God of Amiens
The statuette, which has been dated to the end of the 1st century CE, is of a male youth sat cross-legged, with the right ear of an animal, perhaps a deer's.
These have been thought to represent a common Gaulish god, whose attributes included a bunch of grapes, a serpent, and an animal ear.
The statuette was found in October 1845 in the faubourg of Saint-Fuscien, in the Henriville [fr] neighbourhood of Amiens, on the property of one Captain Bournel.
[1]: 303 [2]: 225 Saint-Fuscien appears to have been a necropolis in ancient times, as evidence of several burials and cremations have been found in the area.
His left arm has survived in its entirety, but the hand is in a hollow fist, as if clutching a (now missing) object.
These represent a type, with the characteristic attributes of an elongated right animal ear, a bunch of grapes, and a serpent.
[10]: 282–283 [11]: 49 [5]: 101 On the basis of these statues, Lucien Lerat has reconstructed the missing features of the Amiens statuette.
[3][5]: 100 Rigollot identified the Amiens statue as a representation of Midas (portrayed, mythologically, with the ears of a donkey),[1][3] but this interpretation has not been sustained.
[11]: 46 The crossed legs, association with the animal world, and heavy facial features allow the Amiens statuette to be identified as a Celtic representation of a god.
[7]: 85 [5]: 100 The Besançon statuette shows heavy Greco-Roman influence (for example, in the rock seat, and the naturalistic treatment of the god's head).
[13]: 5 Waldemar Deonna [fr] interprets the ear as that of a deer, and thus connects it with the God of Amiens.
[14]: 178 Fernand Benoit [fr] has connected the snake and grape attributes with two bronze statuettes of Epona (one found in Reims,[g] the other in Maaseik[h]).
[16]: 47–48 Deonna has also drawn on comparative evidence from Celtic as well as Christian contexts to argue that the statues are intended to represent a god whose animal ear allows him to hear the supplications of his worshippers.
[7]: 96–97 The divergence between its representation on the Besançon and Amiens statuettes has led Lerat to suggest that the choice of animal to model the deity's ear was arbitrary.
[5]: 100 Some connection with the Celtic stag-god Cernunnos has been suggested, especially among those who interpret the animal ear as that of a deer,[5]: 101 but what the relationship between the two gods is supposed to be is unclear.
[11]: 46 Boucher suggests the animal ear serves to heighten Cernunnos's non-human, and hence super-human, nature.
