Has anybody ever worked with Belenus or know anything about his personality?
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Re: Belenus
I know only what I can scrounge up on wikipedia, that he was a Gallic god whose cult seems focused in Cisalpine Gaul and Noricum--northern Italy and Austria, basically--and he may have had to do with protection and possibly the air or sky. He seems rather similar to Apollo, and the Romans conflated him with that god. But then, the Romans conflated tons of Celtic gods with Apollo, as many major Celtic gods were many-skilled and dealt with protection and healing, as Apollo did. Belenos/Belenus remained popular throughout the Roman period, and was honoured by Diocletian
The idea that Belenus has to do with light or brightness derives from the etymology of his name. It means literally "the bright one" or "the shining one". And is is hypothesized that it's connected to the festival Beltane. But that is mostly speculation, as we don't have hard evidence of Beltane being celebrated outside of the British Isles, and Belenus' worship was mostly continental. And the etymology of 'Beltane' relating to an Indo-European root word for 'shining' is being questioned in favour of it relating to a Proto-Celtic root relating to death (and possibly rebirth). The etymology for Belenos, also is being questioned; other hypotheses suggest it's rooted in Proto-Celtic *Guenelos, referring to wells--and consequently, healing springs--or in some archaic word for henbane, which is preserved in common words for the herb in other languages as bellenium or belenuntia.
Though, as I mentioned, his cult was centred in southern continental Europe, it was spread throughout the Celtic world. The main place outside of Gaul that we have clear evidence of his worship is western Britain, or modern Wales. It was present enough that it impacted personal names in the region.The very common Welsh name Llewellyn is a composite of the names of two Celtic gods, Lugus and Belenos, rendered originally as Lugobelinos. Over time, the name became its modern form.
I would be careful about ascribing to him the trappings of a solar deity. The idea of Belenus as a sun-god seem to be drawn from two things: Roman equation of him with Apollo, who was in turn equated with Helios. And early 20th century interpretations of his name's etymology, which are rooted in Frazerian assumptions of the ubiquity of solar worship among Indo-Europeans.
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