Samyaza in popular culture

The rebel angel Shemihazah, or in Aramaic Samyaza, is a character in Jewish mythology of the Second Temple period, notably versions of the Book of Enoch 6:3 (c.250-200 BCE) and in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[1] The name has been recycled repeatedly in popular culture.

Video games

• Samyaza appears in the role-playing video game Final Fantasy XII as the Esper Shemhazai. Shemhazai is a female horse-like being who controls the souls of the dead, created in opposition to Igeyorhm the Martyr. Though she once served the gods as a guardian, she plays a role similar to that of Samyaza in revealing to the rebellious Esper Ultima the weaknesses of the gods before attacking the people.
• "Semyaza" and five other Grigori may be summoned from imprisonment to fight for the player in Dominions 3: The Awakening, and Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension
• "Semyaza" also appears as the seven fallen angels in El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.
• "Shemyaza" appears in Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers as a demon the player's party has to face. He also appears in many other games in the Megami Tensei series, sometimes as a boss or antagonist, sometimes as a random demon the player runs into or can summon. In Soul Hackers, he is working for another fallen angel, Azazel, who also appears in many of the games in the series.
• "Shimbatha," a mistranslation of "Shemyatha," appears in the 1991 game XZR 2, released in the West as Exile for the NEC Turbo Duo, translated by the now defunct Working Designs. Shemyatha is the main antagonist which the hero, Sadler, must face. In the Sega Genesis port of this game, when localised to the USA, this name was dropped in favor of the epithet "Holy Emperor." According to the Japanese story context in the game, Shemyatha possessed Hiram Abiff in the 6th millennium BC, during construction of Solomon's Temple, but was shortly murdered afterward. In the game's setting of 11th century CE, Shemyatha again takes over the body of a man, this time Yuug D'Payne, based on the historical founder and first Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Hugues de Payens.

Fiction

• Samyaza or "Shemyaza" also appears in Storm Constantine's Grigori trilogy, as the primary villain who finds redemption. He first appears as a Grigori pariah who terrorizes the underground Grigori society by leaving a trail of highly public murders in his wake. He eventually redeems himself and consequently regains the memory of his previous incarnations. He goes on to fight an epic battle with the serpent Tiamat.
• Samyaza also appeared as a prime antagonist in the book series Dragons In Our Midst
• Sam the Imperator is revealed to be Samyaza in Children of the Serpent by Mark Ellis, the thirty-eighth book in the Outlanders novel series.
• Semjaza appears as an imprisoned being in Hell in Wayne Barlowe's novel God's Demon.
• The name Shemhazai appears in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series.
• Samyaza or 'Samjeeza' appears in Cynthia Hand's Unearthly trilogy as the former leader of the Watchers and a minor villain.
• Semyaza appears as a supporting character in The Book of Creation, the first novel in The Watchers Chronicle, by Evan Braun and Clint Byars.
• Sam Yaza appears as a renegade hippie angel in modern day New Orleans in Woolf's Bane, by Alan Lance Andersen and Dane Rasmussen.

Film

• Samyaza is voiced by Nick Nolte in the film Noah. He and the other Watchers are depicted as fallen angels punished by encasement in stone.

Music

• "Samyaza" is the 5th song of the metal album Hermeticum by Portuguese band Dæmonarch.

Reported UFO abductions

• Billy Meier claims to have been visited on numerous occasions by a female alien named "Semjase" (a pronunciation of "Semyaza" in German).

References

1. Jeffrey Burton Russell, The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity, 1977. Page 188: "Semyaza is first called their leader in En. 6:3"