Alisanos

Alisanos (Latinized as Alisaunus) was a local Gallo-Roman god worshipped in what is now the Côte-d'Or in Burgundy and at Aix-en-Provence.[1]

Name

The Gaulish theonym Alisanos is derived from the word alisia, meaning either 'rock, boulder' (cf. Old Irish ail) or 'whitebeam' (cf. French alisier), and also found in the toponym Alesia.[2] Miranda Green interpreted Alisanos as a mountain-god.[3] Alternatively, the root Alisa- has been phonologically compared to the Proto-Celtic *alisā, 'alder'.[4]

Attestations

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

DOIROS SEGOMARI
IEVRV ALISANV[5]
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·[6]
Paullinus has freely and deservedly fulfilled his vow to the god Alisanus on behalf of his son Contedius

References
  1. L'Arbre Celtique entry for Alisanus.
  2. Delamarre 2003, pp. 38–39.
  3. Green 1986, p. 24.
  4. Proto-Celtic—English lexicon
  5. CIL XIII: 5468.
  6. 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.
Bibliography
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
  • Green, Miranda J. (1986). The Gods of the Celts. A. Sutton. ISBN 978-0-389-20672-9.
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