Witch of Endor

Saul wished to receive advice on defeating the Philistines in battle, after prior attempts to consult God through sacred lots and other means had failed.

The word אֹ֖וב ’ōḇ has been suggested by Harry A. Hoffner to refer to a ritual pit for summoning the dead from the netherworld, based on parallels in other Near Eastern and Mediterranean cultures.

[6] In the Greek Septuagint, she is called ἐγγαστρίμυθος ἐν Αενδωρ (engastrímythos en Aendōr), while the Latin Vulgate has pythonem in Aendor, both terms referencing then-contemporary pagan oracles.

[11] In the Septuagint (2nd century BC), the woman is described as a ventriloquist,[12] possibly reflecting the consistent view of the Alexandrian translators that demons do not exist.

King James, in his philosophical treatise Daemonologie (1597), rejected the theory that the witch was performing an act of ventriloquism, but also denied that she had truly summoned the spirit of Samuel.

"[19] Antoine Augustin Calmet briefly mentions the witch of Endor in his Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits (1759), among other scriptural proofs of "the reality of magic".

[20][21] Joyce Baldwin (1989) writes that the incident does not tell us anything about the veracity of claims to consult the dead on the part of mediums, because the indications [of the woman’s behavior] are that this was an extraordinary event for her, and a frightening one, because she was not in control.

[25] One early example is In guiltie night, an oratorio written by Robert Ramsey in the 1630s, which formed the basis of a better-known work of the same title by Henry Purcell in 1691.

[26] The witch also appears in Mors Saulis et Jonathae by Charpentier (c. 1682), Saul by George Frideric Handel (1738), Die Könige in Israel by Ferdinand Ries (1837), and Le Roi David by Honegger (1921).

In 1965, the Martha Graham Dance Company premiered The Witch of Endor, a one act ballet with music by William Schuman; this was subsequently reworked into a short piece by American composer Moondog (Louis Hardin) for his 1969 self-titled album.

[29] Rudyard Kipling, a year after the death of his son at the Battle of Loos, wrote a poem called "En-Dor", using the story to criticise contemporary mediums.

[28] The character has been portrayed cinematically by Israeli actor Dov Reiser in the 1976 television film The Story of David, and by Belgian actress Lyne Renée in the 2016 series Of Kings and Prophets.

[31] The Witch of Endor is a name occasionally given to ships, both real and in fiction, such as in the Horatio Hornblower novels[32] and the Sci Fi series The Expanse.