Abellio (also Abelio and Abelionni) was a god worshipped in the Garonne Valley in Gallia Aquitania (now southwest France), known to us primarily by a number of inscriptions which were discovered at Comminges.[1] He may have been a god of apple trees.
Some scholars have postulated that Abellio is the same name as Apollo,[1] who in Crete and elsewhere was called Abelios (Greek Αβέλιος), and by the Italians and some Dorians Apello,[2] and that the deity is the same as the Gallic Apollo mentioned by Caesar,[3] and also the same as the Belis or Belenus mentioned by Tertullian[4] and Herodian.[5]
Other scholars have taken the reverse position that Abellio might have been a similar solar deity of Celtic origin in Crete and the Pyrenees, but the Cretan Abellio may however not be the same god as the Celtic one, but rather a different manifestation, or dialectal form, of the Greek god Apollo or his name.
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Abellio", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, pp. 2
- ^ Fest. s. v. Apellinem; Eustath. ad II. ii. 99
- ^ Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico vi. 17
- ^ Tertullian, Apologeticus 23
- ^ viii. 3; comp. Capitol. Maoeimin. 22
Other sources
- Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN 0-19-508961-8
- Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN 0-00-764059-5
- Celtic Gods and their Associates
- Proto-Celtic — English lexicon
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).
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