Beleno and Belenos means “the Shining God.“ He was worshipped as a “Sun God” by the Celts of continental Europe, Great Britain, and Ireland and is considered by modern historians to be a common Celtic god.
The term “Sun God” describes Beleno in the context of an important pastoral deity who was associated with the restorative and healing powers of the sun. The Irish festival of Beltaine or “Beleno’s Fires” was held on May 1, and fires were lit to stimulate the warmth of the sun. Livestock was purified by dragging them through these fires before putting them out to pasture. Historical evidence suggests that the ancient Celts did not worship the sun, but used it descriptively, as in images.
1. Who is Beleno?
Belenus (also Belenos, Belinus, Bel, Beli Mawr) is a sun god in Celtic mythology and, in the 3rd century, the patron deity of the Italian city of Aquileia. Called “He Who Shines Brightly” (or “The Shining God”), he was one of the oldest and most worshipped Celtic deities and is associated with the ancient fire festival and the modern Beltane Sabbat.
He was associated with the horse (as shown by the offerings of clay horse figurines at the sanctuary of Sainte-Sabine de Belenos in Burgundy) and also the wheel. Perhaps like Apollo, with whom he was identified in the Historia Augusta, Belenos was thought to ride the sun across the sky in a chariot drawn by horses.
There are 51 known inscriptions dedicated to Belenus, mainly concentrated in Cisalpine Gaul (Aquileia/Carni), Noricum, and Gallia Narbonensis, but also extending far beyond Celtic Britain and Iberia. Tertullian, writing in c. 200 AD, identifies Beleno as the national god of Noricum. Inscriptions dedicated to Beleno are concentrated in the eastern Alps and Cisalpine Gaul, but there is evidence that the god’s popularity spread further in the Roman period.
The third-century emperors Diocletian and Maximian dedicated an inscription to Belenus in the region of Aquileia. Six other votive inscriptions to Belenus were discovered at Altinum, Concordia, and Iulium Carnicum. The soldiers of Maximinus Thrax, who laid siege to Aquileia in 238, reported seeing the god defending the city from the air.
2. Etymology
In epigraphy, the forms Belenus, Belinus, and Bellenus are recorded. Other variants may be corruptions of the same name; thus, a single inscription found near Oulx has Belanus, and Herodian has Belin. Suggestions are based on identification with Apollo, but Apollo’s wide range of attributes as the god of light, knowledge, music and poetry, mystical oracles, healing and medicine, etc. opens up a wide field of possible parallels.
Apollo Karneios with ram’s horns (beran) cognate with qeren (“to shine,” “to have horns”) from qarn. The historically favored interpretation of the name is “bright/shining,” from a root bhel “to shine,” interpreting Belenos as a solar deity in origin ( compare the first element in Beltane, from “bright fire”). Alternatively, the name may be from a Proto-Celtic Guelenos, containing a root suggesting identification as a god of healing springs.
Another suggestion explains a connection with henbane, known as belenuntia, bellinuncium, bellenium in ancient times (surviving in Spanish beleño). Henbane in Latin was known as apollinaris herba (“herb of Apollo”). Renaissance scholar Pierre Pithou explained that the name derives from the Greek “arrow” belos, here taken to refer to the rays of the sun, but even in early modern scholarship.
The simplistic identification of Apollo/Belenus with the Sun was questioned; Bernard de Montfaucon argued that at the time of the identification of Apollo Belenus, the ancients in their civil cult had ceased to treat Apollo and Sol as the same deity.
Suggestions in early modern scholarship also included comparison with Semitic Bel, Belus. In this context, linguistically Bel is an Eastern Semitic form related to northwestern Semitic Baal with the same meaning; however, the aforementioned similarities can only remain theory, due to how distant the cultures in question are.
In a single inscription, Belenus is given the epithet Teutorix. This is the basis for a suggestion that the Germanic name Theodoric was originally a theonym borrowed from Gaulish into early Germanic religion.
3. Derived names
The Welsh given name Llywelyn combines the theonyms Lugus and Belenus. Alternatively, according to the modern Welsh interpretation “Cynfelyn,” it could mean “precursor of Belinos,” “one who precedes Belinos.” Another interpretation based on the kennings of Cuno and Belinos is “Shining / Excellent Warrior” based on Cuno being Hound or Dog, which was associated with Warriors, and Bel, meaning Shining, which has been compared to skill and, as such, excellence in a particular area, for example, war / fighting.
Beli Mawr (meaning “Beli the Great”), an ancestor figure in Welsh literature, has also been connected to the theonym, but alternative suggestions connect the name to the Gaulish Bolgios and the tribal name of the Belgians. Diodorus Siculus called Cornwall (Cornovii, which may originate from “horn”) Belerion, the first place name recorded in the British Isles. This is generally derived from the root bel “bright” (meaning “bright land” or similar) and is not necessarily connected to the theonym.
4. Worship of Beleno, the sun god
The festival marked the beginning of summer in Ireland. The ritual purpose of such festivals in Ireland and Europe was to ask for the god’s help in encouraging crops and protecting livestock from disease. The Beltane festival was one of the most important festivals in Celtic culture. The Beltane Festival is still celebrated in Scotland and Ireland as an arts festival on the traditional date of April 30 or May 1.
Belenos was usually depicted riding the sun across the sky in a horse-drawn chariot. A model horse and chariot with a sun disc were found in Denmark and are believed to be a representation of Beleno.
Other depictions include Belenos riding a horse throwing thunderbolts while using his wheel as a shield. The wheel, a head with sun rays, and halos are associated with Beleno. The goddess Belisama in Gaul is sometimes shown as the consort of Beleno.
Healing shrines with a Roman association in mourning with the god Apollo and Belenus, such as the one found at Sainte-Sabine in Burgundy, demonstrate the god’s association with healing and regeneration. Objects in the shape of limbs found at Sainte-Sabine suggest that they were left as payment for prayers offered.
Clay horses were also discovered and are believed to be representations of Beleno. Beleno shrines have also been found in Inveresk, Scotland, and Bourbon-Les-Bains, France, which apparently bears his name. The cult of Beleno spread from Italy to Gaul, now Austria, Great Britain, and Ireland.
Archaeology
The thirty-one or more archaeological finds in Europe, Great Britain, and Ireland are the most found for any Celtic god. These finds demonstrate not only the importance of the cult of Belenus, but that he was a common god in Celtic culture until the introduction of Christianity.
The most famous and numerous finds of Belenus were the inscriptions dedicated to him by the emperors Maximian and Diocletian in Aquileia, Italy. Roman historians made references to Belenus, such as the Herodians in 278 BC, who described Roman soldiers seeing an image of Belenus (the protector of the city) in the sky during the siege of Aquileia by Emperor Maximus. Tertullian mentions the worship of Belenus in the Norwegian Alps.
Archaeological evidence of Beleno also includes a coin found in 1 AD depicting Beleno with large brown eyes, a heavy moustache, and his hair shown in a crown representing the rays of the sun. A carved jewel found in Nimes (France) depicts Beleno as an old man dressed in a tunic with solar symbols and an inscription.
Julius Caesar apparently referred to Belenus as the god Apollo, and this association was common throughout the Roman Celtic world. Several gods in other countries were based on him, such as Beli, the god of death in Welsh mythology, and Belatucadros, whose cult flourished in northern England. The god Bile in Irish Celtic mythology is credited with being another incarnation of Beleno.
In medieval times, Beli Mawr, a mythological king in Britain, was apparently the basis for Pellinor, the father of Sir Percival, in the Arthurian legends. Beleno’s influence can be found in modern Europe today. For example, the name Llywelyn is thought to be a combination of the gods Lugus and Belenus. Billinsgate in England is also believed to be named after the god.
