Cernunnos

{{further|Pillar of the Boatmen}}

{{multiple image|

|header=Cernunnos on the Pillar of the Boatmen

|image1=Pilier des Nautes Cernunos.jpg

|caption1=Its present state

|image2=Gaulish deity Cernunnos.jpg

|caption2=18th century drawing

|total_width=400

}}

The Pillar of the Boatmen is a Gallo-Roman carved pillar discovered in 1711 under the choir of Notre-Dame de Paris. It is a religious monument, with depictions of Roman gods (Jupiter, Vulcan, and Castor and Pollux) alongside native Gaulish deities (such as Esus and Smertrios), dedicated by a corporation of boatmen from the city of Lutetia (Roman Paris). The dedication dates it to the reign of Tiberius (14-37 CE).RIG II.1 [https://riig.huma-num.fr/documents/PAR-01-01 L-14] via Recueil informatisé des inscriptions gauloises. Accessed on 9 December 2024. Legends below the images identify the Roman and Gaulish deities by name. In fact, this is the only monument on which Celtic deities are identified by name with captions.{{rp|67–71}}

On one block from the pillar, a frowning, bearded figure is depicted from the shoulder up. His face is human, but his upper head is animal-like: hairless and bulging. Atop his head is a pair of bifid deer's antlers, with two short, pointed extrusions (perhaps ears or bull's horns) between them. A torc hangs on each of his antlers. The lower half of the block is lost, but given its original height, the figure could not have been standing. Therefore (in line with other figures identified as Cernunnos) the panel is often believed to have originally shown him cross-legged.{{cite journal |last=Vertet |first=M. Hugues |title=Observations sur le dieu "Cernunnos" de l'autel de Paris |date=1987 |journal=Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France |volume=1985 |pages=163–177 |doi=10.3406/bsnaf.1987.9155 }}{{rp|165}}

Above the antlered figure is a one-word legend. When information about the pillar was published in 1711, this legend was reported as "Cernunnos". However, the block is now badly damaged. Many of the letters are only partially visible; the letter "C" is entirely gone. Joshua Whatmough has gone as far as to say that in its present state "only 'nn' is certain".{{cite book |title=The Dialects of Ancient Gaul: Prolegomena and Records of the Dialects |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=1970 |last=Whatmough |first=Joshua |isbn=978-0-674-20280-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/dialectsofancien0000what |url-access=registration }}{{rp|517}} The reading from 1711 has sometimes been mistrusted. Joseph Vendryes and Whatmough argue (following the Dacia inscription) that it read "Cernennos".{{cite book |title=The Gods of the Celts and the Indo-Europeans |last=Olmsted |first=Garrett S. |date=2017 |edition=Revised |url=https://www.academia.edu/38135817 |location=Tazewell, VA }}{{rp|335}} {{ill|Françoise Le Roux|fr}} was sceptical about the existence of the final "s".{{rp|324}}

File:Carnonos on RIG I G-224.jpg with Gaulish {{lang|xtg|καρνονου}} or {{lang|xtg|καρνομου}}]]

A capital found in Aumes, France{{efn|RIG I G-224}} is inscribed with a short Gaulish text in Greek letters. Michel Lejeune has interpreted this inscription as a dedication to a god {{lang|xtg|καρνονου}} (translit. {{transliteration|xtg|karnonou}}; in English, "Carnonos"), whom he tentatively connects with the god Cernunnos. However, both Lejeune's reading and his interpretation of this inscription have been contested. Whatmough and D. Ellis Evans prefer the reading {{lang|xtg|καρνομου}} (translit. {{transliteration|xtg|karnomou}}); and Emmanuel Dupraz has argued that the inscription states that an object {{lang|xtg|καρνον}} (translit. {{transliteration|xtg|karnon}}) is being offered, rather than giving the name of a god.RIG I [https://riig.huma-num.fr/documents/HER-03-01 G-224] via Recueil informatisé des inscriptions gauloises. Accessed on 9 December 2024.{{cite book |last=Evans |first=D. Ellis |title=Gaulish Personal Names: A Study of Some Continental Celtic Formations |location= Oxford |publisher= Clarendon Press |date=1967}}{{rp|327}}

A wax tablet from Dacia{{efn|{{CIL|3|p 0924,01}}}} records a decree of 167 CE dissolving one {{lang|la|collegi(i) Iovi Cerneni}} ("collegium of Jupiter Cernenus"), a funerary association.{{cite web |title=[69] Decree Dissolving an Association (167 CE) |url=http://www.philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations/?p=3231 |access-date=9 December 2024 |date=13 December 2018 |website=Associations in the Greco-Roman World |first=John S. |last=Kloppenborg }} David Fickett-Wilbar identifies this as a reference to Cernunnos, though he comments that it "tells us nothing about the deity other than his name".{{rp|80–81}} Theodor Mommsen suggested the byname {{lang|la|Cerneni}} derived from the name of nearby Korna,{{cite encyclopedia |title=Cernunnos |encyclopedia=Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft |volume=III,2 |date=1899 |pages=1984 |last=Ihm |first=Max |location=Stuttgart |publisher=Metzler }} a hypothesis that has been followed my Michael Altjohann.{{cite book |last=Altjohann |first=Michael |chapter=Cernunnos-Darstellungen in den gallischen und germanischen Provinzen |pages=67–79 |date=2003 |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Noelke |title=Romanisation und Resistenz in Plastik, Architektur und Inschriften der Provinzen des Imperium Romanum. Neue Funde und Forschungen |location=Mainz |publisher=von Zabern }}{{rp|70}} Le Roux is also sceptical that it is a reference to Cernunnos, as she thinks the interpretatio of Cernunnos as the Roman god Jupiter is unlikely.{{rp|328}}

A bronze tabula ansata from Steinsel, Luxembourg,{{efn|{{AE|1987|772}}}} dating between the late 2nd and early 3rd century CE, is dedicated to one {{lang|la|Deo Ceruninco}} ("god Cerunincus"). Though close in name to Cernunnos, the editors of L'Année épigraphique argue that the form of the name entails that it must be another (probably Treverian) god.{{cite book |chapter=No. 772 (Trois Gaules) |title= L'Année épigraphique 1987 |date=1990 |pages=220 |publisher=Presses Universitaires de France |jstor=25607525 }} = {{cite book |chapter=No. 542 (Trois Gaules) |title= L'Année épigraphique 1989 |date=1992 |pages=167–168 |jstor=25607598 |publisher=Presses Universitaires de France }}

The earliest etymology, proposed by Alfred Holder, connected Cernunnos's name with a Celtic word for horn, a reflex of proto-Indo-European *{{wikt-lang|ine-x-proto|ḱerh₂-}} ("horn, hoof"). Hence, Holder analysed the name as "The Horned God". This etymology has the advantage of a close link with Cernunnos's iconography. However, Ernst Windisch and Leo Weisgerber pointed out that ablaut form of the proto-Indo-European root in Celtic is {{lang|cel-x-proto|karno}}{{efn|The presence of this ablaut form in proto-Celtic is attested by two Gaulish words for trumpets ({{lang|xtg|karnon}} and karnyx), Middle Welsh {{lang|wlm|carn}} ("hoof"), Old Breton {{lang|obt|carn}} ("horse's hoof)", and perhaps Old Irish {{lang|sga|cruë}} ("hoof"). Semantically similar words with an o vowel (such as two Insular words both meaning horn, Old Irish {{lang|sga|corn}} and Welsh {{lang|cy|corn}}) are probably loanwords from the Latin ({{lang|la|cornu}} for "horn"), but Gaulish toponyms showing the form might hint at the presence of the reflex {{lang|cel-x-proto|korno}} ("horn") in proto-Celtic.{{cite book |last=Nussbaum |first=Alan |date=1986 |title=Head and Horn in Indo-European |url=https://archive.org/details/nussbaum-head-and-horn-in-indo-european-1986 |location=Berlin/New York |publisher=Walter de Gruyter }}{{rp|5–6}}{{cite book |first=Ranko |last=Matasović |title=Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic |url=https://archive.org/details/matasovic-etymological-dictionary-of-proto-celtic |volume=9 |location=Leiden / Boston |series=Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series |publisher=Brill |date=2009 }}{{rp|191}}}} rather than {{lang|cel-x-proto|kerno}}.{{cite journal |last=Le Roux |first=Françoise |journal=Ogam |volume=5 |date=1953 |pages=324–329 |title=Cernunnos |url=https://bibliotheque.idbe.bzh/data/cle_63/OGAM_Tradition_Celtique_1953_nA_25-26_.pdf#page=10 }}{{rp|325}}{{cite book |last=de Vries |first=Jan |title=Keltische Religion |date=1961 |url=https://archive.org/details/keltischereligio0000vrie |url-access=registration |location=Stuttgart |publisher=W. Kohlhammer }}{{rp|105}}

Weisgerber proposed that the theonym derived from proto-Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|kerno}} ("angle, excrescence"),{{efn|Attested by Old Irish {{lang|sga|cern}} ("angle, corner"), Middle Welsh {{lang|wlm|cern}} ("corner, jaw, cheek, side"), Middle Breton {{lang|xbm|quern}} ("top"), Cornish {{lang|kw|Kernow}} ("Cornwall").{{rp|113}}{{rp|215}}}} a reflex of the same proto-Indo-European root.{{rp|106}}{{rp|203}} Le Roux concurred with Weisgerber; she associated proto-Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|kerno}} with the meaning "top of the head", and argued that Cernunnos's name should be interpreted as "the one who has the top of his head like a deer".{{rp|328–329}} Vendryes suggested that the name was cognate with the Old Irish word {{wikt-lang|sga|cern}} ("hero").{{cite book |title=Féil-sgríbhinn Eóin Mhic Néill: Essays and Studies presented to Professor Eoin MacNeill |editor-last=Ryan |editor-first=John |chapter=Prydain et Britanni |last=Vendryes |first=Joseph |pages=160–166 |location=Dublin |publisher=Three Candles |date=1940 }}{{rp|162}}

A large number of images of an antlered figure, similar to that depicted on the Pillar of the Boatmen, have been found. 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).{{rp|59–60}}{{rp|348}} It is conventional to apply to the name of "Cernunnos" to images which fit within this cluster of attributes.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Maier |first=Bernhard |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture |title=Cernunnos |pages=69–70 |publisher=Boydell Press |isbn=9780851156606 |date=1997 }} At least twenty-five images have been connected with Cernunnos in this way.{{efn|The Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae lists 25 images of Cernunnos.{{rp|839–842}} Bober discusses over fifty images in relation to the Cernunnos, though she does not identify all these images as of Cernunnos.{{rp|45–51}}}} Some, such as William Sayers and T. G. E. Powell, have questioned whether the name given on the Pillar (which is so rare in epigraphy) is appropriate to apply to these images.{{cite journal |last=Sayers |first=William |title=Cerrce, an archaic epithet of the Dagda, Cernunnos and Conall Cernach |journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=16 |date=1988 |pages=341–364 }}{{rp|329, fn 9}} Pierre Lambrechts and Michael Altjohann have even argued that no such well-defined cluster of attributes exists in the archaeological record.{{rp|16}}{{rp|78}}{{efn|In his Contributions à l'étude des divinités celtiques (1942), Lambrechts examined anthropomorphic representations of Celtic gods (in the process, examining three types associated with Cernunnos: the images of cross-legged divinities, tricephalic divinities, and divinities associated with ram serpents) and argued that all were merely regional representations of a single, poorly defined and multifunctional, supreme god of the Celts: Esus-Teutates.{{rp|16}}{{cite journal |title=Review: Pierre Lambrechts, Contributions à l'étude des divinités celtiques (1944) |date=1944 |journal=Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique |volume=40 |pages=322–324 |id={{ProQuest|1302279803}} |last=Drioux |first=G. }} More recently, Altjohann has argued that the attributes of the Cernunnos type are freely correlated with other non-Cernunnos types, and that therefore no clearly defined god called Cernunnos can be identified within Roman Gaul.{{rp|78–79}}}}

The majority of the images identified as of Cernunnos have been found in Gaul, clustered around Paris and Reims. 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.{{cite journal |last=Fickett-Wilbar |first=David |title=Cernunnos: Looking a Different Way |journal=Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium |volume=23 |date=2003 |pages=80–111 |jstor=25660728 }}{{rp|82–83}} Engraved onto a rock at the prehistoric site of Val Camonica is a tall figure with antlers atop his head, arms in orans position, and a torc around his right arm. Besides him, on his right, are a ram-horned serpent and a smaller man (ithyphallic, arms in orans position).{{rp|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. Around him are many animals: two bulls, a stag, a dolphin with a rider, griffins, and a hyena.{{rp|839–840}}{{rp|19}} The provenance and date of the Gundestrup cauldron have been the subject of much debate.{{rp|842}} Cernunnos has been tentatively connected with images over a large geographical range, including Britain, Spain, Austria, Slovenia, and Romania.{{rp|fn 32}}

File:Françoise Foliot - Dieu de Bouray.jpg: a rare pre-Roman depiction of a Gaulish god. Cross-legged and hooved, the relationship of this Gaulish god to Cernunnos is uncertain.]]

The earliest datable representations of Cernunnos in Gaul date, like the Pillar of the Boatmen, to the reign of Tiberius (i.e., 14-37 CE);{{rp|104}} the latest to the 3rd century CE.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Blázquez |date=1988 |first=José Maria |title=Cernunnos |volume=4 |encyclopedia=Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae|location=Zurich / Munich |publisher=Artemis |pages=839–844 |url=https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20IV-1%20Eros-Herakles/page/n437 }}{{rp|842}} The archaeological evidence for images of deities in Gaul is scant before the Roman conquest.{{rp|205}} The God of Bouray, a bronze statuette probably produced not long before the Roman conquest, depicts a Gaulish god with crossed legs and hooves. The relationship of this god with Cernunnos is uncertain.{{cite book |last=Green |first=Miranda |title=Animals in Celtic Life and Myth |publisher=Routledge |date=1992 |location=London }}{{rp|231}}{{rp|33–34}}

Outside of Gaul, much earlier representations of Cernunnos are known.{{cite book |title= Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend |first= Miranda |last= Green |publisher= Thames and Hudson |location= London |date= 1997 |isbn= 978-0500279755 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofcelt00gree }}{{rp|59}} The drawing from Valcamonica dates to 4th century BCE. 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.{{rp|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).{{cite journal |last1=Nielsen |first1=S. |last2=Andersen |first2=J. |last3=Baker |first3=J. |last4=Christensen |first4=C. |last5=Glastrup |first5=J. |display-authors=etal |year=2005 |title=The Gundestrup cauldron: New scientific and technical investigations |journal=Acta Archaeologica |volume=76 |pages=1–58 |doi=10.1111/j.1600-0390.2005.00034.x }}{{rp|53}}

After Christianisation, images of Cernunnos were the subject of iconoclastic destruction. A statue of Cernunnos from Verteuil (Charente, France) was beheaded{{cite book |title=Roman Cult Images: The Lives and Worship of Idols from the Iron Age to Late Antiquity |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2020 |first=Philip |last=Kiernan |doi=10.1017/9781108766555 |isbn=978-1-108-76655-5 }}{{rp|249}} and the horns of Cernunnos on the Reims altar seem to have been purposefully chipped off.{{rp|244}}

Some scholars (such as Duval and Bober) have suggested that Cernunnos's distinctive iconography persisted into the medieval period.{{cite book |title=Les Dieux de la Gaule |publisher=Payot |date=1976 |edition=2 |location=Paris |last=Duval |first=Paul-Marie }}{{rp|121}}{{rp|44}} Cernunnos has been seen on Christian monuments from Ireland, such as the north cross at Clonmacnoise, the market cross at Kells, and a stele at Carndonagh.{{cite book |last1=Walsh |first1=John |last2=Bradley |first2=Thomas |title=A History of the Irish Church, 400-700 AD |date=1991 |location=Dublin |publisher=Columba Press}}{{rp|32}} The figure identified as Cernunnos on the 9th-century Clonmacnoise north cross appears to have horns and crossed legs; Fickett-Wilbar argues that these are misidentified ornamental motifs.{{rp|84}} On the Continent, Cernunnos has been seen in the Stuttgart Psalter and on a capital of Parma Cathedral.{{rp|121}} A leaf from the {{circa|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",{{rp|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.{{cite thesis |last=Galpern |first=J. R. M. |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |degree=PhD |title=The Shape of Hell in Anglo-Saxon England |date=1977 |id={{ProQuest|288008512}} }}{{rp|254}}

File:Roquepertuse. Statue de guerrier.jpg]]

The cross-legged pose of Cernunnos has occasioned much comment. Elaborate diffusionist theories have been proposed to explain the origin of this particular motif.{{rp|22–25}} A popular theory proposes that the pose represents the transmission of a Buddhist motif (the lotus pose) from India via Greco-Egyptian work.{{rp|842}} Against a diffusionist hypothesis, Robert Mowat argued that this pose reflected the normal sitting position of the Gauls; he cited the testimony of Strabo and Diodorus that the Gauls sat on the floor for meals.{{rp|92}}{{rp|21}} In religious iconography, the position does not seem to have been exclusively associated with Cernunnos. Statues from the pre-Roman Gaulish sanctuary of Roquepertuse assume the same pose; though clearly of religious significance, they are not representations of Cernunnos.{{rp|842}} Representations of Cernunnos standing are known (such as the early example from Val Camonica).{{rp|839}}

Cernunnos is often depicted with torcs adorning his body. Most commonly he grasps one, and wears another around his neck. Sometimes he holds another on his chest.{{rp|843}} The torc is a ubiquitous feature of Celtic art and garb. They seem to have been a symbol of religious significance in Celtic art and, after the Roman conquest, perhaps a symbol of native identity.{{rp|81}}

File:Gundestrup cauldron, plate C, horned serpent.jpg

The ram-horned (or ram-headed) serpent is a hybrid beast peculiar to the Celts.{{rp|38}} The creature, which is associated with Cernunnos early as Val Camonica, appears to have had a significance independent of Cernunnos. In Gaul, ram-horned serpents are depicted alone or accompanying Mars or Mercury. Ram-horned serpents also feature on two other plates of the Gundestrup cauldron (C and E). Cernunnos is also sometimes accompanied by serpents without the attributes of a ram, as on the Vendœuvres relief.{{rp|843}} The ram-horned serpent has been suggested to have a chthonic significance.{{rp|26}}

Some scholars, such as Miranda Green, have connected Cernunnos with the Lord of the Animals motif through such depictions as the Gundestrup cauldron, where Cernunnos is placed centrally around a number of animals.{{rp|19}}{{cite book |last=Green |first=Miranda |title=Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art |publisher=Routledge |date=1989 |location=London / New York |isbn=978-0-415-03419-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/symbolimageincel0000aldh |url-access=registration }}{{rp|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.{{rp|87}}

On various depictions, Cernunnos is associated with other deities. The significance of these associations is unclear.{{rp|843}} On three depictions, Cernunnos is paired with Mercury and Apollo; on the Lyon cup, he is paired with Mercury alone. Cernunnos is also depicted twice with Abundantia, Roman god of prosperity, and twice with Hercules.{{rp|102}}{{rp|841}} Three images of Cernunnos (among them, the Condat tricephal and Étang-sur-Arroux statuette) give Cernunnos three heads or faces.{{rp|844}} Bober argued that these images represent the syncretisation of Cernunnos with the (poorly understood) tricephalic god of Gaul.{{rp|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.{{rp|80}} Miranda Green describes him as a "peaceful god of nature and fruitfulness".{{rp|228}}

Cernunnos is also associated with fertility and fecundity.{{rp|80}} Blazquez points out that the stag is a symbol of fertility across the Mediterranean.{{rp|843}} The association of Cernunnos with fertility is emphasised by other attributes. 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).{{rp|843}}

It has been suggested that Cernunnos carried a chthonic significance.{{rp|843}} Bober's study of the god concluded that Cernunnos was god of the underworld.{{rp|80}} She analyses the ram-horned serpent as the synthesis of two animals (the snake and the ram) of chthonic significance to the Celts.{{rp|26–27}} The rat above Cernunnos on the Reims altar and the association of Cernunnos with Mercury (guide of souls to the underworld) on several representations have also been thought to suggest an association with the underworld.{{rp|843}}

Fickett-Wilbar, in a recent study, has proposed that Cernunnos was a god of bi-directionality and mediator between opposites.{{rp|108}}

{{gallery

|File:Cernunnos - Parco di Naquane R 70 - Capo di Ponte (Foto Luca Giarelli).jpg

|Rock carving of an antlered figure from Val Camonica, Italy.{{rp|no 1}}

|File:Cernunnos from Numantia.jpg

|Fragment of a painted vase from Numantia, Spain. Blázquez has identified the antlered figure as Cernunnos, comparing him with the image from Valcamonica.{{cite journal |title=Una réplica desconocida al Cernunnos de Val Camonica: el Cernunnos de Numancia |journal=Revue d'Études Ligures |volume= 23 |issue=3–4 |date=1957 |pages=294–298 |url=https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/una-rplica-desconocida-al-cernunnos-de-val-camonica---el-cernunnos-de-numancia-0/ |last= Blázquez |first=José María }}

|File:Gundestrupkarret2.jpg

|The full scene from Plate A of the Gundestrup Cauldron.{{rp|no 6}}

|File:Celtic God Cernunnos 2. Musée départemental d'art ancien et contemporain.jpg

|Statue of Cernunnos from Sommerécourt, Haute-Marne. His horns have been broken off. Two horned snakes feed from a bowl in the figure's hands.{{rp|no 8}}

|File:Ang mus gaul2.JPG

|Statue of Cernunnos from Verteuil, Charente. The figure holds a small stag, a torc, and a bag of coins; its head has been purposefully removed.{{cite journal |last1=Baigl |first1=Jean-Philippe |last2=Vernou |first2=Christian |title=Un nouveau Cernunnos découvert en Charente |journal=Aquitania: Une revue inter-régionale d'archéologie |volume=18 |date=2001 |pages=7–28 |doi=10.3406/aquit.2001.1319 }}

|File:Musée d'Aquitaine - Buste du dieu Cernunnos.jpg

|Three-headed bust of Cernunnos from Condat-sur-Trincou, Dordogne. The central head wears a torc and has holes for antlers.{{rp|no 9}}

|File:Saintes statuary group, front.jpg

|Front of a relief from Saintes, Charente-Maritime. To the left is Cernunnos with purse and torc, to the right is Abundantia with cornucopia.{{rp|no 16}}

|File:Saintes statuary group, rear.jpg

|Rear of a relief from Saintes, Charente-Maritime. At the centre is Cernunnos, to the right is Hercules, and to the left is a draped woman.{{rp|no 16}}

|File:Cernunnos on stele, Vendœuvres (Indre).jpg

|Cernunnos on an altar from Vendœuvres, Indre. Cernunnos, unusually youthful looking, is depicted between two genii atop serpents. {{rp|no 15}}

|File:Cernunnos on terracotta relief from Blain, Loire-Atlantique.jpg

|Cernunnos on a fragment of terracotta from Blain, Loire-Atlantique. He is nude and appears to be standing a top an animal, perhaps a wild boar or cow.{{rp|no 11}}

|File:God of Etang sur Arroux possible depiction of Cernunnos.jpg

|The Étang-sur-Arroux statuette of Cernunnos. He has two torcs and two holes at the top of his head, probably to receive deer antlers. Above his ears are two small faces.{{rp|no 10}}

|File:Silver cup with Gallic divinities (Lyon Mus Gall-Rom 2004.0.02) 01.jpg

|Cernunnos on the Lyon cup. A torc-wearing figure reclines in between a deer and a dog.{{rp|no 12}}

|File:Stuttgart psalter folio 16.jpg

|Cross-legged devil figure, depicted in the Stuttgart Psalter.

|File:CernunnosClonmacnoise.jpg

|A figure, perhaps cross-legged and horned, on the north cross at Clonmacnoise.

}}

File:Autel de Cernunnos, sculpture, 1er siècle.jpg with Cernunnos in between Apollo and Mercury.]]

The process of interpretatio romana, by which the Romans identified and syncretised gods of foreign cults with gods of their own pantheon, is one which Cernunnos seems to have been peculiarly resistant to. He has been compared in this respect with Epona and Sucellus, other Gallo-Roman gods with distinctive iconographies, though unlike them his iconography predates the Roman conquest.{{rp|222}} Cernunnos is not paired with any Greco-Roman god in epigraphy,{{cite journal |last=Webster |first=Jane |title=Creolizing the Roman Provinces |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |date=April 2001 |volume=105 |issue=2 |pages=209–225 |doi=10.2307/507271 |jstor=507271 |url=https://www.academia.edu/110612115 }}{{rp|221}} with the possible exception of the Dacia inscription.{{rp|328}} The iconography of Cernunnos occasionally borrows from that of Mercury,{{rp|104}} and the representation of Cernunnos on the Vendœuvres relief seems to have been influenced by depictions of Jupiter Dolichenus.{{rp|842}}{{cite journal |last=Bober |first=Phyllis Pray |jstor=501179 |title=Cernunnos: Origin and Transformation of a Celtic Divinity |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=55 |issue=1 |date=January 1951 |pages=13–51 |doi=10.2307/501179 }}{{rp|51}} However, even when paired with Roman deities (as on the Reims altar), Cernunnos's iconography is distinctly Celtic.{{rp|fn 113}} It has been suggested that this was because there was no clear Roman equivalent to Cernunnos.{{cite book |last=Van Andringa |first=William |chapter=Religion and the Integration of Cities in the Empire in the Second Century AD: The Creation of a Common Religious Language |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/12078950 |doi=10.1002/9780470690970.ch7 |title=A Companion to Roman Religion |editor-last=Rüpke |editor-first=Jörg |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2007 |pages=83–95 |isbn=978-1-4051-2943-5 }}{{rp|88}}

Cernunnos does not appear in any ancient sources under his native name.{{rp|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. Caesar's remark that the Gauls regarded themselves as descendants of a god he likened to Dis Pater (Roman god of the underworld) has occasioned much comment. Though Sucellus is the Gaulish god most commonly identified as behind Dis Pater in this passage, Cernunnos has also been considered as a candidate.{{rp|210}} Bober has argued that Cernunnos was a "chthonic-fertility" god, like Dis Pater, and therefore that this was a natural identification to make.{{rp|44}} A story about the Roman general Sertorius (reported by Plutarch, among others) describes Sertorius's attempts to take advantage of local Lusitanian religious feeling by declaring a white doe a gift of Artemis (Greek goddess of the hunt) and pretending he could use it for divination. The Lusitanians were Celts, and it has been suggested by David Rankin that the god behind this Lusitanian Artemis was Cernunnos.{{cite book |title=Die Religion der Kelten in den antiken literarischen Zeugnissen |volume=2 |last=Hofeneder |first=Andreas |date=2008 |location=Wien |publisher=Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften }}{{rp|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.{{cite book |title=Die Religion der Kelten in den antiken literarischen Zeugnissen |volume=1 |last=Hofeneder |first=Andreas |date=2005 |location=Wien |publisher=Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften }}{{rp|59–60}}

Conall is a hero of the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. The companion and foster brother of Cúchulainn, he appears in such stories as Táin Bó Cúailnge, and several tales involving Fraích (such as Táin Bó Fraích and Fled Bricrenn).{{cite encyclopedia |first=James |last=MacKillop |title=Conall Cernach |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Celtic Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2004 |edition=Online |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198609674.001.0001/acref-9780198609674-e-1086 }} Conall's byname "Cernach" has been linked with Old Irish word {{lang|sga|cern}} (with the meanings of "excrescence, angle", "plate", and "victory"). Through this root, there have been attempts to connect Conall with Cernunnos.{{rp|348–349}}

A brief passage involving Conall in the Táin Bó Fraích ("The Cattle Raid on Fraích") has been taken by Anne Ross as evidence that Conall bore a connection with Cernunnos. In this episode, Conall assists the protagonist Fraích in rescuing his wife and son, and reclaiming his cattle. The fort that Conall must penetrate is guarded by a mighty serpent. This fearsome serpent, instead of attacking Conall, darts to Conall's waist and girdles him as a belt. Rather than killing the serpent, Conall allows it to live, and then proceeds to attack and rob the fort of its great treasures the serpent previously protected. Ross explains the serpent's anticlimactic behaviour with reference to the images of Cernunnos with ram-horned serpents curled around him (as on the Étang-sur-Arroux statuette).{{cite book| last = Mac Cana| first = Proinsias| title = Celtic Mythology |date=1973| publisher = Hamlyn | location = London| isbn = 0-600-00647-6 |url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/celticmythology00macc }}{{rp|47}}

Cernunnos has also been suggested to have survived in other legends. Justin Favrod suggests that a fertility festival (perhaps involving deer costumes), held on the 1 January in some Celtic countries and suppressed by the church after Christianisation, represented a festival to Cernunnos.{{cite journal |title=Les évêques des Gaules et la fête de Cernunnos: une hypothèse sur l'origine des rogations |date=1992 |journal=Études de Lettres: Revue de la Faculté des lettres de l'Université de Lausanne |last=Favrod |first=Justin |issue=4 |page=67 |doi=10.5169/seals-870447 }} Gwilherm Berthou equated Cernunnos with the mythical Breton {{ill|Saint Cornély|fr}}, protector of cattle.{{rp|337}} R. Lowe Thompson suggested that Herne the Hunter, an antlered ghost of English folklore first attested in Shakespeare, was cognate with Cernunnos.{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=R. Lowe |title=The History of the Devil: The Horned God Of The West |date=1929 |location=London |publisher=K. Paul }}{{rp|133}}

Within Neopaganism, specifically the Wiccan tradition, the Horned God is a deity that is believed to be the equal to the Great Goddess and syncretizes various horned or antlered gods from various cultures. 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. Murray, through her Witch-cult hypothesis, believed that the various horned deities found in Europe were expressions of a "proto-horned god" and in 1931 published her theory in The God of the Witches. Her work was considered highly controversial at the time, but was adopted by Gerald Gardner in his development of the religious movement of Wicca.{{Cite web|url=https://thenewinquiry.com/blog/forced-into-the-fringe-margaret-murrays-witch-cult-hypothesis/|title=Forced into the Fringe: Margaret Murray's Witch-Cult Hypothesis|date=21 April 2017|access-date=6 September 2021|archive-date=19 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719141208/https://thenewinquiry.com/blog/forced-into-the-fringe-margaret-murrays-witch-cult-hypothesis/|url-status=live}}

Within the Wiccan tradition, the Horned God reflects the seasons of the year in an annual cycle of life, death and rebirth and his imagery is a blend of the Gaulish god Cernunnos, the Greek god Pan, The Green Man motif, and various other horned spirit imagery.Farrar, Stewart & Janet, Eight Sabbats for WitchesThe Rebirth of Witchcraft, Doreen Valiente, page 52-53

• Abbots Bromley Horn Dance
• God of Amiens
• Horned deity
• Naigamesha

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{{reflist}}

• Altjohann, Michael (2002) "Cernunnos?" in Ternes, C.-M.; Zinser, H. (eds.) Dieux des Celtes / Goetter der Kelten / Gods of the Celts. Luxembourg: Association européenne pour l’étude scientifique des religions.
• Lambrechts, Pierre (1942). Contributions à l'étude des divinités celtiques. Bruges: De Tempel.
• Lantier, Raymond (1934) "Le dieu celtique de Bouray" Monuments et mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot 34 (1-2): 35-58.
• Ross, Anne (1992). Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in Iconography and Tradition. London: Constable.

• {{Commons category-inline|Cernunnos}}

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