Alisanos (Latinized as ''Alisaunus'') was a local
Gallo-Roman
Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context ...
god worshipped in what is now the
Côte-d'Or in
Burgundy and at
Aix-en-Provence.
Name
The Gaulish
theonym
A theonym (from Greek ''theos'' (Θεός), " god"'','' attached to ''onoma'' (ὄνομα), "name") is the proper name of a deity.
Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics (the study of the etymology, history, and ...
''Alisanos'' is generally derived from the word ''alisia'', meaning either 'rock, boulder' (cf. Old Irish ''ail'') or '
whitebeam
The whitebeams are members of the family Rosaceae, comprising subgenus ''Aria'' (or, according to some authorities, its own genus) of genus ''Sorbus'', and hybrids involving species of this subgenus and members of subgenera ''Sorbus'', ''Torminar ...
' (cf. French ''alisier''), which is also found in the
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
''Alesia''.
Miranda Green interpreted ''Alisanos'' as a mountain-god. Alternatively, the stem ''Alisa-'' has been phonologically compared to the
Proto-Celtic
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celti ...
noun *''alisā'', meaning 'alder'.
Attestations
The inscription from
Gevrey-Chambertin
Gevrey-Chambertin () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department of France in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. in the Côte-d'Or is in the
Gaulish language
Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzer ...
:
:
DOIROS SEGOMARI
:
IEVRV ALISANV
:''Doiros (son) of Segomaros has dedicated (this) to Alisanos''
The inscription from Visignot, also in the Côte-d'Or, is in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
:
:
DEO·ALISANO·PAVLLINVS ❧
:
PRO·CONTEDIO·FIL·SVO ❧
:
V·S·L·M·[''CIL'' XIII: 2843; cf. als]
"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''.
:''Paullinus has freely and deservedly fulfilled his vow to the god Alisanus on behalf of his son Contedius''
References
;Bibliography
*
*
Gaulish gods
Mountain gods
{{Celt-myth-stub