Called Belenos by the Romans, was the Celtic God of the Sun, representing
the curative powers of the Sun's heat. His festival of Beltane, when
bonfires were lit to welcome in the Summer and encourage the Sun's warmth,
was held on May 1st, and is remembered in today's May Day festivities.
His symbols were the horse (as shown, for example, by the clay horse figurine
offerings at Beli's Sainte-Sabine shrine in Burgundy), and also the Wheel
(as illustrated on the famous Gundestrup Cauldron). Perhaps, like Apollo,
whom he became identified with, Beli was thought to ride the Sun across
the sky in a horse-drawn chariot. Indeed, a Celtic model horse and
wagon, carrying a gilded sun-disc, has been found at Trundholm in Denmark.
Sometimes he is illustrated riding a single horse, throuwing thunder-bolts
(hence an occasional idenification with Jupiter) and using his symbolic
radiating wheel as a sheild, as he tramples the chthonic forces of a snake-limbed
giant. This personification is similar to the classic depiction of
the Archangel St. Michael defeating the Devil. Sacred pagan hills
associated with Beli, are thought to have had their dedications transferred
to this saint (or sometimes St. George) by the early Christians.
Well known examples include St. Michael's Mount (Cornwall) and the churches
of St. Michael on Brent Tor (Devon), and Burrow Mump and Glastonbury Tor
(Somerset): All on a supposed ley line that faces the Rising Sun at Beltane.
He may also have been worshipped on Dragon Hill below the great Uffington
White Horse in Berkshire.