Belus
Belus (Βῆλος).
1. According to classical mythology, a son of Poseidon by Libya or Eurynome. He was twin brother of Agenor, and father of AEgyptus and Danaus. He was believed to be the ancestral hero and national divinity of several Eastern nations, from which the legends about him were transplanted to Greece, and became mixed up with Greek myths. (See Apollod. 2:1, 4; Diod. 1:28; Servius, ad AEn. 1:733.) SEE BAAL.
2. The father of the Carthaginian queen Dido, otherwise called Pygmalion. He conquered Cyprus and then gave it to Teucer. (See Virgil, AEn. 1, 621; Servius, ad AEn. 1, 625, 646.) By some he was thought to be the Tyrian king Eth-baal (q.v.), father of the Israelitish queen Jezebel (1Ki 16:31), from whose period (she was killed B.C. 883) this does not much differ, for Carthage was founded (according to Josephus, Apion, 1, 18) B.C. 861.
