Bel (mythology)
Encyclopedia
Bel signifying "lord" or "master", is a title
rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in Babylonia
n religion. The feminine form is Belit
'Lady, Mistress'. Bel is represented in Greek
as Belos and in Latin
as Belus. Linguistically Bel is an East Semitic form cognate with Northwest Semitic Ba‘al
with the same meaning.
Early translators of Akkadian
believed that the ideogram for the god called in Sumerian
Enlil
was to be read as Bel in Akkadian. This is now known to be incorrect; but one finds Bel used in referring to Enlil in older translations and discussions.
Bel became especially used of the Babylonian god Marduk
and when found in Assyrian and neo-Babylonian personal names or mentioned in inscriptions in a Mesopotamian context it can usually be taken as referring to Marduk and no other god. Similarly Belit without some disambiguation mostly refers to Bel Marduk's spouse Sarpanit
. However Marduk's mother, the Sumerian goddess called Ninhursag
, Damkina
, Ninmah and other names in Sumerian, was often known as Belit-ili 'Lady of the Gods' in Akkadian.
Of course other gods called "Lord" could be and sometimes were identified totally or in part with Bel Marduk. The god Malak-bel of Palmyra
is an example, though in the later period from which most of our information comes he seems to have become very much a sun god which Marduk was not.
Similarly Zeus Belus mentioned by Sanchuniathon
as born to Cronus
/El
in Peraea
is certainly most unlikely to be Marduk.
W. H. D. Rouse
in 1940 wrote an ironic end note to Book 40 of his edition of Nonnus
' Dionysiaca about a very syncretistic hymn sung by Dionysus
to Tyrian Heracles, that is, to Ba‘al Melqart
whom Dionysus identifies with Belus on the Euphrates
(who should be Marduk!) and as a sun god:
Bel is named in the Bible at and and .
Title
A title is a prefix or suffix added to someone's name to signify either veneration, an official position or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may even be inserted between a first and last name...
rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in Babylonia
Babylonia
Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...
n religion. The feminine form is Belit
Bêlit
Bêlit is a form of the Akkadian language word beltu or beltum as used in noun compounds; it appears in titles of goddesses, such as bêlit-ili "lady of the gods", an Akkadian title of Ninhursag. The word bêlit appears in Greek form as Beltis , considered to be the name of the wife of the god Bêl....
'Lady, Mistress'. Bel is represented in Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
as Belos and in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
as Belus. Linguistically Bel is an East Semitic form cognate with Northwest Semitic Ba‘al
Baal
Baʿal is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu...
with the same meaning.
Early translators of Akkadian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
believed that the ideogram for the god called in Sumerian
Sumerian language
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...
Enlil
Enlil
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...
was to be read as Bel in Akkadian. This is now known to be incorrect; but one finds Bel used in referring to Enlil in older translations and discussions.
Bel became especially used of the Babylonian god Marduk
Marduk
Marduk was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to...
and when found in Assyrian and neo-Babylonian personal names or mentioned in inscriptions in a Mesopotamian context it can usually be taken as referring to Marduk and no other god. Similarly Belit without some disambiguation mostly refers to Bel Marduk's spouse Sarpanit
Sarpanit
In Babylonian mythology, Sarpanit is a mother goddess and the consort of the chief god, Marduk. Their marriage was celebrated annually at New Year in Babylon. She was worshipped via the rising moon, and was often depicted as being pregnant. She is also known as Erua...
. However Marduk's mother, the Sumerian goddess called Ninhursag
Ninhursag
In Sumerian mythology, Ninhursag or Ninkharsag was the earth and mother goddess, one of the seven great deities of Sumer. She is principally a fertility goddess. Temple hymn sources identify her as the 'true and great lady of heaven' and kings of Sumer were 'nourished by Ninhursag's milk'...
, Damkina
Damgalnuna
Damgalnuna was a mother goddess in Mesopotamian mythology. She first appears as a consort of Enlil in Sumerian mythology, and later becomes the Akkadian Damkina, consort of Enki/Ea and mother of the god Marduk....
, Ninmah and other names in Sumerian, was often known as Belit-ili 'Lady of the Gods' in Akkadian.
Of course other gods called "Lord" could be and sometimes were identified totally or in part with Bel Marduk. The god Malak-bel of Palmyra
Palmyra
Palmyra was an ancient city in Syria. In the age of antiquity, it was an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert...
is an example, though in the later period from which most of our information comes he seems to have become very much a sun god which Marduk was not.
Similarly Zeus Belus mentioned by Sanchuniathon
Sanchuniathon
Sanchuniathon is the purported Phoenician author of three lost works originally in the Phoenician language, surviving only in partial paraphrase and summary of a Greek translation by Philo of Byblos, according to the Christian bishop Eusebius of Caesarea...
as born to Cronus
Cronus
In Greek mythology, Cronus or Kronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky...
/El
El (god)
is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "deity", cognate to Akkadian and then to Hebrew : Eli and Arabic )....
in Peraea
Perea (Holy Land)
Perea , a portion of the kingdom of Herod the Great occupying the eastern side of the Jordan River valley, from about one third the way down from the Sea of Galilee to about one third the way down the eastern shore of the Dead Sea; it did not extend too far inland...
is certainly most unlikely to be Marduk.
W. H. D. Rouse
W. H. D. Rouse
William Henry Denham Rouse was a pioneering British teacher who advocated the use of the Direct Method of teaching Latin and Greek.-Life:Born in Calcutta India on 31 May 1863...
in 1940 wrote an ironic end note to Book 40 of his edition of Nonnus
Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis , was a Greek epic poet. He was a native of Panopolis in the Egyptian Thebaid, and probably lived at the end of the 4th or early 5th century....
' Dionysiaca about a very syncretistic hymn sung by Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
to Tyrian Heracles, that is, to Ba‘al Melqart
Melqart
Melqart, properly Phoenician Milk-Qart "King of the City", less accurately Melkart, Melkarth or Melgart , Akkadian Milqartu, was tutelary god of the Phoenician city of Tyre as Eshmun protected Sidon. Melqart was often titled Ba‘l Ṣūr "Lord of Tyre", the ancestral king of the royal line...
whom Dionysus identifies with Belus on the Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
(who should be Marduk!) and as a sun god:
... the Greeks were as firmly convinced as many modern Bible-readers that the Semites, or the Orientals generally, worshipped a god called Baal or Bel, the truth of course being that ba'al is a Semitic word for lord or master, and so applies to a multitude of gods. This "Bel," then, being an important deity, must be the sun, the more so as some of the gods bearing that title may have been really solar.
Bel is named in the Bible at and and .
See also
- Ba‘alBaalBaʿal is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu...
- Bel and the DragonBel and the DragonThe narrative of Bel and the Dragon incorporated as chapter 14 of the extended Book of Daniel exists only in Greek in the Septuagint. This chapter, along with chapter 13, is referred to as deuterocanonical, in that it is not universally accepted among Christians as belonging to the canonical works...
- BelialBelialBelial is one of the four crown princes of Hell and a demon in the Bible, Jewish apocrypha and Christian apocrypha...
- BelusBelusBelus or Belos may be:* The classical Latin or Greek rendition of Bel the Semitic honorific**Ba`al as a Semitic deity** Belus , the Greek Zeus Belos and Latin Jupiter Belus as translations of the Babylonian god Bel Marduk...
- Belus (Assyrian)Belus (Assyrian)Belus or Belos in classical Greek or classical Latin texts in an Assyrian context refers to one or another purportedly ancient and historically nonexistent Assyrian king, such king in part at least a euhemerization of the Babylonian god Bel Marduk.Belus most commonly appears as the father of...
- Belus (Babylonian)Belus (Babylonian)Belus or Belos in classical Greek or classical Latin texts in a Babylonian context refers to the Babylonian god Bel Marduk. Though often identified with Greek Zeus and Latin Jupiter as Zeus Belos or Jupiter Belus, in other cases Belus is euhemerized as an ancient king who founded Babylon and...
- Belus (Egyptian)Belus (Egyptian)Belus was in Greek mythology a king of Egypt and father of Aegyptus and Danaus and brother to Agenor. The wife of Belus has been named as Achiroe, or Side ....
- Belus (Assyrian)
- EN (cuneiform)EN (cuneiform)EN is the Sumerian cuneiform for "lord" or "priest". Originally, it seems to have been used to designate a high priest or priestess of a Sumerian city-state's patron-deity - a position that entailed political power as well. It may also have been the original title of the ruler of Uruk...
- MardukMardukMarduk was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to...