In Gallo-Roman religion, Alaunus or Alaunius was a Gaulish god of the sun, healing and prophecy. His name is known from inscriptions found in Lurs in southern France (in the dative form Αλα[υ]νειουι) and in Mannheim in western Germany. In the latter inscription, Alaunus is used as an epithet of Genius Mercury.

Etymology

The Proto-Celtic Alaunos is believed to mean ‘shining one’, which has led Dr. John Koch at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies to suggest that this personality may be another name for Belenos or Dagda-Sucellos. This theory, if it is correct, would account for the associations with the sun and the apparent mental brilliance of the ability to heal and tell the future.

Theo Vennemann compares this god’s name with Basque arau ‘order, regularity’, which he asserts is from Proto-Vasconic Alaunu meaning ‘order’.

Notes

References

• Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN 0-19-508961-8
• Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN 0-00-764059-5

See also

• Aelianus
• Aelius
• Aelia gens
• Helios

External links

• Proto-Celtic — English lexicon