Olympic Spirits
Ophiel
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Origin 1575
Ophiel is one of the seven Olympic spirits of the Arbatel de magia veterum, first printed in Latin at Basel in 1575 and rendered into English by Robert Turner in 1655. He is the governor set over the sphere of Mercury. The Arbatel gives each Olympic spirit 196 provinces of the world and a successive age of the world lasting 490 years, a structure distinct from Dee's later Heptarchia and from the Goetic hierarchy of the Ars Goetia.
Facts
Origins
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account1575 is the date of the first printing. The book itself records neither when it was written nor by whom. 1 Place of OriginSourced to the subject's own accountBasel, where the Latin text was first printed 1 Attributed Author / CompilerSourced to the subject's own accountPrinted anonymously. The Arbatel names no author. 1 Attributed Author / CompilerSourced to the subject's own accountRobert Turner made the 1655 English translation by which the seven are known in English 1 LanguageSourced to the subject's own account LanguageSourced to the subject's own account Rival Systems
A Rival System's AttributionSourced to the subject's own accountAgrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy sets its own intelligence and its own spirit over the sphere of Mercury, under names the Arbatel does not use 2 A Rival System's AttributionJohn Dee's Heptarchia Mystica sets King Bnaspol over Wednesday and Mercury, a separate system with a separate cast of names 3 Sources
Primary SourceSourced to the subject's own accountArbatel de magia veterum, 1575, English translation by Robert Turner, 1655. 1 Attributions
Ruling PlanetSourced to the subject's own account GovernsSourced to the subject's own accountFamiliar spirits, granted more readily than by the other six; the teaching of all arts; turning quicksilver into the philosophers stone in a single moment. 1 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategorySourced to the subject's own accountA modern system making claims scholarship never entertained; it never held scholarly standing 1 Learn More
Powers and Office in the Arbatel
In the Arbatel de magia veterum, Ophiel is the Olympic spirit given governance over the sphere of Mercury, and the text credits him with granting familiar spirits more easily and readily than the other six Olympic spirits are said to. He is credited with teaching all manner of arts, consistent with Mercury's traditional astrological association with learning, communication and craft, and with the striking claim that he can convert quicksilver into the substance alchemical writers called the philosophers stone in a single moment for those who bear his character.
The Arbatel gives him a court of a hundred thousand legions, the largest single figure the text assigns to any of the seven spirits, though as with the other spirit entries the exact numbers vary somewhat between surviving copies and translations. Ophiel's combination of ease of access, broad teaching and rapid alchemical transformation made him, alongside Och, one of the more frequently cited of the seven spirits in later popular treatments of the Arbatel. His reign is counted as one of the seven successive 490 year ages the text assigns to the Olympic spirits as a group, following the same shared structure as the other six.
History and Later Influence
Ophiel reached English readers through Robert Turner's 1655 translation of the Arbatel de magia veterum, first printed in Latin at Basel in 1575 and issued by Turner together with his own edition of the pseudo Agrippa Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy. His association with rapid alchemical transformation and readily granted familiars gave him a distinct profile among the seven Olympic spirits in later popular writing on the Arbatel, sometimes discussed specifically in connection with practical alchemy rather than the more general offices of dignity, wealth or beauty the Arbatel gives several of the other spirits.
As with the rest of the Arbatel's seven, this atlas keeps Ophiel's system distinct from John Dee's Heptarchia Mystica, recorded within a decade of the Arbatel's first printing, and from the later Ars Goetia, since the three traditions have independent manuscript and print histories despite emerging from the same general period of European ceremonial magic. Phul's narrower, medically framed offices, healing dropsy and granting visible water spirits, have made him less frequently cited in popular summaries of the Arbatel than Och or Bethor, whose promises of wealth and dignity draw more attention in general audience writing about the text.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Named as the Olympic spirit of this planetary sphere.
Attributed To
One of the seven Olympic Spirits the Arbatel assigns to the seven classical planets.
Disciplines That Use This
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