Belus
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Belus: The Latin name for the Semitic god Baal. Baal, whose name means “master”, “owner” or “lord”, was worshiped as a sun god/fertility god throughout the Mediterranean world wherever the Semitic Phoenicians and Carthaginians established themselves. His worship, which included the practice of human sacrifice, was one of the principal reasons for hatred shown to the Carthaginians by the Greeks and Romans. Baal is identified in biblical writings with the fallen angel Beelzebub or Baalzebub, derived from the Canaanite Baal-Zebul (= “Prince Baal”). In Sicily and Sardinia, where the Phoenicians and Carthaginians had planted colonies, Baal (in the company of his wife Tanit) was generally worshipped, as Baal-Hammon (= “Lord of the incense-altars”). Despite this seemingly pleasant name, archaeologists have found that his altars here were just like those where human sacrifices were offered to him in other locations. One center of his worship was at Lilybaeum, in western Sicily, where a now-lost temple of Baal-Hammon stood.