Cernunnos

Cernunnos is the name of a pre-Christian Celtic deity. The name is conventionally assigned to male god figures in Celtic art that wear antlers and torcs. 
==Attestation==
The word Cernunnos is found in that form on exactly one contemporary inscription, the which in the first century CE embellished a temple in what is now Paris, in the Roman territory of Gaul. The Cernunnos of that figure wears short antlers decorated by torcs. The pillar is an artifact of the it depicts Roman gods like Jupiter, Vulcan, and Castor and Pollux, along with more well known Gaulish deities such as and There is an inscription "Deo Cernunnos", which would be the dative form of "Cernunnos" (thus "to the god Cernunnos") from Polenza, Italy; this inscription, however, may be a hoax.Cernunnos, at Histoire du Monde, Mar 27. 2007. (French) A similar word (καρνονου, karnonū, dative case) is found in a Celtic inscription in Greek characters in the south of France, which likely refers to the same being. Two Gaulish inscriptions from Luxembourg name a Cerunincos, which is likely a related name.Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), pp. 106–107.
This is the extent of the evidence that Cernunnos was the name of a deity. The word would appear to mean "the one with antlers", and ultimately derives from the Indo-European root *k̑r̥no-, "horn"; the English word itself is a cognate.
A number of horned or antlered figures appear in Celtic art; a celebrated example is on the from Denmark. There is no evidence that this deity was named Cernunnos, or that the name was used outside of Gaul. None of the Roman or Irish accounts of ancient Celtic religion mention either the name Cernunnos, nor a horned or antlered figure; there are, however, several representations which combine Cernunnos imagery with that of Mercury and suggestions about such deity having been worshipped as either a god of fertility, Nature, and animals, or as one of travel, commerce, and bi-directionality, https://ceisiwrserith.com/therest/Cernunnos/cernunnospaper.htm with some scholars claiming he was a deity that acted as a sort of intermediary between civilization and NatureCernunnos as well as a that also guided souls towards the Underworld.Not Your Mother’s Horned God: The Cernunnos Primer No myths, legends, or other stories have been preserved in which either Cernunnos under that name, nor any other figure described as having antlers, participates in any way. The name also may be related to the hero from the Old Irish Ulster cycle of tales;Koch, John T. (ed.) "Cernunnos", in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2006; ISBN 1851094407) this identification, however, is disputed by others. The general use of 'Cernunnos' as the name of a horned deity also omits mention of the fact that other names for horned deities are attested; the gods the 'bright shining one', attested in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and from near Newcastle, are two examples of horned and torc-wearing deities from Britain alone. Had we not known of these local names, they too likely would have become examples of 'Cernunnos',Ronald Hutton, Pagan Britain, ch. 5, "The Roman Impact". (Yale, 2015; ISBN 0300205465) which also suggests that "Cernunnos" ("Horned", as noted above) was actually a title instead of the name of a deity, as has been claimed to happen with the goddess Brigid too.The God Cernunnos
==Contemporary revival==
The scant attestation of the name Cernunnos has not prevented a great deal of speculation from moderns who find the idea of such a deity fetching. Cernunnos has been linked with (Sanskrit: पशुपतिनाथ), Shiva in his aspect as lord of the animals; there is no actual evidence other than the presence of animals, and the allegedly yogic posture of the figure of the Gundestrup cauldron that links the Celtic and Hindu deities.
On even scantier evidence, Cernunnos has been identified as the "Horned God" or "Devil" worshipped by Margaret Murray's pseudohistorical witchcraft cult, and as such became the male deity worshiped alongside the Goddess in most forms of Wicca. Murray also identifies Cernunnos with the malignant ghost of a suicidal hunter mentioned in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. Herne, endowed with "great ragged horns", curses cattle and makes unpleasant noises in the manner of a poltergeist. Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest, Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight, Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns; And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle, And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain In a most hideous and dreadful manner.-- Act 4, scene 4. The Gardnerian tradition of Wicca sometimes uses Cernunnos as the name of this deity, and he is also very present in other forms of Neopaganism as given what has been noted above, like for example the Irish goddess Danu, Cernunnos has been compared to a sort of blank slate into which someone can project whatever (s)he wishes, be it a deity of fertility and Nature akin to Greek Pan or Roman the liminal one between two worlds noted above, the Horned God noted here, or a mixture of everything.The Strange Triumph of Cernunnos over Pan
==See also==
*Baphomet
*Pan
==External links==
*Jason Mankey, The Strange Triumph of Cernunnos over Pan, patheos.org
*Ceisiwr Serith, Cernunnos: Looking Every Which Way.
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Ancient history
Category:Deities
Category:Folklore
Category:Paganism
Category:Pseudohistory