Belus/Marduk

Frazer, Mary (2024): Belus/Marduk. In: Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Abstract

Belus (or Bēlos or Bēlias) is the Latin or Greek rendering of the names of two important Near Eastern gods: Bēl-Marduk, the tutelar deity of the city of Babylon and the head of the Babylonian pantheon from c. 1200 BCE; and Baal, a Canaanite god attested in New Kingdom Egypt, the Levant, and at Ugarit. In Greco-Roman literature, Belus is often treated as an ancestor of various mythological dynasties of the Near East or as the founder of Babylon and Babylonian astronomy.

• Item Type: Encyclopedia article
• Keywords: Belus; Belos; Bel; Baal; Babylon; Esagil; Marduk; Nabû; Zeus
• Faculties: History and Art History > Department of History > Ancient History
• Subjects: 900 History and geography > 930 History of ancient world (to ca. 499)
• Place of Publication: Oxford
• Annotation: This encyclopedia article is an update of a stub authored by someone else. Oxford University Press has requested that it be cited in the following manner (Chicago Manual of Style): Frazer, Mary. “Belus/Marduk.” In Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2015—. Article published December 22, 2015; last modified, June 18, 2024. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.1087.
• Language: English