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Belenus (Gaulish: Belenos, Belinos) is an ancient Celtic healing god. The cult of Belenus stretched from the Italian Peninsula to the British Isles, with a main sanctuary located at Aquileia, on the Adriatic Sea coast. Through interpretatio romana, Belenus was often identified with Apollo, although his cult seems to have preserved a certain degree of autonomy during the Roman period.
Linguist Blanca María Prósper argues that Belinos was probably the original form, which also appears in the name (from an earlier Belinos), a Welsh leader who died in 627 AD. Known variants include Bellinus and perhaps Belus., s.v. Belenus. The deity may also have been known in Ireland and Britain by the variants Bel, Beli, and Bile.
However, this etymology has come under increasing criticism in recent scholarship. Xavier Delamarre notes that the proposed stemming from *bʰelH- do not seem to connote 'shining', but rather 'pale white' or 'grey', and suggests that Belenos may rather derive from the Gaulish stem belo- ('strong, powerful') attached to the suffix - nos ('lord, master'), which would lead to Belenos as the 'Master of Power'. Alternatively, Peter Schrijver has proposed that Belenos might be an o-stem of the Indo-European root * bʰel-, designating the henbane (cf. Welsh bela, Germanic * bel(u)nōn, Slavic *bъlnъ), a psychoactive plant which was known as belenuntia in Gaulish and as apollinaris in Latin. Bernhard Maier and Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel have also argued that the name may derive from a root *gwelH-, meaning 'source, spring'. According to Šašel Kos, Belenus' "close association with water is confirmed by two dedications to Fons B(eleni) and by an altar in which Belenus is worshipped together with the Nymphs. Thermal springs are also attested to at Iulium Carnicum." The 19th-century attempt to link the root bel- with the Phoenician deity Baal is now widely rejected by modern scholars.
The Gaulish term belenuntia (Βελενούντιαν), designating the henbane, a hallucinogenic plant also known in Latin as apollinaris, may be a derivative form of Belenos. The variant belenion, cited as a poisonous plant by Pseudo-Aristotle, appears to be the source of the Spanish beleño ('henbane'). The Gallo-Roman term belisa could also have been borrowed into Old High German as bilisa (cf. modern German Bilsenkraut 'henbane'). Henbane was commonly used in antiquity for medicinal purposes, providing further evidence of Belanos' healing attributes. A shallow stone dish found in Saint-Chamas (south of France) and dedicated to Beleino could thus have been used to hold hallucinogenic substances.
According to Delamarre, the name of the goddess Belisama appears to be built on a same stem bel(o)- ('strong, powerful') attached to the intensifying suffix - isama, and could thus been translated as 'Very Powerful'. Schrijver rather links it to a stem for 'henbane', * beles-, attached to an unknown suffix - ma, and compares the name with the Gaulish theonym Belisa-maros. The personal name Bellovesus can probably be translated as 'Worthy of Power', from bello- ('power') attached to uesus ('worthy, good, deserving').
Spanish scholarship also relates the deity's name to Aquitanian anthroponym Belinatepos or Belanetepos (taken to have an equine association), as well as the toponyms Beleño and Beloño.
The god was venerated as Apollo Belenus at the curative shrine of Sainte-Sabine (Burgundy), where he was invoked by pilgrims seeking cures for their sickness. If Belenus is interpreted as meaning 'shining, brilliant', it can be compared to the Celtic epithet Vindonnus (from * windo- 'white'), attached to Apollo as a deity who restored light and vision to people with eye disease at Essarois (Burgundy).
Around 240, Herodian mentions Belenus' worship in Aquileia, where he was regarded as its patron god. During the siege of the city in 238 AD by emperor Maximinus Thrax, who died during the event while his army was defeated soon afterwards, Belenus was invoked as the divine protector of Aquileia. The soldiers reported seeing an appearance of the god floating in the air, battling and defending his town, in an evocation of Apollo's defence of Delphi against the troops of Brennos. Dedications to a Fons Beleni ('Fountain of Belenos') show connection with medicinal springs.. The third-century emperors Diocletian and Maximian each dedicated an inscription to Belenus in the region of Aquileia. A further 6 votive inscriptions of Belenus were discovered at Altinum, Concordia and Iulium Carnicum.).]]Belenus was an important god of Iulium Carnicum (modern Zuglio), a town close to the border with Noricum inhabited by the Carni. A sanctuary dedicated to the deity is attested by the second half of the 1st century BC, when its renovation was commemorated by two chiefs of the village. Epigraphic dedications to the god are also known in Venice and at Rimini. An altar was also found in Celeia (modern Celje), one of the most important Norican towns. The cult may have been introduced here from Aquileia, as suggested by the name of its dedicator, Lucius Sentius Forensis, the Sentii being well attested to at Aquileia, but not in Noricum. Ausonius (later 4th century AD) alludes to sanctuaries dedicated to Belenus in Aquitania, and mentions a temple priest of the cult named Phoebicius. The deity was also popular in Provence, as attested by inscriptions from the Marseille and Nîmes areas. A votive inscription from Caesarean times by the poet Lucius Erax Bardus was found at Rochemolles, near Bardonecchia (Bardonnèche), in Italy (Alpi Graie). At Aquae Borvonis (Bourbon-Lancy), the Aedui worshipped Belenus in association with health giving waters., s.v. Belenus.
In Noricum, Belenus may also have been accompanied by an otherwise unknown female deity named Belestis (or Beléna, Beléstis Augústa, Beléstris, Belínca), possibly worshipped as a goddess of nature and fertility. Two shrines dedicated to the goddess were found in Podljubelj in the Karawanks.
The star Bélénos is named after him.
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