas “discovers the secrets of adversaries.” In practice, that means divinations aimed at uncovering deception or concealed motives.
3. Construction of spirit allies. The text says Malphas can give “good familiars.” Some interpret this as the ability to create servitors or artificial spirits.

We do not recommend the blood-on-parchment method. The Lesser Key seals work on clean parchment with black ink and consecrated instruments. The 1517 recipe belongs to a different branch of the tradition, one we do not follow.

Common Misconceptions About Malphas

“Malphas was a Greek god worshipped in antiquity.” No classical inscription, temple, or cult attests to Malphas. The name appears nowhere in ancient Greek literature, epigraphy, or papyri.

“Malphas appears in the Greek Magical Papyri.” No surviving PGM fragment contains the name. The names that resemble Malphas, Malpam, Malphe, are not the same figure and do not share his functions.

“Malphas is the same as Morax.” Morax is the 21st spirit of the Goetia, depicted with a human face on a bull’s head. The two are distinct. Morax teaches astronomy and the liberal arts. Malphas builds towers and reveals secrets. They are not variant spellings of the same name.

“Malphas is a fallen angel.” The Lesser Key does not explicitly state that the 72 spirits are fallen angels, though later commentators (including Crowley and Peterson) have assumed it. The text calls them “spirits” and “princes.” The fallen angel interpretation is one reading, not the only one.

Malphas in Greek Mythology vs. the Goetia: A Contrast

Aspect	Greek Daimon Tradition	Goetic Malphas
Source	Plato, Hesiod, Homer, later Neoplatonists	Lemegeton, Weyer, Grimorium Verum
Function	Guardian spirit of place, nature, or individual	President of hell, tower-builder, secret-revealer
Summoning Method	Prayer, incubation, dream oracle	Circle, seal, commanding conjuration
Physical Form	Invisible, occasionally manifested as shadow or light	Raven, then human shape
Relationship to Operator	Protector or guide (in Socrates’ case)	Servant who must be commanded and controlled

The table shows not continuity but rupture. The daimon tradition ended. The goetic tradition opened on different soil.

Where Modern Confusion Persists

A search for “Malphas Greek mythology” returns hundreds of results, most of which cite each other rather than primary sources. The error repeats because it is plausible. The name sounds Greek. The raven is a Greek bird. The tower resembles a Greek citadel. The spell sounds like a Greek incantation. But plausibility is not evidence.

The earliest textual evidence for Malphas comes from the 16th century, not the 6th century BCE. That is a gap of over two thousand years. A figure cannot be “part of Greek mythology” if no Greek source ever recorded his name.

FAQ

Is Malphas mentioned in the Greek Magical Papyri? No. The PGM contains similar-sounding names, Malpam, Malphe, but none that match the goetic Malphas in name or function.

What does Malphas look like in the grimoires? The Lesser Key says he appears as a crow or raven, then takes human form. Some manuscript variants replace the raven with a dove.

What is Malphas good for in practice? Construction and protection of physical spaces, revelation of hidden information, and the binding of spirit allies.

Does Malphas have a seal? Yes. The seal appears in the Lemegeton manuscripts and is the standard method for summoning him. It must be drawn on parchment, never metal.

The Thread from the Grimoire to the Practice

Malphas stands in the long line of spirits that the grimoires systematized and named. He does not descend from Zeus or walk beside Hermes. He comes instead from a specific European magical tradition that reached its full form in the 17th century, when the first printed editions of the Lesser Key began to circulate. Understanding what Malphas is not, a Greek god, makes it possible to understand what he is: a functional, practical spirit whose domain is the stronghold, the secret, and the threshold between seen and unseen.

If you want to go deeper into the ranking of these spirits and how they connect to each other, read our guide to the Goetia and demonology. For the symbols and sigils that define each spirit, see the glossary of esoteric symbols. And for a practical walkthrough of how the seals work in ritual, our guide to goetic ritual seals covers the materials, the preparation, and the conjuration in full.