Lord of the Flies, Prince of Demons

Beelzebub illustrates how the gods of one people become the demons of their neighbours. The name derives from Baal-zebul, "Baal the prince" or "exalted lord," a title of the storm god worshipped by the Philistines at Ekron, where 2 Kings records the Israelite king Ahaziah sending to consult his oracle. Hebrew scribes appear to have deliberately distorted it to Baal-zebub, "lord of the flies," a mocking pun that reduced a rival deity to a scavenger's master.

By the time of the Gospels the name has completed its descent: opponents accuse Jesus of casting out demons "by Beelzebul, the prince of demons," and the figure is now a name for Satan himself, or a high-ranking demon under him. Later demonological catalogues, from the medieval grimoires to Milton's Paradise Lost, rank Beelzebub among the greatest of the fallen, second only to Lucifer. The whole history is legible in the name: a foreign god, insulted into an insect-lord, promoted into a prince of hell.