Alisanos

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Gaulish god of the rock, an animation of landscape feature, as recorded in Roman commentaries. He may be identical with Alisonos, who was invoked at Alesia, a possible eponymous spirit of the site.

In Gallo-Roman religion, Alisanos or Alisaunus was a local god worshipped in what is now the Côte-d'Or in Burgundy and at Aix-en-Provence.[1]

The inscription from Gevrey-Chambertin in the Côte-d'Or is in the Gaulish language:

DOIROS SEGOMARI
IEVRV ALISANV[2]
Doiros (son) of Segomaros has dedicated (this) to Alisanos

The inscription from Visignot, also in the Côte-d'Or, is in Latin:

DEO·ALISANO·PAVLLINVS
PRO·CONTEDIO·FIL·SVO
V·S·L·M·[3]
Paullinus has freely and deservedly fulfilled his vow to the god Alisanus on behalf of his son Contedius

The root Alisa- of the name Alisanus is phonologically comparable to the Proto-Celtic *alisā, ‘alder’.[4] Green, however, sees the theonym as related to the toponym Alesia, implying that he was a mountain-god.[5]

References

  1. ^ L'Arbre Celtique entry for Alisanus.
  2. ^ CIL XIII: 5468.
  3. ^ CIL XIII: 2843; cf. also "Toward a phylogenetic chronology of ancient Gaulish, Celtic, and Indo-European: Supporting Appendix" (2003), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
  4. ^ Proto-Celtic—English lexicon
  5. ^ Green, Miranda (2004:24). The gods of the Celts. Sparkford, UK: Sutton Publishing.

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Souconna (mythology)