Beelzebub is a Phoenician deity also known as Baal or "Lord Of The Flies". In Matthew 12.24 he is called the prince of all devils. Throughout the text Milton returns to a vision of Beelzebub as a princely or honorable figure, yet Beelzebub is a fallen angel from heaven. This is the second appearance of Beelzebub in the text.
Milton uses Beelzebub not only from reference from the bible in the book of Matthew, but to start to provide a hierarchy to Hell. Satan, the highest of the hierarchy begins the speeches. He attempts to set Hell up much in the way Heaven was constructed. Satan is at the highest of the order of Hell as God is in Heaven. Directly under Satan is Beelzebub. Beelzebub speaks last to be the final word of hell, the final suggestion as to how the fallen in Hell will live their lives. Moloch, Mammon, and Belial, are also towards the top of the hierarchy and comparable to lords in this aristocracy. Milton sets up the hierarchy of hell by order of speeches and ideas, having Beelzebub giving the last suggestion so that Satan does not seem imperial in ruling Hell. Beelzebub becomes a flawed wise counsel for the rest of the minions.
While it would appear that having a structure in Hell allows it to be ordered, in fact the name of the castle in hell itself, Pandaemonium. The Oxford English Dictionary definition not only references to Milton's work but also as something that is "wild lawless confusion or uproar, a distracting fiendish ‘row’. " While the demons believe they are orderly and organized, Milton is presenting us with a situation where, in fact, we find the demons are fooling themselves, and that Hell cannot be a place where any sort of order can occur. Milton wants to hit home with this idea.
If Milton shows Satan as the equivalent to the king of Hell, than Beelzebub is perceived as it's crown prince and chief counsel. Milton gives Beelzebub the appearance as a very wise and stately figure in the court of Hell. Beelzebub is looked up to by the other fallen angels and he has so much respect that all fall quiet as he speaks, a kind of respect that the other speakers don't receive from the rest of the fallen.
While Beelzebub is being perceived, he is also perceiving Hell as he and Satan want it to be. Beelzebub and Satan are looking over the minions of Hell's council to try to regain something that they lost when they were exiled from Heaven that, really, they will never be able to regain again. It's this flawed thinking that plays into Milton's thoughts on the chaos of Hell and shows us a true contradiction in not only in terms but in characters. Everything about Hell and how it is perceived by it's inhabitants is a contradiction, and Milton wants the reader to understand the extent to how flawed not only the physical place is but also the mere existence and thought of it is.
-Erik Scott