Word Finder - bel

definition

A measure of relative power, defined as log10(P 1/P 2), where P1 and P2 are the measured and reference power respectively.

To Anu was assigned the control of the heavens, to Bel the earth, and to Ea the waters.

The chief god of the Palmyrenes was a solar deity, called Samas or Shamash (" sun "), or Bel, or Malak-bel,' whose great temple is still the most imposing feature among the ruins of Palmyra.

Malak-bel has been explained as " messenger of Bel "; but more probably Malak is the common Babylonian epithet malik given to various gods, and means " counsellor "; Malak-bel will then be the sun as the visible representative of Bel.

The union of the two orders, already suggested at the council of Lyons in 1245, was nominally achieved by the council of Vienne in 1311; but the so-called "union" was in reality the suppression of the Templars, and the confiscation of all their resources by the cupidity of Philippe le Bel.

Both Baal and Astarte were venerated in Egypt at Thebes and Memphis in the XIXth Dynasty, and the former, through the influence of the Aramaeans who borrowed the Babylonian spelling Bel, ultimately became known as the Greek Belos who was identified with Zeus.

Worterbuch, who derives the element bel from an old Celtic root meaning shining, &c.) (W.

The Sumerians cast the heads of their lions in copper, not always with successful results, and filled them with bitumen and clay (like the image in " Bel and the Dragon," which was " clay within and brass without ") to give them solidity.

She is also designated as Nin-Khar-sag, "Lady of the mountain," which name stands in some relationship to Im-Khar-sag, "storm mountain" - the name of the staged tower or sacred edifice to Bel at Nippur.

As the consort of En -lil, the goddess Nin-lil or Belit belongs to Nippur and her titles as "ruler of heaven and earth," and "mother of the gods" are all due to her position as the wife of Bel.

The title Belit was naturally transferred to the great mother-goddess Ishtar after the decline of the cult at Nippur, and we also find the consort of Marduk, known as Sarpanit, designated as Belit, for the sufficient reason that Marduk, after the rise of the city of Babylon as the seat of his cult, becomes the Bel or "lord" of later days.

Among the few prose writers of distinction were Andrew Spangar, whose " Hungarian Bookstore," Magyar Konyvtdr (Kassa, 1738), is said to be the earliest work of the kind in the Magyar dialect; George Baranyi, who translated the New Testament (Lauba, 1 754); the historians Michael Cserei and Matthew Bel, which last, however, wrote chiefly in Latin; and Peter Bod, who besides his theological treatises compiled a history of Hungarian literature under the title Magyar Athends (Szeben, 1766).

Since Bel signifies the "lord" or "master" par excellence, it is, therefore, a title rather than a genuine name, and must have been given to a deity who had acquired a position at the head of a pantheon.

At a very early period - prior to 3000 B.C. - Nippur had become the centre of a political district of considerable extent, and it is to this early period that the designation of En-lil as Bel or "the lord" reverts.

Inscriptions found at Nippur, where extensive excavations were carried on during 1888-1900 by Messrs Peters and Haynes, under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, show that Bel of Nippur was in fact regarded as the head of an extensive pantheon.

The older Bel did not, however, entirely lose his standing.

Nabonidus was dragged out of his hiding-place, and Kurdish guards were placed at the gates of the great temple of Bel, where the services continued without intermission.

The feeling was still strong that none had a right to rule over western Asia until he had been consecrated to the office by Bel and his priests; and from henceforth, accordingly, Cyrus assumed the imperial title of " king of Babylon."

E-Saggila, the great temple of Bel, however, still continued to be kept in repair and to be a centre of Babylonian patriotism, until at last the foundation of Seleucia diverted the population to the new capital of Babylonia and the ruins of the old city became a quarry for the builders of the new seat of government.'

As for the storm-god Zu, we are told that he stole the tablets of destiny, and therewith the prerogatives of Bel.

The Nymphi (Kara Bel) and Niobe sculptures near Smyrna are probably memorials of that extension, Certainly some inland Anatolian power seems to have kept Aegean settlers and culture away from the Ionian coast during the Bronze Age, and that power was in all likelihood the Hatti kingdom of Cappadocia.

The mosque of Sidi Ahmed bel Hassan, usually called Abul Hassan, built A.D.

He was said to have been the son of Belos or Bel, to have conquered in seventeen years the whole of western Asia with the help of Ariaeus, king of Arabia, and to have founded the first empire.

Idolatrous cults repose so largely on make-believe and credulity that the priests who administered them, perhaps oftener than we know, fell into the kind of imposture and trickery of which the legend of Bel and the dragon represents a classical example.

In the sequel Daniel proves to the king that the priests with their wives and children came in through privy doors and consumed the viands set before the god; and the king, angered at their trickery, slew them all and gave Bel over to Daniel for destruction.

The men who built the temple of Bel at Nippur, in the year (say) 5000 B.C., must have felt themselves at a pinnacle of civilization and culture.

North-west and south-west the city is commanded by hills, on which are forts, that on Sidi bel Hassan to the south dating from the middle ages.

The first Babylonian month Nisan, dedicated to Anu and Bel, was that of " sacrifice "; and its association with the Ram as the chief primitive object of sacrifice is thus intelligible.'

Inland, besides Constantine, are the important towns of Tlemcen (24,060), Sidi bel Abbes (24,494), Mascara (18,989) and Blida (16,866).

Other mosques of some note are those of Ibn Yusef, El Mansur and El Mo`izz; the chapel of Sidi Bel Abbas, in the extreme north of the city, possesses property of great value, and serves as an almshouse and asylum.

He is closely associated with Bel, or En-lil of Nippur, as whose son he is commonly designated.

The combination points to the amalgamation of the district in which Ninib was worshipped with the one in which Bel was the chief deity.

On the other hand, the principal god of Babylon was Zeus Belus (Bel Marduk), and it is difficult to see why he should have been called Sarapis on this occasion.

He built in 1877 a cottage on Bel Alp above the Rhone valley, and in 1885 a house on Hindhead, near Haslemere.

The god or goddess was generally called the Ba'al or Ba'alath of such and such a place, a title which was used not only by the Canaanites, but by the Aramaeans (Be`el) and Babylonians (Bel) as well.

It is also clear that Sumerian was actually read aloud, probably as a ritual language, until a very late period, because we have a number of pure Sumerian words reproduced in Greek transliteration; for example, Delephat = Dilbat, " the Venus-star"; Illinos = the god Illil = Bel; aido = itu, " month," &c.

The unhappy Bel is successes.

Besides the temple of Assur there was another great temple dedicated to Anu and Hadad, as well as the smaller sanctuaries of Bel, Ishtar, Merodach and other deities.

The older incantations, associated with Ea, were re-edited so as to give to Marduk the supreme power over demons, witches and sorcerers; the hymns and lamentations composed for the cult of Bel, Shamash and of Adad were transformed into paeans and appeals to Marduk, while the ancient myths arising in the various religious and political centres underwent a similar process of adaptation to changed conditions, and as a consequence their original meaning was obscured by the endeavour to assign all mighty deeds and acts, originally symbolical of the change of seasons or of occurrences in nature, to the patron deity of Babylon - the supreme head of the entire Babylonian pantheon.

While Anu, with whom there was associated as a pale reflection a consort Antum, assigned to him under the influence of the widely prevalent view among the early Semites which conceived of gods always in pairs, remained more or less of an abstraction during the various periods of the Babylonian-Assyrian religion and taking little part in the active cult of the temples, his unique position as the chief god of the highest heavens was always recognized in the theological system developed by the priests, which found an expression in making him the first figure of a triad, consisting of Anu, Bel and Ea, among whom the priests divided the three divisions of the universe, the heavens, the earth with the atmosphere above it, and the watery expanse respectively.

By the side of the first triad, consisting of Anu, Bel and Ea - disconnected in this form entirely from all local associations - we encounter a second triad composed of Shamash, Sin and Ishtar.

His grandson Assur-bani-pal, with a view of reestablishing amicable relations, restored the statue to the temple E-Saggila in Babylon and performed the time-honoured ceremony of "taking the hand of Bel" as a symbol of his homage to the ancient head of the Babylonian pantheon.

Disassociating these gods from all local connexions, Anu became the power presiding over the heavens, to Bel was assigned the earth and the atmosphere immediately above it, while Ea ruled over the deep. With the transfer of all the gods to the heavens, and under the influence of the doctrine of the correspondence between the heavens and the earth, Anu, Bel and Ea became the three "ways" (as they are called) on the heavens.

The "ways" appear in this instance to have been the designation of the ecliptic circle, which was divided into three sections or zones - a northern, a middle and a southern zone, Anu being assigned to the first, Bel to the second, and Ea to the third zone.

En-lil was in fact adopted as the Bel or great lord of the Semitic pantheon.

To the north-east of the ziggurat stood, apparently, the House of Bel, and in the courts below the ziggurat stood various other buildings, shrines, treasure chambers and the like.

With the establishment of the Babylonian empire, under Khammurabi, early in the 2nd preChristian millennium, the religious as well as the political centre of influence was transferred to Babylon, Marduk became the Bel or lord of the pantheon, many of En-lil's attributes and myths were transferred to him, and E-kur was to some extent neglected.

Babylonian speculation embraced the world in a triad of divine powers, Anu the god of heaven, Bel of earth and Ea of the deep; and these became the symbols of the order of nature, the divine embodiments of physical law?

In Cappadocia, Aramaic inscriptions have been discovered (1900), in which the indigenous god, there termed Bel the king, recognizes the Mazdayasnian Religion (Din Mazdayasnish)i.e.

Bola was an Assyrian term for Bael or Bel, the god of the Phoenicians and Druids.

It was not till even later that he began his literary work, the occasion being a request from Jeanne of Navarre, the wife of Philippe le Bel and the mother of Louis le Hutin.