Abellio
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In Continental Brythonic (Gallic) Celtic mythology, Abellio (also Abelio and Abelionni) was a god of apple trees, worshipped in the Garonne Valley in southwest France.
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Confusion with the God Apollo?
To a lesser degree, Abellio appears to have been known as a solar deity in Crete and the Pyrenees. The Cretan Abellio may however not be the same god, but rather a different manifestation or else dialectal form of the Greek god Apollo or his name. Apollo was indeed widely worshipped in the south Aegean.
Etymology & Fundamental Nature
The reconstructed lexis of the Proto-Celtic language as collated by the University of Wales [1] (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf) suggests that the name is likely to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Celtic *Ad-beljo. This Proto-Celtic word connotes the semantics of ‘green-growing one.’ This apparent semantic connotation has led Dr. John Koch at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies to suggest that this personality may well personify “luxuriant plant growth”. This theory, if it is correct, would account for the associations with trees and may indicate that this is another name for the Green Man.
Parallels in non-Celtic cultures?
If Dr. Koch’s theory is correct, and Abellio is in fact a personification of ‘luxuriant plant growth’, this allow one to draw parallels with such beings in the mythology of other cultures as Osiris, Adonis.
Bibliography
- Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN: 0195089618
- MacKillop, James. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0192801201.
- Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN: 0007640595
External Links
[2] (http://www.mythome.org/celtic.html) [3] (http://www.paralumun.com/celticgod.htm) [4] (http://www.daire.org/names/deities.html) [5] (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf) See also: Raymond Abellio, Mount Abellio