Cernunnos

Cernunnos is a Celtic god whose name is only clearly attested once, on the 1st-century CE Pillar of the Boatmen from Paris, where it is associated with an image of an aged, antlered figure with torcs around his horns.

Through the Pillar of the Boatmen, the name "Cernunnos" has been used to identify the members of an iconographic cluster, consisting of depictions of an antlered god (often aged and with crossed legs) associated with torcs, ram-horned (or ram-headed) serpents, symbols of fertility, and wild beasts (especially deer).

Though this iconographic group is best attested in north-eastern Gaul, depictions of the god have been identified as far off as Italy (Val Camonica) and Denmark (Gundestrup).

Atop his head is a pair of bifid deer's antlers, with two short, pointed extrusions (perhaps ears or bull's horns) between them.

[7][8]: 327 A wax tablet from Dacia[b] records a decree of 167 CE dissolving one collegi(i) Iovi Cerneni ("collegium of Jupiter Cernenus"), a funerary association.

[10]: 80–81  Theodor Mommsen suggested the byname Cerneni derived from the name of nearby Korna,[11] a hypothesis that has been followed my Michael Altjohann.

[6]: 328 A bronze tabula ansata from Steinsel, Luxembourg,[c] dating between the late 2nd and early 3rd century CE, is dedicated to one Deo Ceruninco ("god Cerunincus").

However, Ernst Windisch and Leo Weisgerber pointed out that ablaut form of the proto-Indo-European root in Celtic is *karno[d] rather than *kerno.

These depict a male figure, often aged, with crossed legs, with antlers atop his head, who is associated with ram-horned (or ram-headed) serpents, torcs, symbols of fertility, and wild beasts (especially deer).

[18]: 329, fn 9  Pierre Lambrechts and Michael Altjohann have even argued that no such well-defined cluster of attributes exists in the archaeological record.

A rock drawing in Valcamonica (Lombardy, Italy) and the figure on Plate A of the Gundestrup cauldron (found in Himmerland, Denmark) are conspicuous geographic exceptions.

[20]: 839  The detailed scene on Plate A of the Gundestrup cauldron has Cernunnos cross-legged, wielding a torc in one hand and a ram-horned serpent in the other.

[20]: 842  Cernunnos has been tentatively connected with images over a large geographical range, including Britain, Spain, Austria, Slovenia, and Romania.

José Maria Blázquez has argued that a painted vase, dating to the 2nd century BCE, from the Celtiberian site of Numantia, gives another early representation of Cernunnos.

[20]: 839  The Gundestrup cauldron, of either Thracian or Celtic work, has been assigned to dates within a large range (from 200 BCE to 300 CE).

[27]: 121  A leaf from the c. 820 Stuttgart Psalter depicts the Descent into Limbo, with a devil figure (perhaps Hades) whom Bober identifies as of the Cernunnos-type, "complete with cross-legged posture, antlers, and even a ram-headed serpent",[21]: 44  though J. R. M. Galpern identifies the features on the devil's head as wings, and connects them with motifs from Late Antique and Roman funerary art.

Statues from the pre-Roman Gaulish sanctuary of Roquepertuse assume the same pose; though clearly of religious significance, they are not representations of Cernunnos.

[21]: 19 [30]: 93–94  The closest parallel to the Gundestrup scene is given on the Lyon cup, where Cernunnos is surrounded by a deer, a hound, and a (hornless) snake.

[20]: 844  Bober argued that these images represent the syncretisation of Cernunnos with the (poorly understood) tricephalic god of Gaul.

[21]: 34 Because of his persistent association with the natural world (for example, on the Gundestrup cauldron, where he is surrounded by various beasts), some scholars describe Cernunnos as the lord of animals or wild things.

He is variously provided with a basket of fruit (as on the Étang-sur-Arroux statuette), a cornucopia (as on the Lyon cup), and a bag of coins (as on the Reims altar).

[20]: 839  Some passages from ancient authors referring to Celtic gods under Greek or Roman names (per the usual interpretatio romana or graeca) have been tentatively connected with Cernunnos.

Though Sucellus is the Gaulish god most commonly identified as behind Dis Pater in this passage, Cernunnos has also been considered as a candidate.

[35]: 558–559  Rankin has also suggested that Cernunnos and Smertrios lay behind the Greek historian Timaeus's description of a cult of the Dioscuri among the oceanic Celts, though Andreas Hofeneder regards this as unprovable.

[36] Conall's byname "Cernach" has been linked with Old Irish word cern (with the meanings of "excrescence, angle", "plate", and "victory").

[38] Gwilherm Berthou equated Cernunnos with the mythical Breton Saint Cornély [fr], protector of cattle.

[5]: 337  R. Lowe Thompson suggested that Herne the Hunter, an antlered ghost of English folklore first attested in Shakespeare, was cognate with Cernunnos.

The name Cernunnos became associated with the Wiccan Horned God through the adoption of the writings of Margaret Murray, an Egyptologist and folklorist of the early 20th century.

Her work was considered highly controversial at the time, but was adopted by Gerald Gardner in his development of the religious movement of Wicca.