Abaddon/Apollyon

Apollyon de Kris-Ann Ehrich

Abadón o Apolión

"Sólo los ceñudos y severos dioses del desierto saben lo que ocurrió en realidad; qué forcejeos y luchas sostuve en la oscuridad, o qué Abaddón me guió de nuevo a la vida, donde siempre habré de recordar, y estremecerme, cuando sopla el viento de la noche, hasta que el olvido -o algo peor- me reclame."

H.P. Lovecraft, La Ciudad Sin Nombre

El Ángel Exterminador es Abadón o Abaddon (del hebreo אֲבַדּוֹן, 'Ǎḇaddōn, "destrucción" o "perdición"). En el libro del Apocalipsis es el "Ángel del abismo sin fondo", quien reinará sobre las plagas de langostas que asolarán a la humanidad "no marcada en la frente con el sello de Dios". En Apocalipsis 9:11 también figura identificado como Apolión o como anticristo.

"El Ángel Exterminador" de Josep Llimona, en el cementerio de Comillas (Cantabria)

Dubious Chorazin by Robert M. Price copyright © 1982 by Robert M. Price reprinted by permission of Robert M. Price

With the several horrors of Dunwich, Arkham, Innsmouth, and Kingsport we are all familiar. But another hamlet found only in Lovecraft's atlas is the upper New York State village "which bore the dubious name of Chorazin" ("The Diary of Alonzo Typer"). Why dubious? The name occurs in Matthew 11:20-24. "Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 'Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! . . . And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to Hades. . . . But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.'" Who would name their town "Chorazin", save people who explicitly repudiated Christianity and embraced "the other side"? And sure enough, Lovecraft says the "straggling village arose around the dreaded house" of the wicked van der Heyl family and continued to observe blasphemous heathen sabbats in succeeding generations. We see this phenomenon elsewhere in the same tale, in the case of "The unmentionable Abaddon Corey" of Salem. "Abaddon" means "Destroyer", and is the name given the king of the locusts from the bottomless pit in Revelation 9:11: "They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon. . . . " That someone should have been named this by his parents indicates that he is sprung from a hereditary line of witches and warlocks. Of course that is exactly what Lovecraft's context implies.