Arioch

For the black metal vocalist, see Daniel Rostén. For the deity in the Michael Moorcock fantasy novels, see Deities in the Elric series.

Not to be confused with Arioch, the king's chief executioner in the Book of Daniel

Arioch
King of Ellasar
House	Ellasar

Arioch (Hebrew: אַרְיוֹךְ‎ ’Aryōḵ) is a Hebrew name that means "fierce lion". It originally appears in the Book of Genesis chapter 14 as the name of the "King of Ellasar", part of the confederation of kings who did battle with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and with Abraham in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim. Earlier in the 20th century, it was common to identify him with "Eriaku" - an alternative reading of either Rim-Sin or his brother Warad-Sin, who were Elamite rulers over Larsa contemporary with Hammurabi, although this identification has come under attack from scholars in more recent years, and is now largely abandoned, in part due to Nuzu inscriptions referring to a Hurrian king named Ariukki.

Alternatively Ellasar could have been the site referred to as Alashiya, now thought to be near Alassa in Cyprus, where there was a Late Bronze Age palace, destroyed by the Peoples of the Sea.

Adaptations by later writers

Arioch (Arius) was also a grandson of Semiramis in the classical Ninus legend.

Arioch was a name for a fictional demon, and also appears as the name of a demon in many grimoires. Arioch is also named in John Milton's Paradise Lost (vi. 371.) as one of the fallen angels under Satan's command.

Arioch is one of the principal lords of Chaos in several of Michael Moorcock's fantasy series. For more information, see Deities in the Elric series.

Arioch is also the name of an escape artist and magician who rose to fame in the 1990s after performing on MTV.

References

• Price, Ira, 1904. Some Literary Remains of Rim-Sin (Arioch), King of Larsa, about 2285 B.C. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.