In demonology, Belphegor (or Beelphegor) is a demon who helps people to make discoveries. He seduces people by suggesting to them ingenious inventions that will make them rich. According to some 16th century demonologists, his power is stronger in April. Bishop and witch-hunter Peter Binsfeld believed that Belphegor tempts by means of laziness.
Belphegor originated as the Assyrian Baal-Peor, the Moabitish god to whom the Israelites became attached in Shittim (Numbers 25:3), which was associated with licentiousness and orgies. It was worshipped in the form of a phallus.
As a demon, he is described in Kabbalistic writings as the "disputer", an enemy of the sixth Sephiroth "beauty." When summoned, he can grant riches, the power of discovery and ingenious invention. His role as a demon was to sow discord among men and seduce them to evil through the apportionment of wealth.
Belphegor (Lord of the Opening) was pictured in two quite different fashions: as a beautiful naked woman and as a monstrous, bearded demon with an open mouth, horns, and sharply pointed nails. Belphegor also figures in Milton's Paradise Lost and in Victor Hugo's The Toilers of the Sea.
According to legend, Belphegor was sent from Hell by Lucifer to find out if there really was such a thing on earth as married happiness. Rumor of such had reached the demons but they knew that people were not designed to live in harmony. Belphegor's experiences in the world soon convinced him that the rumor was groundless. The story is found in various works of early modern literature, hence the use of the name to apply to a misanthrope or a licentious person.
Also, in Christian tradition, Belphegor is said to be the chief demon of the deadly sin Sloth, at least according to Peter Binsfield's Binsfield's Classification of Demons.
From Good old French tele-romance
Shown on TV for the first time in 1965, the mystery "Belphégor, ou La fantôme du Louvre" was immediately a great success, becoming a very important landmark in the history of television. This success still lives on, in spite of the forty years of age and the numerous replies, and in spite of the trash TV that lately reigns, undisputed (lately we have witnessed to a revival of the tele-romance, with a lot of remakes and adaptations of famous novels, but from the artistic point of view the results are very poor). This is one of those tele-romances that nostalgically are defined as "oldies"; it's a real pillar of the television language, a movie that made millions of members of the audience hold their breaths. The plot is widely known and takes us to an elegant and mysterious Paris, where, among murders, apparitions and alchemy, we feel the sensation of an obscure supernatural menace, that will dissolve realistically in the end. The interpretation of the exquisitely beautiful Juliette Greco and the kitsch, refined, elegant and nervous atmosphere of Paris, in particular of the magic interiors full of history and mysteries of the Louvre (effective co-protagonist), remain unforgettable. In 2001 a remake has been made, but it is a horror movie, not a mystery. It's a good flick, although naturally worse than the original.
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