Bêlit

She appears in Howard's Conan short story "Queen of the Black Coast", first published in Weird Tales #23 (5 May 1934).

(Historically, Bêlit was an Akkadian (meaning "lady, mistress"), and appearing in Greek form as Beltis (Βελτις), considered to be the name of the wife of the god Bêl.)

Despite her successful command of a pirate ship and a crew of black giants, Howard allows Bêlit no equality with Conan; she experiences their lovemaking as well in terms of subordination: 'you have held and crushed and conquered me'.

It is this that leads to her death, killed by an ancient winged ape-like creature - hanged from the yard arm of her own ship by a ruby necklace stolen from a city of the "old ones".

It was from Bêlit that Conan—native of a landlocked country and a complete landlubber at the beginning of "Queen of the Black Coast"—learned how to be a sailor and a pirate.

She made her first appearance in the anthology magazine Weird Tales as the titular character of the short story "Queen of the Black Coast".

Bêlit made her first unofficial comic book appearance in 1952 in Mexico, starring in her own series called Reina de la Costa Negra (Spanish for Queen of the Black Coast), written by Loa and Víctor Rodríguez and drawn by Salvador Lavalle.

In 1976, Bêlit made her first official American comic book appearance in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian #58, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by John Buscema and Steven Gan.

There were other notable differences between the Mexican Bêlit and Howard's original: her ship was called the Venganza ("Vengeance") instead of the Tigress, and it was crewed by Vikings rather than black corsairs.

Because the Mexican Bêlit was the star of the series, she survived the deadly encounter with the winged monster that killed her in Howard's story arc.

The Mexican Bêlit wore an animal pelt skirt, a Spanish Conquistador-like helmet, and round metal breastplates very similar to those later worn by Marvel's Valkyrie.

Marvel expanded upon Howard's original "Queen of the Black Coast" story in the series, culminating in her tragic death in Conan the Barbarian #100 in 1979.

Dark Horse's Bêlit had an ivory-white skin as originally described by Howard, though her costume varied: she was shown wearing skimpy metal bikini tops very similar to Red Sonja's, along with silk girdles (purple rather than red), and a brown cloak, tunic, and pants for colder climates.