(This has been made the subject of an opera by Donizetti, called _Lucia di Lammermoor_, 1835.) ASIA, the wife of that Pharaoh who brought up Moses. She was the daughter of Mozahem. Her husband tortured her for believing in Moses; but she was taken alive into paradise.--Sale, _Al Korân_, xx., note, and Ixvi., note. Mahomet says, "Among women four have been perfect: Asia, wife of Pharaoh; Mary, daughter of Imran; Khadijah, the prophet's first wife; and Fatima, his own daughter." AS'IR, the twelve chief gods of Scandinavian mythology--Odin, Thor, Baldr, Niord, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdall, Vidar, Vali, Ullur, and Forseti. Sometimes the goddesses--Frigga, Freyja, Idu'na, and Saga, are ranked among the Asir also. AS'MADAI (3 _syl.)_ the same as As-mode'us _(4 syl.)_ the lustful and destroying angel, who robbed Sara of her seven husbands _(Tobit_ iii. 8). Milton makes him one of the rebellious angels overthrown by Uriel and Ra'phael. Hume says the word means "the _destroyer_."--_Paradise Lost_, vi 365 (1665). ASMODE'US _(4 syl.)_, the demon of vanity and dress, called in the Talmud "king of the devils." As "dress" is one of the bitterest evils of modern life, it is termed "the Asmodeus of domestic peace," a phrase employed to express any "skeleton" in the house of a private family. In the book of _Tobit_ Asmodeus falls in love with Sara, daughter of Rag'uël, and causes the successive deaths of seven husbands each on his bridal night, but when Sara married Tobit, Asmodeus was driven into Egypt by a charm made of the heart and liver of a fish burnt on perfumed ashes. (Milton throws the accent on the third syl., Tennyson on the second.) Better pleased Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume. Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 168. Abaddon and Asmodëus caught at me. Tennyson, _St. Simeon Stylitês_. _Asmode'us_, a "diable bon-homme," with more gaiety than malice; not the least like Mephistophelês. He is the companion of Cle'ofas, whom he carries through the air, and shows him the inside of houses, where they see what is being done in private or secrecy without being seen. Although Asmodeus is not malignant, yet with all his wit, acuteness, and playful malice, we never forget the fiend.--Le Sage, _Le Diable Boiteux_. (Such was the popularity of the _Diable Boiteux_, that two young men fought a duel in a bookseller's shop over the only remaining copy, an incident worthy to be recorded by Asmodeus himself.) Miss Austen gives us just such a picture of domestic life as Asmodeus would present could he remove the roof of many an English home.--_Encyc. Brit_. Art. "Romance." ASO'TUS, Prodigality personified in _The Purple Island_ (1633), by Phineas Fletcher, fully described in canto viii. (Greek, _asotos_, "a profligate.")