There is no Baphomet.įirstly, goat imagery has shown up in many religions and cultures, and is often unrelated - from Herodotus mentioning Greek goat-gods to the Egyptian Banebdjedet, to more modern things, they are not necessarily related. What do you think of when you hear "Baphomet?" Do you think of ancient conspiracies? The occult? The Freemasons? The Illuminati? That hermaphrodite goat with a pentagram? witches and black sabbaths? Ancient Babylonian religions? Secret teachings of the Knights Templar? Much like Beelzebub, Belial, and Azazel, Baphomet came from people completely misunderstanding some text! This figure came from Pathfinder Miniatures - there is a Demon's Chronicle Baphomet, but I don't have it yet. This figure takes the artwork from the Dictionnaire Infernal (a fly with skulls on its wings), and adds a crown, sword, and trident. In more modern occultism, Beelzebub is one of the top kings of Hell, up there with Astaroth, Asmodeus, and even Satan himself - he is often cast as the second-in-command, taking the form of a large fly. He is treated as second-in-command only to Satan, and this tradition has been picked up since. In this story, Beelzebub is the demon of the evening star, who excites peopel to lust, jealousy, and murder, and causes people to worship demons.
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Historically, since 2 Kings, it was used in this way - calling pagan gods a load of horseshit - and it also became a perjorative name for Satan, as seen in the Gospels when both the Pharisees and Jesus use the name "Beelzebub" to refer to Satan.Īs far as making it the name of a specific demon, the Testament of Solomon (a 5th Century pseudepigraphal work), which is the foundation of modern occult demon-summoning, featured Beelzebub as the first demon summoned by Solomon. Essentially, Ba'al-Zebul means "Lord of Bullshit." The real debate is whether it meant that in 2 Kings, though I [ersonally wouldn't doubt it, because there is some sarcasm in other arts of the text (Elijah was the most sarcastic man ever born, I swear). Instead, the association tied to Ba'al-Zebub since the beginning was to point at the thing that attracts flies the most: Dung. Although "Lord of the Flies" may refer to some fly or pestilence-related cults, that is improbable, as little evidence of said religions has been found. Ba'al-Zebub is actually a pun, apparently on Ba'al-Zbl ("zebul"), which means "Lord of the Manor," and is a reference to several gods. Hebrew did this as well, which makes identifying gods such as Moloch very difficult. Or the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu was renamed Cheops by the Greeks.
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Now, one major difficulty in translation is that everyone has their own names for things - the Chinese scholar Kung-Fu-Zhu was known to the Greeks as Confucius, for example. Many of the Ba'als were forms of Hadad, a fertility god, and in some cases even Zeus (Ba'al-Pelor was related to Zeus, believe it or not).Īs for Ba'al-Zebub, there is no location called "Zebub." the name first appears in 2 Kings 1:2-3, when King Ahazaiah injures himself and petitions "Ba'al-Zebub, the god of Ekron" for healing. Some examples in the Old Testament incluse Ba'al-Zephon (Ba'al of Zephon), Ba'al-Pelor ("Ba'al of Pelor"), or Jezebel's god, Ba'al-Sidon (Melqart, Ba'al of Sidon). So, we've got a new crop of eight! All of these figures came from Demon's Chronicle unless otherwise mentioned.īeelzebub is derived from Ba'al-Zebub, literally meaning "Lord of Zebub" or "Lord of the Flies." Ba'al was never a proper name, it's a title - "Lord." Lots of gods shared it, and even some people (your landlord is your Ba'al). Well, it's pretty much a Halloween tradition by now - let's talk about legendary demons! I mean, come on, when you're talking about scary monsters, you pretty much can't get scarier than that.