ASMODEUS or Aschmedai, an evil demon who appears in later Jewish tradition, and concerning whom there has been much vague and fanciful speculation. The name, probably, means the destroying angel or the tempter, but the etymological grounds for neither of these are quite certain. He is sometimes called the prince of demons, and identified with Beelzebub; but there are many other fables regarding his origin. In the apocryphal book of Tobit occurs the well-known story of his love for Sara, the beautiful daughter of Raguel, whose seven husbands were slain in succession by him on their respective bridal nights. At last Tobias, by burning the heart and liver of a fish, drove off the demon, who fled to Egypt. From the part played by Asmodeus in this story, he has been often familiarly called the genius of matrimonial unhappiness or jealousy. Le Sage makes him the principal character in his novel Le Diable Boiteux.