“Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy: “Legion of horribles” is biblical reference to Legion’s legion of demons, alternate personalities exorcised by Jesus.

“The first of the herd began to swing past them…when…rose a fabled horde…bearing shields…with bits of broken mirrorglass that cast a thousand…suns against the eyes of their enemies. A legion of horribles…clad in costumes attic or biblical…like a horde from a hell…like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing…” (1, pp. 54-55).

The above is a biblical allusion to the following:

“ ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ And Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?” He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country…‘Send us to the swine, let us enter them.’…And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea” (Mark 5:9-13).

As discussed in past posts (search “legion”), the modern, psychological interpretation of demon possession and the story of Legion is multiple personality. So when Cormac McCarthy puts “legion” and “biblical” in the same passage, he raises the issue of multiple personality. Whether he does so intentionally or inadvertently, I don’t know, but will keep reading.

1. Cormac McCarthy. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West [1985]. New York, Modern Library, 2001.