Alaunus / Alauna

No mythic narrative survives for Alaunus/Alauna in the cited material. The name is reconstructed from Gaulish forms (Alaunos; feminine Alauna < *Alamnā) and is preserved both as a theonym and in ethnonyms (Alauni). Etymological proposals in modern scholarship are competing: a traditional derivation connects the stem to Proto‑Celtic *Alamnos with root *al‑ 'feed, raise, nurture' (yielding senses like 'the Nourishing One'), while an alternative proposal (Xavier Delamarre) derives the name from a root alǝ‑ 'to wander' (linking it to movement/nomadism and hydronyms). These are scholarly reconstructions rather than attested origin myths.

No secure iconography or physical depiction for Alaunus/Alauna is preserved in the cited inscriptions. The archaeological evidence consists of Latin dedications and reused inscriptional material (e.g., a reused inscription in the north wall of the Chapel of Notre Dame des Anges at Lurs) and isolated votive contexts (Mannheim, Pantenburg). The feminine form occurs on some inscriptions and survives in multiple river‑ and place‑names, but no consistent visual attributes or statues are recorded in the provided sources.

The primary epigraphic corpus is limited; modern secondary summaries often describe Alaunus as associated with healing and prophecy, but such attributions are interpretive reconstructions rather than explicit lists preserved in the inscriptions cited. One dedication from Mannheim names Mercurius Alaunus, an instance of interpretatio Romana, which implies functions commonly linked with Mercury in provincial contexts (guidance, roads, possibly travellers' protection). The persistence of the name in hydronyms and place‑names suggests local associations with rivers, sites, or settlements. These characterizations should be read as scholarly syntheses drawn from limited inscriptional and onomastic evidence.