| Sammael
Hebrew/Occult
In his Dictionary of Angels, Gustav Davidson remarks that Sammael "has been regarded as both evil and good; as one of the greatest and one of the foulest spirits operating in Heaven, on earth, and in Hell." Sammael, whose name means "poison angel" is quintessential Angel of Death. He has been called the Chief of Satans and is said to live in both Heaven and Hell, served by two million angels in the former place and countless devils in the latter. He takes diabolical form as a huge, twelve-winged serpent. Some say that it was Sammael who took the form of the Serpent and tempted Eve, bringing Sin and Death into the world. The Kabballah refers to him as the "severity of God", suggesting an ambiguous nature in God's service. Dogs howl when he passes them in the night and some say that he fathered the first art critics.
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