Mammon

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Mammon is used in the New Testament to describe material wealth or greed.

1 Etymology
2 Personifications
3 Notable appearances in popular culture
4 External links

[edit] Etymology

Mammon is a word of Aramaic origin, means "riches", but has an unclear etymology; scholars have suggested connections with a word meaning "entrusted", or with the Hebrew word "matmon", meaning "treasure". It is also used in Hebrew as a word for "wealth" - ממון.

The Greek word for "Mammon", mamonas, occurs in the Sermon on the Mount (during the discourse on ostentation) and in the parable of the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:9-13). The Authorised Version keeps the Syriac word. John Wycliffe uses "richessis". Other scholars derive Mammon from Phoenician "mommon", benefit.

The word is used in contemporary language with the same meaning in at least Finnish (mammona), Danish (mammon), Hebrew (mamon), and Polish (mamona). This is extremely likely to be a result of biblical influence.

[edit] Personifications

Mammon from Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal

"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can't serve both God and Mammon" Matthew 6:24

In the Bible, mammon is personified in Luke 16:13, and Matthew 6:24, the latter verse repeating Luke 16:13. In some translations, Luke 16:9 and Luke 16:11 also personify mammon; but in others, it is translated as 'dishonest wealth' or equivalent. In some Spanish versions, it is said as "Mamón", but in others, as "Dinero" (Spanish for "money").

Early mentions of mammon appear to stem from the personification in the Gospels, e.g. Didascalia, "Do solo Mammona cogitant, quorum Deus est sacculus"; and Saint Augustine, "Lucrum Punice Mammon dicitur" (Serm. on Mt., ii). Gregory of Nyssa also asserted that Mammon was another name for Beelzebub.

During the Middle Ages, Mammon was commonly personified as the demon of avarice, richness and injustice. Thus Peter Lombard (II, dist. 6) says, "Riches are called by the name of a devil, namely Mammon, for Mammon is the name of a devil, by which name riches are called according to the Syrian tongue." Piers Plowman also regards Mammon as a deity. Nicholas de Lyra (commenting on the passage in Luke) says: "Mammon est nomen daemonis" (Mammon is the name of a demon).

No trace, however, of any Syriac god of such a name exists, and the common literary identification of the name with a god of covetousness or avarice likely stems from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, where Mammon oversees a cave of worldly wealth. Milton's Paradise Lost describes a fallen angel who values earthly treasure over all other things. Later occultist writings such as De Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal describe Mammon as Hell's ambassador to England. For Thomas Carlyle in Past and Present, the 'Gospel of Mammonism' became simply a metaphoric personification for the materialist spirit of the nineteenth century.

Mammon is somewhat similar to the Greek god Plutus, and the Roman Dis Pater, in his description, and it is likely that he was at some point based on them; especially since Plutus appears in The Divine Comedy as a wolf-like demon of wealth, wolves being associated with greed in the Middle Ages. Thomas Aquinas metaphorically described the sin of Avarice as "Mammon being carried up from Hell by a wolf, coming to inflame the human heart with Greed".

[edit] Notable appearances in popular culture

Mammon appears in the game Lineage 2 as an NPC trader who greatly influences the game's economy. Appears as the Black Marketeer of Mammon, Merchant of Mammon, and Blacksmith of Mammon. He is impersonated as a greedy dwarf who is willing to exchange goods and services for adena (game currency or money). A player can trade with Merchant of Mammon and Blacksmith of Mammon only if the war for the Seven Seals was won by his/her side.

On the television show The Simpsons, wealthy Montgomery Burns lives on Mammon Lane.

In the Mozilla Firefox and Netscape Navigator browsers, when a user views the page "about:mozilla": And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror. Book of Mozilla, 7:15. In this case, Mammon is believed to be a reference to Microsoft, the creator of the Internet Explorer web browser.

In Chrono Trigger, the Mammon Machine was created by the Kingdom of Zeal, and is used to draw energy from Lavos.

In the Bhagavad Gita As It Is chapter 7 verse 15 - there is a commentary : "Ignorant of their real master, the foolish workers waste their valuable time serving mammon." Commentary is by the author who translated that version of the popular Indian Scripture. http://vedabase.net/bg/7/15/en

In the song "Sign of the Cross", the twelfth track of part one of the metal opera Avantasia, the first line sung by Pope Clemen is "in the world of Mammon, we have found it all; fighting for pride and for gold".

The 2004 Todd Rundgren album Liars contains a song called Mammon about greed and money-worship.

In the 2005 Warner Bros. motion picture Constantine (based on the main character from the DC Vertigo graphic novels Hellblazer), Mammon is the name of the Antichrist, the son of Satan, who plots to reign on Earth as its master with the help of the newly fallen angel, Gabriel. Mammon's goal was to cross over to the mortal plane using the Spear of Destiny in order to bring a worse dominion to the world than that of his father in Hell.

Mammon is a villain character in the comics Spawn, who manipulates Spawn to become a pawn for his own purposes.

Mammon is the archdevil of greed in the role playing game, Dungeons & Dragons. He appears as a powerful, human-like devil with a snake's tail instead of legs.

Mammon is the final boss in the N64 game Quest 64.

In Yes Minister, James Hacker asks Sir Humphrey if he serves God or Mammon, to which he replies "I serve you, Minister."

Mammon was used in The Craft (film)

In the movie Pale Rider, The Preacher (played by Clint Eastwood), says, "Man can't serve God and Mammon both, Mammon being money."

There is a chapter entitled "Who Mammon Is" in Inga Muscio's book Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. The chapter is about issues of gender and consumer power.

There is a chapter entitled "God and Mammon" in Haynes Johnson's book, Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years. The chapter discusses the rise of televangelism and materialism as an ideology in the 1980s.

According to the Gwar song "The Reaganator", a revived, cybernetically-enhanced Ronald Reagan is equipped with the latest technology to slay the foes of Mammon.