Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance daily demon vol. 50 – Mother Harlot

Atlus put out today’s daily demon video for Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, which showcases Mother Harlot. The creature has shown up in mainline Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games as well as other entries.

The Shin Megami Tensei Wiki gives us the following information about Mother Harlot:

Mother Harlot, also known as “Babylon the Great, Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth,” “the Whore of Babylon” or the Harlot for short, is an allegorical and apocalyptic figure of evil and one of several incarnations of evil that is said to plague the world during the end days as written in the Book of Revelation. She is depicted as a beautiful woman who is “the mother of all harlots and of all abominations of the world.” While incredibly powerful and terrifying, she is destined to meet her end at the hands of The Beast as part of the apocalypse.

She appears as wearing a purple robe. The color purple was associated with the Roman Empire. The beast she rides has seven heads and Rome has seven hills, so the heads could reflect the ancient power of Rome, which traditionally was one of antiquity’s most powerful empires. Alternatively, the heads of the beast could represent the seven great kingdoms of the ancient world and their rulers.

One interpretation is that the seven heads represent the seven different forms of Roman governance: kings, consuls, decemviri (council of 10), dictators, triumviri (council of 3), caesars (military emperors) and despotic emperors. She is also probably a reference to Dante’s Divine Comedy, Canto XXXII of the Purgatory, in which a chariot representing the History of the Church becomes a seven-headed-beast with a prostitute on his back. This event in the Comedy is symbolic of corrupted popes and emperors in history.

You can watch the Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance daily demon video for Mother Harlot below.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance will be appearing on Switch starting June 14, 2024.