Belus, chief among the Babylonian gods. If we can agree that the Tower of Babel was the Temple of Belus , there can have been no pagan altar more ancient. The kings of Babylon amassed their enormous treasure there, later plundered by Xerxes when he returned from Greece. It was shortly thereafter that the temple is said to have been demolished. Herodotus gives us a fine description of it in his first book. The priests of Belus persuaded the citizens of Babylon that the deity honoured with his divine presence any virgin who might make her way to a magnificent bed set up at the highest point of the temple. Thus, each night Belus deflowered a different virgin. Belus , who gave such a fine welcome to the young ladies of Babylon, was the sun by day, or nature itself, which was worshipped under his name. In time, the first king of the Assyrians, who was called Belus , was deified. Henceforth these two separate deities were conflated. In addition, many other kings were named Belus . Cicero gives the same name to the fifth [Indian] Hercules. [1]

1. Cicero De Natura Deorum [On the nature of the Gods], book III.