Algol

Algol is one of the stars directly preserved in the local Behenian corpus. That matters because the most defensible claims here come from the magical tradition itself rather than from later dramatic retellings. In the local textual line, Algol belongs to the fixed set of fifteen stars and is handled with very specific materia and very specific operations. (Hess and Warnock, De Quindecim Stellis; Agrippa, Three Books, Book II, ch. 47)

Warnock's summary of the Bodleian material and Agrippa's list pair Algol with diamond and black hellebore, with mugwort added in Agrippa. The image preserved in Agrippa is equally precise: the head of a man with a bloody neck. The local promise attached to that image is not unlimited power but a cluster of forceful protections, including boldness, soundness of the body, success in petitions, and defense against witchcraft or hostile workings. (Warnock, Fixed Star, Sign and Constellation Magic; Agrippa, Three Books, Book I and Book II, ch. 47)

Brady's concise modern keyword for Algol is female intense passion. That is useful as a reminder that the star has emotional and psychic force in later fixed-star interpretation, but the historically strongest material in this repo is still the older protective and retaliatory magical use. (Brady, Brady's Book of Fixed Stars)

Because the surviving local material is so concentrated, Algol is best handled carefully and narrowly. This is a star for exact work, not for generalized melodrama.