(7) BEELZEBUB & BAPHOMET

 

Yes – it’s my fourth matched pair of villains from Biblical mythology and second alliterative one (after Moloch and Mammon).

Or maybe not, since while Beelzebub is canonical to the Bible (in both Testaments), Baphomet is not – although ironically Baphomet has a stronger influence on the visual iconography of the Christian Devil as goat or so-called Sabbath goat.

Similarly to Moloch, Beelzebub is derived from a Canaanite (or Philistine) god – Baal, although that name is an honorific title meaning “lord” and hence was somewhat generic for gods, clarified by epithets hence the latter part of Beelzebub’s name, apparently from Ba’al Zabub or something similar. I say something similar because again like Moloch, there are variant names or titles – with the most famous as Lord of the Flies, the titular metaphor for human savagery in the novel by William Golding. My love of that novel is a major reason for his inclusion as special mention, although that in turn reflects that sheer evocative resonance which underlies other special mention entries.

Beelzebub pops up as Baal in the Old Testament but is even more notably name-dropped in the New Testament by none other than Jesus himself – which has seen him placed high in Hell’s hierarchy by Christian folklore, even as high as second in command as in Paradise Lost.

Baphomet has no such Biblical pedigree and the first reference to him by name only emerges as the demonic idol of which the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping in their fourteenth century trials for heresy. His subsequent infamy belies such an obscure or esoteric origin, which might otherwise have been relegated to a historical footnote but for him being reimagined by nineteenth century occultists – it is that infamy that sees him ranked with Beelzebub in this special mention, apart from my usual predilection for alliteration.

“The modern popular image of Baphomet was established by Eliphas Levi in…1856” – that of the “Sabbatic Goat” as an unsavory winged human-goat hybrid that has been the iconic image of the Devil in popular culture ever since.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)