Endor, Witch of

▪ biblical figure

      in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 28:3–25), a female sorcerer who was visited by Saul, the first king of Israel. Although Saul had banished all sorcerers and conjurers from his kingdom, his concern about the final outcome of Israel's battle against the Philistines caused him to seek the services of someone with “a familiar spirit.” When his servants told him of such a woman at Endor, he disguised himself and visited her that night. He asked her to conjure up the spirit of the prophet Samuel to tell his fortunes. When the woman reminded him of the law against practicing her art, he assured her that she would be protected. The woman accordingly conjured up a spirit identified by Saul as Samuel. The spirit informed Saul that he and his three sons would die in battle the next day and that the Israelites would fall to the Philistines.

      The story of the Witch of Endor has excited the creative imagination through the ages and inspired further embellishment of her practices. Chaucer, for example, in the Friar's Tale of Canterbury Tales, speaks of her as a “pithonesse,” and the 16th-century writer Guillaume du Bartas suggests in La Semaine that she used a “flambeau” made from the fat of her own son in the necromantic art.

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