Editing Abellio

{{short description|Celtic god from southwest France}}
{{for multi|the bus and train operator|Abellio (transport company)|other uses}}
[[File:Abellio.jpg|thumb|Drawing of a [[Gallo-Roman religion|Gallo-Roman]] votive altar dedicated to Abellio, found in the village of [[Garin, Haute-Garonne|Garin]], [[Haute-Garonne]], France]]

'''Abellio''' (also '''Abelio''' and '''Abelionni''') was a god worshiped in the [[Garonne]] Valley in [[Gallia Aquitania]] (now southwest [[France]]), known primarily by a number of inscriptions which were discovered in [[Comminges]], in the [[Pyrenees]].<ref name="DGRBM">{{Citation  | last = Schmitz  | first = Leonhard  | author-link = Leonhard Schmitz  | contribution = Abellio  | editor-last = Smith  | editor-first = William  | title = [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]  | volume = 1  | pages = 2  | year = 1867  | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0011.html  | access-date = 2007-08-20  | archive-date = 2005-07-28  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050728143337/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0011.html  | url-status = dead  }}</ref> He may have been a god of [[Apple (fruit)|apple]] [[tree]]s or the sun.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofgo00jord|url-access=registration|title=Encyclopedia of gods : over 2,500 deities of the world|last=Jordan|first=Michael|date=1993|publisher=New York : Facts on File|others=Internet Archive|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofgo00jord/page/1 1]|isbn=9780816029099 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Labrousse|first=Michel|title=Un Sanctuaire Rupestre Gallo-Romain dans les Pyrénées|date=1948|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41028715|journal=Revue Archéologique|volume=31/32|pages=481–521|jstor=41028715|issn=0035-0737}}</ref>

== Origin and duties ==
Abellio is accounted for in two Roman inscriptions, one spelling the deity Abellio and the other Abelio.<ref>{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) XIII, Pars Prima Aquitania 39, 40|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref>

Some scholars have postulated that Abellio is the same name as [[Apollo]],<ref name="DGRBM" /> who in Crete and elsewhere was called ''Abelios'' (Greek {{lang|grc|Αβέλιος}}), and by the Italians and some Dorians ''Apello'',<ref>Fest. s. v. Apellinem; Eustath. ad II. ii. 99</ref> and that the deity is the same as the Gallic Apollo mentioned by [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]],<ref>[[Julius Caesar]], ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]'' [http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.6.6.html vi. 17]</ref> and also the same as the [[Belenus|Belis]] or [[Belenus]] mentioned by [[Tertullian]]<ref>[[Tertullian]], ''[[Apologeticus]]'' 23</ref> and [[Herodian]].<ref>Herodian viii. 3; comp. Capitol. ''Maoeimin.'' 22</ref>

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.

In his attempt to connect the Grail legends to the Cathars, [[Otto Rahn]] identified the worship of Abellio in the Pyrenees with the Latinized form of Belenus-Apollo whom he equated with Lucifer.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gFwoDwAAQBAJ&q=%22lucifer%22+%22abellio%22&pg=PT7|title=Lucifer's Court: A Heretic's Journey in Search of the Light Bringers|last=Rahn|first=Otto|date=2008-02-28|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781594777370|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dFwoDwAAQBAJ&q=otto+rahn+grail+abellio&pg=PT11|title=Crusade Against the Grail: The Struggle between the Cathars, the Templars, and the Church of Rome|last=Rahn|first=Otto|date=2006-09-22|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781594777219|language=en}}</ref>

Though some scholars have tried to identify this god as Greek or Celtic, the fact is that the theonym Abellio is only attested among the Aquitani, a people neither Greek nor Celtic. There are three other attested Ballio names in the Roman Empire, all of them anthroponyms and without final N: one in South Italy, and two in Ancient Dalmatia.

==References==
{{reflist}}

===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}}
* [http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf Proto-Celtic &mdash; English lexicon]

==External links==
*{{Commons-inline}}

{{SmithDGRBM|title= Abellio}}
{{Celtic mythology (ancient)}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Gaulish gods]]
[[Category:Tree gods]]
[[Category:Apollo]]
[[Category:Solar gods]]


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