In
ancient Celtic and
Gallo-Roman religion, Cernunnos or Carnonos was a god depicted with antlers, seated cross-legged, and is associated with
stags,
horned serpents,
dogs and
bulls. He is usually shown holding or wearing a
torc and sometimes holding a bag of coins (or grain) and a
cornucopia. Believed to have originally been a
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foo ...
god, there are more than fifty depictions and inscriptions referring to him, mainly in the north-eastern region of
Gaul
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
. Cernunnos is also associated with the Wiccan
Horned God in the modern religious tradition of
Wicca
Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and w ...
, via the discredited
Witch-cult hypothesis.
Name and etymology
In
Gaulish
Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...
, the name Cernunnos is rooted in the word ''karnon'' which means "horn" or "antler". Karnon is cognate with Latin ''cornu'' and Germanic ''*hurnaz'', ultimately from
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...
'.
The etymon ''karn-'' "horn" appears in both
Gaulish
Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...
and
Galatian branches of
Continental Celtic
The Continental Celtic languages are the now-extinct group of the Celtic languages that were spoken on the continent of Europe and in central Anatolia, as distinguished from the Insular Celtic languages of the British Isles and Brittany. ''Contine ...
.
Hesychius of Alexandria glosses the Galatian word ''karnon'' (κάρνον) as "Gallic trumpet", that is, the Celtic military horn listed as the
carnyx (κάρνυξ) by
Eustathius of Thessalonica
Eustathius of Thessalonica (or Eustathios of Thessalonike; el, Εὐστάθιος Θεσσαλονίκης; c. 1115 – 1195/6) was a Byzantine Greek scholar and Archbishop of Thessalonica. He is most noted for his contemporary account of the s ...
, who notes the instrument's animal-shaped bell. The root also appears in the names of
Celtic polities, most prominent among them the
Carnutes
The Carnutes or Carnuti (Gaulish: 'the horned ones'), were a Gallic tribe dwelling in an extensive territory between the Sequana ( Seine) and the Liger (Loire) rivers during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Name
They are mentioned as ''Car ...
, meaning something like "the Horned Ones", and in several
personal name
A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is kno ...
s found in inscriptions.
The
Proto-Celtic
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celt ...
form of the theonym is reconstructed as *''Carno-on-os''. The
augmentative
An augmentative ( abbreviated ) is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size but also in other attributes. It is the opposite of a diminutive.
Overaugmenting something often makes it grotesque and so in s ...
''-on-'' is characteristic of theonyms, as in
Maponos,
Epona,
Matronae
The Matres (Latin for "mothers") and Matronae (Latin for "matrons") were female deities venerated in Northwestern Europe, of whom relics are found dating from the first to the fifth century AD. They are depicted on votive offerings and altars th ...
, and
Sirona. Maier (2010) states that the etymology of ''Cernunnos'' is unclear, but seems to be rooted in the Celtic word for "horn" or "antler" (as in ''Carnonos'').
[Bernard Maier]
''Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture''
(Alfred Kröner, 1994; Boydell, 2000), p. 69.
"Cernunnos" is believed by some Celticists to be an obscure epithet of a better attested Gaulish deity; perhaps the god described in the
interpretatio Romana as
Mercury or
Dis Pater,
which are considered to share Cernunnos's
psychopomp or
chthonic associations. The name has only appeared once with an image, when it was inscribed on the ''
Nautae Parisiaci'' (the sailors of the
Parisii, who were a tribe of
Gauls
The Gauls ( la, Galli; grc, Γαλάται, ''Galátai'') were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). They sp ...
).
Otherwise, variations of the name Cernunnos has also been found in a Celtic inscription written in
Greek characters at
Montagnac,
Hérault
Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.[dative case
In grammar, the dative case ( abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob ...]
). A
Gallo-Latin adjective
In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...
''carnuātus'', "horned", is also found.
Epigraphic evidence
Due to the lack of surviving Gaulish literature regarding mythologies about Cernunnos, stories with various possible epithets he might have had, or information regarding religious practices and followers, his overall significance in Gaulish religious traditions is unknown. Interpretations of his role within Gaulish culture vary from seeing him as a god of animals, nature and fertility to a god of travel, commerce and bi-directionality. The only evidence that has survived are inscriptions found on various artifacts.
The ''
Nautae Parisiaci'' monument was probably constructed by Gaulish sailors in 14 CE. It was discovered in 1710 within the foundations of the
cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, site of ancient
Lutetia, the ''
civitas''
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
of the
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foo ...
Parisii. It is now displayed in the
Musée National du Moyen Age in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
.
[A. Kingsley Porter, "A Sculpture at Tandragee," ''Burlington Magazine'' 65 (1934), p. 227, pointing out the relative maturation of the antlers.] The distinctive stone pillar is an important monument of
Gallo-Roman religion. Its
low reliefs depict and label by name several
Roman deities
The Roman deities most widely known today are those the Romans identified with Greek counterparts (see ''interpretatio graeca''), integrating Greek myths, iconography, and sometimes religious practices into Roman culture, including Latin litera ...
such as
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...
,
Vulcan, and
Castor and
Pollux, along with Gallic deities such as
Esus,
Smertrios
In Gallo-Roman religion, Smertrios or Smertrius was a god of war worshipped in Gaul and Noricum.Nicole Jufer & Thierry Luginbühl. 2001. ''Les dieux gaulois : répertoire des noms de divinités celtiques connus par l'épigraphie, les textes anti ...
, and
Tarvos Trigaranus. The name ''Cernunnos'' can be read clearly on 18th century drawings of the inscriptions, but the initial letter has been obscured since, so that today only a reading "''
rnunnos"'' can be verified.
Additional evidence is given by one inscription on a metal plaque from
Steinsel-Rëlent in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
, in the territory of the Celtic
Treveri
The Trēverī (Gaulish: *''Trēueroi'') were a Celtic tribe of the Belgae group who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle from around 150 BCE, if not earlier, until their displacement by the Franks. Their domain lay within the southern fring ...
. This inscription read ''Deo Ceruninco'', "to the God Cerunincos", assumed to be the same deity. The Gaulish inscription from Montagnac reads αλλετ
�ι�ος καρνονου αλ
��ο
�τ�ας (''Alletinos
edicated thisto Carnonos of Alisontea''), with the last word possibly a place name based on ''Alisia'', "
service-tree" or "rock" (compare
Alesia, Gaulish ''Alisiia'').
Iconography
On the
Pillar of the Boatmen, we find an image depicted with stag's antlers, both having
torcs hanging from them with the inscription of ''
rnunnos'' with it. The lower part of the relief is lost, but the dimensions suggest that the god was sitting cross-legged, in the depiction traditionally called "
Buddhic posture", providing a direct parallel to the antlered figure on the
Gundestrup cauldron.
Iconography associated with Cernunnos is often portrayed with a
stag and the
ram-horned serpent. Less frequently, there are
bulls (at
Rheims),
dogs and
rats. Because of the image of him on the Gundestrup Cauldron, some scholars describe Cernunnos as the
Lord of the Animals
The Master of Animals, Lord of Animals, or Mistress of the Animals is a motif in ancient art showing a human between and grasping two confronted animals. The motif is very widespread in the art of the Ancient Near East and Egypt. The figure ma ...
or the Lord of Wild Things, and Miranda Green describes him as a "peaceful god of nature and fruitfulness" who seems to be seated in a manner that suggests traditional shamans who were often depicted surrounded by animals. Other academics such as Ceisiwr Serith describes Cernunnos as a god of bi-directionality and mediator between opposites, seeing the animal symbolism in the artwork reflecting this idea.
The ''Pilier des nautes'' links him with sailors and with commerce, suggesting that he was also associated with material wealth as does the coin pouch from the Cernunnos of Rheims (Marne, Champagne, France)—in antiquity, Durocortorum, the ''civitas'' capital of the
Remi
The Remi (Gaulish: ''Rēmi'', 'the first, the princes') were a Belgic tribe dwelling in the Aisne, Vesle and Suippe river valleys during the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their territory roughly corresponded the modern Marne and Ardennes and ...
tribe—and the stag vomiting coins from Niedercorn-Turbelslach (Luxembourg) in the lands of the
Treveri
The Trēverī (Gaulish: *''Trēueroi'') were a Celtic tribe of the Belgae group who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle from around 150 BCE, if not earlier, until their displacement by the Franks. Their domain lay within the southern fring ...
. The god may have symbolized the fecundity of the
stag-inhabited forest.
Other examples of Cernunnos imagery include a
petroglyph in
Val Camonica in
Cisalpine Gaul.
[ The antlered human figure has been dated as early as the 7th century BCE or as late as the 4th.][Webster, "Creolizing the Roman Provinces," p. 221, especially note 103.] Two goddesses with antlers appear at Besançon and Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label= Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 146,734 (2018). Its metropolitan area (''aire d'attrac ...
, France. An antlered god appears on a relief in Cirencester, Britain dated to Roman times and appears depicted on a coin from Petersfield, Hampshire.[ An antlered child appears on a relief from Vendeuvres, flanked by serpents and holding a purse and a torc. The best known image appears on the Gundestrup cauldron found on ]Jutland
Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...
, dating to the 1st century BCE, thought to depict Celtic subject matter though usually regarded as of Thracian workmanship.
Among the Celtiberians
The Celtiberians were a group of Celts and Celticized peoples inhabiting an area in the central-northeastern Iberian Peninsula during the final centuries BCE. They were explicitly mentioned as being Celts by several classic authors (e.g. Strab ...
, horned or antlered figures of the Cernunnos type include a " Janus-like" god from Candelario ( Salamanca) with two faces and two small horns; a horned god from the hills of Ríotinto ( Huelva); and a possible representation of the deity Vestius Aloniecus near his altars in Lourizán ( Pontevedra). The horns are taken to represent "aggressive power, genetic vigor and fecundity."
Divine representations of the Cernunnos type are exceptions to the often-expressed view that the Celts only began to picture their gods in human form after the Roman conquest of Gaul.
The Celtic "horned god", while well attested in iconography, cannot be identified in description of Celtic religion in Roman ethnography and does not appear to have been given any '' interpretatio romana'', perhaps due to being too distinctive to be translatable into the Roman pantheon.
While Cernunnos was never assimilated, scholars have sometimes compared him functionally to Greek and Roman divine figures such as Mercury, Actaeon, specialized forms of Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...
, and Dis Pater, the latter of whom Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
said was considered the ancestor of the Gauls.
Possible reflexes in Insular Celtic
There have been attempts to find the ''cern'' root in the name of Conall Cernach, the foster brother of the Irish hero Cuchulainn in the Ulster Cycle. In this line of interpretation, ''Cernach'' is taken as an epithet with a wide semantic field—"angular; victorious; prominent," though there is little evidence that the figures of Conall and Cernunnos are related.
A brief passage involving Conall in an eighth-century story entitled ''Táin Bó Fraích'' ("The Cattle Raid on Fraech") has been taken as evidence that Conall bore attributes of a "master of beasts."[Anne Ross. (1967, 1996). ''Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in Iconography and Tradition''. Academy Chicago Publishers.] In this passage Conall Cernach is portrayed as a hero and mighty warrior who assists the protagonist Fraech in rescuing his wife and son, and reclaiming his cattle. The fort that Conall must penetrate is guarded by a mighty serpent. The supposed anti-climax of this tale is when the 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.
The figure of Conall Cernach is not associated with animals or forestry elsewhere; and the epithet "Cernach" has historically been explained as a description of Conall's impenetrable "horn-like" skin which protected him from injury.
Possible connection to Saint Ciarán
Some see the qualities of Cernunnos subsumed into the ''life'' of Saint Ciarán of Saighir, one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland
The Twelve Apostles of Ireland (also known as Twelve Apostles of Erin, ir, Dhá Aspal Déag na hÉireann) were twelve early Irish monastic saints of the sixth century who studied under St Finnian (d. 549) at his famous monastic school Clona ...
. When he was building his first tiny cell, as his hagiography goes, his first disciple and monk was a boar that had been rendered gentle by God. This was followed by a fox, a badger, a wolf and a stag.
Neopaganism and Wicca
Within Neopaganism, specifically the Wiccan
Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and ...
tradition, The Horned God is a deity that is believed to be the consort of the Great Goddess Great Goddess is the concept of an almighty goddess or mother goddess, or a matriarchal religion. Apart from various specific figures called this from various cultures, the Great Goddess hypothesis, is a postulated fertility goddess supposed to hav ...
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.
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.[''The Rebirth of Witchcraft'', Doreen Valiente, page 52-53]
In popular culture
*Cernunnos is featured in both Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...
and DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. ( doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with the ...
as a member of the Celtic pantheon.
*Cernunnos is a playable hunter as the second of the Celtic gods to arrive in Smite.
*In the french production Black Spot Cernunnos is referred to frequently as the woodsman.
See also
* Abbots Bromley Horn Dance
* Celtic polytheism
* Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism
* Green Man
* Herne the Hunter
* Horned God
References
* '' Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (CIL) volume 13, number 03026
* Delmarre, Xavier (2003). ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise'' (2nd ed.). Paris: Editions Errance. .
* Lejeune, Michel (1995). ''Recueil des inscriptions gauloises'' (RIG) volume 1, ''Textes gallo-grecs''. Paris: Editions du CNRS.
* Nussbaum, Alan J. (1986). ''Head and Horn in Indo-European''. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter. .
* Porkorny, Julius (1959). ''Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch''. Berlin: Franke Verlag.
Notes
External links
"Is the Gundestrup Cauldron an Authentic Celtic Artifact?"
A possibly ancient depiction of the Horned God
{{Authority control
Animal gods
Commerce gods
Fertility gods
Gaulish gods
Horned deities
Hunting gods
Nature gods
New religious movement deities
Wicca