Belphegor

In Christian and European demonological reception Belphegor is traditionally identified with the biblical Baal‑Peor (Hebrew בַּעַל‑פְּעוֹר, baʿal‑pəʿōr), a local Baal associated in the Hebrew Bible with licentious cultic practices at Peor. Over time, polemical and demonological writings recast that named pagan deity as a personified infernal agent in Christian moral taxonomy and later literary works, a trajectory reflected in demonological lists and in fiction.

Descriptions vary across sources. Older demonological and occult lists typically treat Belphegor as a named infernal agent without a single canonical physical form; literary works (e.g., Machiavelli's Belfagor) portray him as capable of incarnate visitation and of appearing within human society. A modern anonymous archive excerpt gives a humanoid depiction (bearded, horned, hoofed) with idiosyncratic imagery, but that portrayal is a late, singular variant and is not corroborated by the classical sources cited.

Across the cited traditions Belphegor is said to tempt humans by promising or bestowing wealth and the means of discovery (he 'proposes incredible inventions that will make them rich'), and to lead people into sin by encouraging laziness (per Peter Binsfeld's classification) or, in one Lollard source, gluttony. Kabbalistic writings describe him as quarrelsome and an enemy of the sixth sefirah, Tiferet. Literary treatments use him as a tempter, satirical visitor, or corrupter of social relations. A number of modern archival or popular reworkings attach additional attributes (political corruption, scatological motifs), but those specific details are singular and are treated as uncertain.