Is Baal really the same figure as the Lord of the Flies?

Not quite. Baal means something like “lord” or “master” and was used as a divine title in the ancient Levant. Baal was especially associated with storms and rain, which could also connect him with fertility and crops. The name and worship varied across places and periods, so “Phoenician god” is a bit narrower than the full picture.

The later association comes through biblical references to Baal-zebub, identified as a god of Ekron and often translated “Lord of the Flies,” and through later religious interpretation. That is a historical shift in portrayal, but not a single, tidy story in which Baal is simply banished and renamed.

I’d separate the layers rather than treat them as one continuous biography. There’s the ancient Levantine deity, then biblical polemic against worship of Baal, then later demonological traditions that connect names and figures. Those traditions influence each other, but they don’t all tell the same story.

So an artwork can use “fall from grace” as an interpretive theme, but it’s better understood as a modern way of joining those layers than as a direct summary of one ancient account.

For a visual description, the clearest wording would be that it draws on Baal’s ancient storm and fertility associations alongside later demonological imagery linked with Beelzebub. That keeps the contrast without implying every tradition described the same figure in the same way.