God of Étang-sur-Arroux

The statuette is of a bearded figure sat cross legged with two ram-headed, fish-tailed serpents feeding from a basket in his hands.

The horned serpents and holes in the head for antlers identify this as a representation of the Gaulish stag god Cernunnos.

J.-G. Buillot (writing in 1889) indicated that it was found near a ford, known as gué de la Perrière, of the river Arroux (in the commune of Étang-sur-Arroux, Saône-et-Loire).

However, the authors of the Carte archéologique de la Gaule lean towards the Perrière provenance, as a find of a similar nature (a bronze boar with some Gallic and Roman coins) is recorded a few hundred meters further south.

[7]: 248  A Gallo-Roman statue of Cernunnos found at Sommerécourt (Haute-Marne) similarly has the god feeding two horned serpents from a bowl in his hands.

[10]: 55  However, unlike much Gallo-Roman religious sculpture, which assimilated Gaulish gods with Graeco-Roman deities, this statuette seems to have "retained [its] Celtic individuality unimpaired".

Examples of such depictions of Cernunnos are found at Les Bolards [fr] (Côte-d'Or), Langres (Haute-Marne), and Condat (Dordogne).

[12]: 46  Bober and David Fickett-Wilbar suggests that these represent the close relationship (or even assimilation) of Cernunnos with the tricephalic god known throughout Gallo-Roman art.

Paul-Marie Duval [fr] suggests that the tripling of faces on the God of Étang-sur-Arroux is merely intended to heighten the power of the deity, and perhaps to convey upon him omniscience.