Belus (Egyptian)

In Greek mythology, Belus (Ancient Greek: Βῆλος, romanized: Bêlos) was a king of Egypt and father of Aegyptus and Danaus^[1] and (usually) brother to Agenor.^[2] The wife of Belus has been named as Achiroe^[3] or Side^[4] (eponym of the Phoenician city of Sidon).

Family

Belus was the son of Poseidon^[5] and Libya.^[6] He may also be Busiris, son of Libya, ruler of Egypt, killed by Heracles,^{[citation needed]} although Heracles was born many generations after Belus since he was a great-grandchild of Perseus; see Argive genealogy below.

The Bibliotheca also claims that Agenor was Belus' twin brother. Belus ruled in Egypt, and Agenor ruled over Sidon and Tyre in Phoenicia. The wife of Belus has been named as Achiroe, daughter of the river-god Nilus. Her sons Aegyptus and Danaus were twins. Later Aegyptus ruled over Egypt and Arabia, and Danaus ruled over Libya. Pseudo-Apollodorus says that it was Euripides who added Cepheus and Phineus as additional sons of Belus.^[7]

In the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, Belus was also the father of a daughter named Thronia on whom Hermaon, i.e. Hermes, fathered Arabus, presumably the eponym of Arabia.^[8]

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.^[9] Yet another source says that the daughter of Belus who married Agenor was named Antiope.^[10]

Some sources make Belus the father of Lamia^[11][12] while Antoninus mentions him as the father of Thias (father of Smyrna) by the nymph Orithyia.^[13]

Nonnus^[14] 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.^[15] 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.

Comparative table of Belus' family

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													✓

Mythology

Diodorus Siculus^[16] 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.

According to Pausanias, Belus founded a temple of Heracles in Babylon.^[17] Meanwhile, it was said that Egyptians initially fought with clubs but later on Belus invented the use of sword in fighting. The word bellum, "war," is named from this.^[18]

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."^[19]

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 Semitic title Ba'al.^{[citation needed]} According to some sources, Belus was the son of Poseidon by Libya. Bel is associated with Babylon and Assyria, but Aegean Greeks had a distant relations with that area, in contrast they had trading relationships with north Canaanites of Syria, Ugarit and Levantine Sidon and Tyros, cities that are mentioned in Greek myths about Belos, and his name is an echo of the Canaanite god Baal (Redfield, 1989, pp. 28 & 30–31), which in Akkadian Babylonian scripts is replaced with Enlil, both meaning "lord", and may be connected with Marduk, but the most probable connection in ancient Levantine/Canaanite mythology is Baal Hadad, a fertility god, whose attributes are lightning, rainstorms and the forces of nature.

Argive genealogy in Greek mythology

v t e

Inachus Melia Zeus Io Phoroneus Epaphus Memphis Libya Poseidon Belus Achiroë Agenor Telephassa Danaus Elephantis Aegyptus Cadmus Cilix Europa Phoenix Mantineus Hypermnestra Lynceus Harmonia Zeus Polydorus Sparta Lacedaemon Ocalea Abas Agave Sarpedon Rhadamanthus Autonoë Eurydice Acrisius Ino Minos Zeus Danaë Semele Zeus Perseus Dionysus

Colour key:   Male   Female   Deity

Notes

1. Hyginus, Fabulae 124, 157 & 273
2. Apollodorus, 2.1.4
3. Apollodorus, 2.1.4
4. Malalas, 2.30
5. Hyginus, Fabulae 274
6. Apollodorus, 2.1.4; Hyginus, Fabulae 157; Scholia on Euripides, Phoenissae 5; Pausanias, 4.23.10 (only mentioned Libya as the parent)
7. Apollodorus, 2.1.4
8. Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 137 as cited in Strabo, 1.2.34
9. Gantz, p. 208; Pherecydes fr. 21 Fowler (2001), p. 289 = FGrHist 3 F 21 = Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, 3.1177-87f.
10. Tzetzes, Chiliades 7.19
11. Scholium from the Byzantine-Hellenistic period to Aristophanes, Peace 758, quoted by Ogden (2013b), p. 98
12. Diodorus Siculus, 20.41.3-6, Scholia to Aristophanes, Wasps 1035; Commentary 37 to Heraclitus the Allegorist
13. Antoninus Liberalis, 34
14. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 3.287 ff.
15. 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.
16. Diodorus Siculus, 1.28.1
17. Pausanias, 4.23.10
18. Hyginus, Fabulae 274
19. Pausanias, 4.23.10

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, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• 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