Adranus

Adranus (Greek Adranos) was the principal fire-god of the Sikels, associated with the volcanic fire of Mount Etna and worshipped throughout Sicily, especially at the town that bore his name, Adranon (modern Adrano), refounded by Dionysius I of Syracuse around 400 BCE. Aelian records that some thousand sacred dogs were kept at his sanctuary: by day they welcomed pilgrims, by night they guided home those who had drunk too much and tore apart thieves and the sacrilegious. Plutarch tells that when Timoleon marched on Adranum in 344 BCE the temple doors opened of their own accord and the god's spear trembled and ran with sweat, an omen of victory. In the indigenous genealogy reported by the lexicographer Hesychius, Adranus is the father of the twin Palici by the nymph Thaleia, whereas the Hellenised version assigns that role to Zeus; later writers compared his name with eastern fire-deities such as Adar, but he is best understood as a native Sicilian god.

Children

• The Palici

Domains

• fire and volcanic mountain
• oaths and sanctuary protection

Powers

• to embody and command the fire beneath Mount Etna
• to send omens of victory in battle through his image and spear

Relations

• lover: Thaleia, nymph of Aetna

Sources

• Aelian, On the Nature of Animals (De natura animalium) 11.20 (trans. A. F. Scholfield, Loeb Classical Library 449, Harvard University Press, 1959)
• Plutarch, Life of Timoleon 12.5-9 (trans. B. Perrin, Loeb Classical Library 98, Harvard University Press, 1918)
• J. H. Croon, 'The Palici: An Autochthonous Cult in Ancient Sicily', Mnemosyne 5.2 (1952), pp. 116-129