Chapter Arviragus to Asmodeus of A by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Lady Eleanor Ashton, wife of sir William.

Colonel Sholto Douglas Ashton, eldest son of sir William.

Lucy Ashton, daughter of sir William, betrothed to Edgar (the master of Ravenswood); but being compelled to marry Frank Hayston (laird of Bucklaw), she tries to murder him in the bridal chamber, and becomes insane. Lucy dies, but the laird recovers.—Sir W. Scott: The Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

(This has been made the subject of an opera by Donizetti, called Lucia di Lammermoor, 1835.)

Asia, the wife of that Pharaoh who brought up Moses. She was the daughter of Mozahem.—Sale: Al Korân, xx. notes.

Asia, wife of that Pharaoh who knew not Joseph. Her husband tortured her for believing in Moses; but she was taken alive into paradise.—Sale: Al Korân, lxvi. note.

Mahomet says, “Among women four have been perfect: Asia, wife of Pharaoh; Mary, daughter of Imrân; Khadijah, the prophet’s first wife; and Fâtima, his own daughter.”

Asir or rather Æsir, the celestial deities of Scandinavian mythology, viz. Odin, Thor, Baldr, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdall, Vidar, Vali, Ullur, and Forsetti.

Sometimes the goddesses Frigga (wife of Odin), Sif (wife of Thor), and Iduna are ranked among the Æsir; but Niord. with his wife Shado, their son Frey and daughter Frega, do not belong to the celestials but to the Vanir.

Asmadai, the same as Asmodeus , the lustful and destroying angel, who robbed Sara of her seven husbands (Tobit iii. 8 ). Milton makes him one of the rebellious angels overthrown by Uriël and Raphaël. Hume says the word means “the destroyer.”—Paradise Lost, vi. 365 (1665).

Asmodeus , the demon of vanity and dress, called in the Talmud “king of the devils.” As “dress” is one of the bitterest evils of modern life, it is termed “the Asmodeus of domestic peace,” a phrase employed to express any “skeleton” in the house of a private family.

(In the book of Tobit Asmodeus falls in love with Sa ra, daughter of Raguël, and causes the successive deaths of seven husbands each on his bridal night; but when Sara married Tobit, Asmodeus was driven into Egypt by a charm made of the heart and liver of a fish burnt on perfumed ashes.)

N.B.—Milton makes it a word of 4 syl with the accent on the penult; but Tennyson makes the word either Asmodeus, or Asmodeus, with the accent on the second syl.

Better pleased
Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, iv. 168.

Abaddon and Asmodeus caught at me.
   —Tennyson: St. Simeon Stylités.