Abaddon / Apollyon

Also known as: Abaddon, Apollyon, The Destroyer, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Angel of the Abyss, King of the Locusts

Abaddon (Hebrew, “Destruction”), called Apollyon in Greek (“Destroyer”), named in Revelation 9:11 as “the angel of the bottomless pit” — the king of the demonic locusts loosed from the abyss at the fifth trumpet. He is presented not as a faithful minister but as a ruler of destructive powers; yet even his authority is not his own. The abyss is opened only when the fallen star is “given” the key, the locusts may torment only those who lack the seal of God, and only for five months — every limit set by God. Orthodox Christianity reads the passage above all as a witness to God’s sovereignty: even the powers of destruction cannot act apart from His permission. Scripture does not identify Abaddon with Satan, nor with any other named demon, and the Church declines to add what the text withholds. The Hebrew word abaddon appears in the Old Testament as a name for the realm of destruction and the grave — an impersonal place; Revelation alone makes it the title of a personal spirit. A fallen being, catalogued here for study, not venerated.