alastor

 

(əlăs'tər) , in Greek mythology, spirit of vengeance. It is an epithet applied to Zeus or any other god in his aspect as avenger and is also sometimes applied to an evildoer who is subject to vengeance.

Alastor ("avenger") in Greek mythology, was the personification of familial feuds. He was also associated with sins that pass down from parent to child. As a genius, or spirit of the household in Roman mythology, he incited people to murder and other sins.

Another Alastor mortal, son of Neleus, King of Pylos. He was later downgraded to a minor daemon after he and his brothers were killed by Heracles^{[citation needed]}.

Third Alastor was friend of Serpedon, who was killed by Odysseus.^[1]

In Christian demonology, Alastor became chief executioner to the monarch of Hell. He was likened to Nemesis and the destroying angel and was known as The Executioner. He was exceptionally cruel.

The name Alastor was also used as a generic term for a class of evil spirits.

Edward Alexander Crowley, 20th century ceremonial magician, changed his first name to Aleister. The difference in spelling can be easily attributed to the fact that 'Alastor Crowley' does not add up to 666.

Alastor in fiction

• Alastor is also a quasi-sentient sword and a winged devil in the first Devil May Cry game by Capcom. His first appearance is a scene where the sword moves on its own, stabbing the protagonist Dante through the chest. In the game, Alastor has his own will, but is overpowered by Dante, and becomes his primary weapon for most of the game; the spirit of Alastor warns Dante of impending danger via an electric surge through the blade.
• Alastor also appears in a more active role and with a different appearance in all of the Viewtiful Joe games, also by Capcom. In most of the games he serves as a middle level boss, and sometimes as a playable character. As a playable character he has a Devil Trigger form much like Dante's, and a conversation between the two characters in the PlayStation 2 version of Viewtiful Joe confirms that he is the same devil that animated the Alastor sword in Devil May Cry. He has somehow escaped the sword, but still uses it as his own weapon.
• Alastor Moody is a character appearing in the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
• Alastor has also appeared as an enemy in the famous Konami series, Castlevania, specifically in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. He appears as a translucent silhouette of a Demon with its only visible feature being a broken dark sword. Earning Alastor's soul in that game grants the user the summoning of Alastor's Sword as a Familiar that follows the user and attacks in tandem. He returns in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin again his only visible feature being a sword, but instead of becoming a familiar (as they are not present in this game) there is a very small chance that you can obtain his "damascus sword" after killing him.
• Alastor has also appeared as the leader of Hell's army in Painkiller, and the final boss in Battle out of Hell, the first Painkiller addon. He appears as a towering winged demon with massive jaws in Painkiller, and a heavily armoured version of said demon in Battle out of Hell.
• In the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade by White Wolf Game Studio the Alastors are an elite group of enforcers (Archons) of the Camarilla whose sole responsibility is tracking and destroying the Anathema (those listed on the Red List).
• Jack Vance wrote three loosely related novels set in a fictitious globular cluster called Alastor.
• Alastor's Hood -- late-game headgear in Golden Sun: The Lost Age; this hood can be used in battle "to Haunt a foe."
• "Tenjō no Gōka" Alastor: He is the Crimson Lord to whom Shana, of Shakugan no Shana, is bound.
• A poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley is named Alastor.
• Alastor makes an appearance as a mini-boss in the PC game Titan Quest. He is referred to in-game as "The Scourge of Acheron."
• In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Alastor is the grim, silent pit fiend who serves as the Executioner of Baator. He is also the bodyguard of the Dark Lord of Nessus and is that power's most trusted servant.
• Alastor plays his demonic self in Night Play, a Dark-Hunter novel by Sherrilyn Kenyon, where he is called upon by Were-Hunters to cause mischief. Bryani, Vane's mother, conjures Alastor to bring Bride back in time to Dark Age Britain.
• In the 1994-1998 animated TV series "Spider-Man", there is a character named Alistair Smythe whom was the former accomplice of Kingpin. After being forcefully re-engineered by Kingpin, Smythe was turned into a cyborg with demonic wings. This is possibly in reference to Alastor, as his name is pronounced as such.
• In the book The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop, Alastor is an evil wizard that turns people to lead and tortures them with magic.

Alastor in music

• Alastor, Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky's 1912 symphonic poem (Op. 14) based on Shelley's poem.

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