He brings back the runaway and halts the one who flees.
The Spirit
Agares — also spelled Agreas — is the second spirit of the Ars Goetia and the first of its dukes. Like Bael before him he is assigned to the eastern quarter, said to rule beneath the power that governs the east. The demonological compilers imagined him as a figure of venerable rather than monstrous aspect, an old man riding upon a crocodile, and this dignified image sets the tone for the many spirits of the grimoire who appear less as horrors than as courtly personages of the invisible world.
His character in the tradition is bound up with motion and its arrest. Where other spirits govern love, treasure, or war, Agares presides over the crossing of distances and the return of what has departed, a lord of pursuit and homecoming.
Office
The Goetia holds that Agares teaches all languages and tongues, causes those who have fled to return, and likewise stops those who would run. He is credited with the power to overthrow dignities both temporal and supernatural, and to make the earth quake. His office therefore joins the scholarly gift of language to a coarser command over flight, standing, and the shaking of established things.
Attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Number | 2 |
| Rank | Duke |
| Legions | 31 |
| Appearance | A comely old man riding upon a crocodile, carrying a goshawk upon his fist |