topics: |  myth | literature | quotation | bible | reference

An excellent reference to turn to for finding out what classical
reference is being made.  You get to see what the word means, and how some
fogies may have used it.  Organized by category, so it's great to browse,
and you never know who might show up:

    BEELZEBUB In the Old Testament, Beelzebub (literally 'the lord of the
    flies') is the God of the Philistine city Ekron (2 Kgs. 1). He is
    mentioned in several of the Gospels, where he is called 'the prince of
    demons'. Beelzebub is often identified with the Devil. In Paradise Lost,
    however, Milton gives the name to one of the fallen angels, next to Satan
    in power.

	She 'spaed fortunes', read dreams, composed philtres, discovered
	stolen goods, and made and dissolved matches as successfully as if,
	according to the belief of the whole neighbourhood, she had been
	aided in those arts by Beelzebub himself.
			- WALTER SCOTT The Bride of Lammermoor, 1819

	Winterborne was standing in front of the brick oven in his
	shirt-sleeves, tossing in thorn-sprays, and stirring about the
	blazing mass with a long-handled, three-pronged Beelzebub kind of
	fork.  		- THOMAS HARDY The Woodlcinders, 1887 p.109