Abellio

• the name of a Gallic deity, Inscr. Orell. 1952 sq.

is the name of a divinity found in inscriptions which were discovered at Comminges in France. (Gruter, Inscr. p. 37, 4; J. Scaliger, Lectiones Ausonianae, 1.9.) Buttmann (Mythologus, i. p. 167, &c.) considers Abellio to be the same name as Apollo, who in Crete and elsewhere was called Ἀβέλιος, and by the Italians and some Dorians Apello (Fest. s. v. Apellinem ; Eustath. ad Il. 2.99), and that the deity is the same as the Gallie Apollo mentioned by Caesar (Bell. Gall. 6.17), and also the same as Belis or Belenus mentioned by Tertullian (Apologet. 23) and Herodian (8.3; comp. Capitol. Maximin. 22). As the root of the word he recognises the Spartan Βέλα, i.e. the sun (Hesych. s. v.), which appears in the Syriac and Chaldaic Belus or Baal. [L.S]