Belus (Egyptian)
In
Diodorus Siculus[3] claims that Belus founded a colony on the river Euphrates, and appointed the priests-astrologers whom the Babylonians call Chaldeans who like the priests of Egypt are exempt from taxation and other service to the state.
Genealogy
Belus was the son of
The
In the
According to Pherecydes of Athens, Belus also had a daughter named Damno who married Agenor (Belus' brother, her uncle) and bore to him Phoenix and two daughters named Isaie, and Melia, these becoming wives respectively to sons of Belus (their cousins) Aegyptus and Danaus.[7] Yet another source says that the daughter of Belus who married Agenor was named Antiope.[8]
Some sources make Belus the father of
Nonnus[12] makes Belus the father of five sons, namely Phineus, Phoenix, Agenor (identified as the father of Cadmus), Aegyptus, and Danaus, though Nonnus elsewhere makes Phineus to be Cadmus' brother.[13] Nonnus has Cadmus identify Belus as "the Libyan Zeus" and refer to the "new voice of Zeus Asbystes", meaning the oracle of Zeus Ammon at Asbystes.
Relation | Names | Sources | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hesiod | Pher. | Aeschylus | Euripides | Herodotus | Strabo | Apollodorus | Diodorus | Hyginus | Pausanias | Antoninus | Nonnus | Tzetzes | Unknown | ||
Ehoiai | |||||||||||||||
Parents | Poseidon and Libya | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||
Libya | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
Wife | Achiroe | ✓ | |||||||||||||
Orithyia | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
Side | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
Children | Thronia | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||
Damno | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
Aegyptus | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||
Danaus | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||
Cepheus | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||
Phineus | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||
Antiope | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||
Thias | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
Phoenix | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||
Agenor | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||
Ninus | ✓ |
Belus and Bel Marduk
Pausanias wrote:
"<Ruler> Manticlus founded the temple of Heracles for the Messenians; the temple of the god is outside the walls and he is called Heracles Manticlus, just as Ammon in Libya and Belus in Babylon are named, the latter from an Egyptian, Belus the son of Libya, Ammon from the shepherd-founder. Thus the exiled Messenians reached the end of their wanderings."[4]
This supposed connection between Belus of Egypt and Zeus Belus (the god Marduk) is likely to be more learned speculation than genuine tradition. Pausanias seems to know nothing of supposed connection between Belus son of Libya and Zeus Ammon that Nonnus will later put forth as presented just above.
Belus and Ba'al
Modern writers suppose a possible connection between Belus and one or another god who bore the common northwest
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Notes
- ^ Apollodorus, 2.1.4.
- ^ Malalas, Chronographia 2.30
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, 1.27.28
- ^ a b Pausanias, 4.23.10
- ^ Apollodorus, 2.1.4
- ^ Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 137 as cited in Strabo, 1.2.34
- FGrHist 3 F 21 = Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica3.1177-87f.
- ^ Scholia on Euripides, Phoenissae 5; Tzetzes, Chiliades 7.19
- ^ Scholium from the Byzantine-Hellenistic period to Aristophanes, Peace 758, quoted by Ogden (2013b), p. 98
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, 20.41.3-6, Scholia to Aristophanes, Wasps 1035; Commentary 37 to Heraclitus the Allegorist
- ^ Antoninus Liberalis, 34
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 3.287 ff.
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2.686: This can be explained as there are two Phineuses, the first one being the son of Belus and the other, the son of Agenor, thus brother of Cadmus.
References
- Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
- Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888-1890. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Hesiod, Catalogue of Women from Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914. Online version at theio.com
- Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca. 3 Vols. W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940-1942. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Ogden, Daniel (2013-05-30). "10 Lamia, Slain by Eurybatus and Others". Dragons, Serpents, and Slayers in the Classical and Early Christian Worlds: A Sourcebook. Oxford University Press. pp. 99–. ISBN 9780199925117.
- Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Redfield, B.G. (1989) The Concise Dictionary of Mythology, Peerage Books, London, pp. 28 & 30–31.
- Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Tzetzes, John, Book of Histories, Book VII-VIII translated by Vasiliki Dogani from the original Greek of T. Kiessling's edition of 1826. Online version at theio.com