In the sixteenth century, Nisroch became seen as a
demon. The Dutch
demonologist Johann Weyer listed Nisroch in his
Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577) as the "chief cook" of
Hell. Nisroch appears in Book VI of
John Milton's epic poem
Paradise Lost (first published in 1667) as one of
Satan's demons. Nisroch, who is described as frowning and wearing beaten armor, calls into question Satan's argument that the fight between the angels and demons is equal, objecting that they, as demons, can feel pain, which will break their morale. According to Milton scholar Roy Flannagan, Milton may have chosen to portray Nisroch as timid because he had consulted the Hebrew dictionary of C. Stephanus, which defined the name "Nisroch" as "Flight" or "Delicate Temptation". In the 1840s, the British archaeologist
Austen Henry Layard uncovered numerous stone carvings of winged,
eagle-headed genii at
Kalhu. Remembering the Biblical story of Sennacherib's murder, Layard mistakenly identified these figures as "Nisrochs". Such carvings continued to be known as "Nisrochs" in popular literature throughout the remaining portion of the nineteenth century. In
Edith Nesbit's classic 1906 children's novel
The Story of the Amulet, the child protagonists summon an eagle-headed "Nisroch" to guide them. Nisroch opens a portal and advises them, "Walk forward without fear" and asks, "Is there aught else that the Servant of the great Name can do for those who speak that name?" Some modern works on art history still repeat the old misidentification, but Near Eastern scholars now generally refer to the "Nisroch" figure as a "griffin-demon". ==See also==