Ah, the merry month of May, the month belonging to Bel, Irish Celtic god representative of the sun, Spring’s returning warmth and lusty youth. An ancient deity, about whom little is known, he was husband of mother goddess Don and father to that Celtic goddess of magic, Arianrhod. Meaning "shining one," he was the sun’s defeat over winter’s darkness. Being the consort of Don would have also made him the father of all, and he is indeed known in some texts as "the Father of Gods and Men." He is considered, by some, a god of the dead, probably serving to link those who had passed away with the reincarnating waters of Don. Thus he would have represented the soul’s defeat over darkness via its rebirth.
Bel appears,
in slightly different form, among other Celtic peoples as well. Britons
knew him as Belinos. Those in Gaul and Italy called him Belenus, where
he was compared to, and later assimilated by, Apollo. Belisama, later absorbed
by Minerva, was his wife. In Wales, he was Bile, husband of Danu and father
of The Dagda. Bile, in gaelic, means "sacred tree." One myth tells of Danu
watering the sacred oak, from which The Dagda, and probably all of humanity,
was born. In this instance, the oak referred to would surely have been
Bile. Also, considering Beltain means literally "fires of Bel," the bonfires
could refer to fires made out of Bel, or oak. It’s not a very big of leap
to make; the need-fires would have welcomed back the sun god with wood
that was sacred to him.
One last
‘version’ of Bel that shows up in research is Belatucadros, whose name
means "fair shining one" or "fair slayer." In this guise, he is a god of
destruction, war, and the dead. Worship of Belatucadros seems to be pretty
limited, appearing only in a small part of northern Britain, and he was
not linked at all with Beltain.
Some final notes on the month of May and worship of Bel. This was one of only two days out of the year when household fires would be extinguished, only to be rekindled by torches lit from the need-fire. The other day was Samhain, opposite Beltain in the calendar. Actually, another name for Beltain was Cetshamhain. And while his life and exploits may be long forgotten, Bel lives on in many ways. His name is still found in many places and personal names in Great Britain, such as Billingsgate in London. In modern Irish, the word for May is Bealtaine, and in old Scottish, it’s called Bealltainn.
Lindeman, Micha. Encyclopedia Mythica [http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/] (See articles on Bel and Bile.)
Sykes, Egerton. Who's who in non-classical mythology. New York : Oxford University Press, 1993.
Thompson, Sue Ellen. Holiday symbols. Detroit, Mich. : Omnigraphics, 1998.
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Originally
composed 4 April, 2000.
Copyright
Laurel Reufner, 2000. Comments? Email me!