Cernunnos

[[File:Cernunnos.jpg|thumb|right|165px|The 
Alfred Hitchcock
 Cernunnos of the Pillar of the Boatmen.]]{{Paganism}}
'''Cernunnos''' is the name of a [[pagan|pre-Christian]] [[Celt]]ic [[deity]].  The name is conventionally assigned to male god figures in Celtic art that wear antlers and torcs.  

==Attestation==
[[File:Gundestrup antlered figure.jpg|thumb|left|200px|The antlered figure of the Gundestrup cauldron, 
crooning into the mike
 holding a snake.]]
The word ''Cernunnos'' is found in that form on exactly one contemporary inscription, the {{wpl|Pillar of the Boatmen||,}} which in the first century CE embellished a temple in what is now Paris, in the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] territory of Gaul. The Cernunnos of that figure wears short antlers decorated by torcs. The pillar is an artifact of the {{wpl|Gallo-Roman religion||;}} it depicts Roman gods like Jupiter, Vulcan, and Castor and Pollux, along with more well known Gaulish deities such as {{wpl|Esus||,}} {{wpl|Smertrios||,}} and {{wpl|Tarvos Trigaranus||.}} 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]].<ref name="histoire">[http://www.histoiredumonde.net/Cernunnos.html Cernunnos], at ''Histoire du Monde'', Mar 27. 2007. (French)</ref> 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.<ref>Xavier Delamarre, ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise'' (Éditions Errance, 2003), pp. 106–107.</ref>

This is the extent of the evidence that Cernunnos was the name of a deity, as some have claimed representations of him are those of a [[shaman]] instead. The word would appear to mean "the one with antlers", and ultimately derives from the [[Indo-European languages|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 {{wpl|Gundestrup cauldron}} 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,<ref>{{cite book |last=Green |first=Miranda |title=Animals in Celtic Life and Myth |pages=227–8 |year=1992 |publisher=Routledge}} https://ceisiwrserith.com/therest/Cernunnos/cernunnospaper.htm</ref> with some scholars claiming he was a deity that acted as a sort of intermediary between civilization and Nature<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25660728 Cernunnos]</ref> as well as a {{wpl|liminal deity||,}} mediating between opposites, also associated with the Underworld<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25660728 Cernunnos: Looking a Different Way]</ref>. 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.<ref name="histoire" /> They name also may be related to the hero {{wpl|Conall Cernach}} from the Old Irish Ulster cycle of tales;<ref>Koch, John T. (ed.) "Cernunnos", in ''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia'' (ABC-CLIO, 2006; ISBN 1851094407)</ref> this identification, however, is disputed by others.{{efn|Ronald Hutton notes that heroes "who appear to be human, such as {{wpl|Medb}} or [[Saint Brigid]], probably were indeed once regarded as divine... the warriors who are the main protagonists of the stories have the same status as those in the Greek myths, standing between the human and divine orders. To regard characters such as {{wpl|Cú Chulainn||,}} {{wpl|Fergus Mac Roich||,}} or Conall Cernach as former gods turned into humans by a later storyteller is to misunderstand their literary and religious function... Cú Chulainn is no more a former god than {{wpl|Superman}} is."<ref>Hutton, Ronald (1991). ''The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy.'' Oxford, UK and Cambridge, USA: Blackwell. pp. 175–176.</ref>}} 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 {{wpl|Belatucadros||,}} the 'bright shining one', attested in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and {{wpl|Antenociticus||,}} 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',<ref>Ronald Hutton, ''Pagan Britain'', ch. 5, "The Roman Impact". (Yale, 2015; ISBN 0300205465)</ref> 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 [[Saint Brigid#The goddess|Brigid]] too<ref>[https://mythologysource.com/cernunnos-celtic-god/ The God Cernunnos]</ref>, with some even claiming such representations are actually ones of a 
druid shapeshifting into a deer
 [[shaman]] instead.

==Contemporary revival==
[[File:Contemporary_Horned_God.jpeg|thumb|left|100px|
A [[druid]] shape-changing into a deer while holding a half-eaten doughnut and a snake
 A modern-day statuette of Cernunnos as deity of nature, animals, and fertility.]]
[[File:Shiva Pashupati.jpg|thumb|right|100px|A seal from [[Mohenjo-daro]], thought by some to represent Shiva, and also claimed as a representation of Cernunnos.]]
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 {{wpl|Shiva}} {{wpl|Pashupati}} ([[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 [[yoga|yogic]] posture of the figure of the Gundestrup cauldron that links the Celtic and [[Hinduism|Hindu]] deities.

On even scantier evidence, Cernunnos has been identified as the "Horned God" or "[[Devil]]" worshipped by [[Margaret Murray]]'s [[pseudohistory|pseudohistorical]] [[witchcraft]] [[cult]], and as such became the male deity worshiped alongside the [[Goddess]] in most forms of [[Wicca]]. Murray also identifies Cernunnos with {{wpl|Herne the Hunter||,}} the malignant [[ghost]] of a suicidal hunter mentioned in [[William Shakespeare|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]].<ref group=note> Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest,<br> Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,<br> Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;<br> And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle,<br> And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain<br> In a most hideous and dreadful manner.<br><br>-- Act 4, scene 4.</ref> The [[Gerald Gardner|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 [[Classical mythology|Greek]] [[Pan]] or Roman {{wpl|Silvanus (mythology)|Silvanus|,}} the liminal one between two worlds noted above, the Horned God noted here, or a mixture of everything.<ref>[https://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2012/06/the-strange-triumph-of-cernunnos-over-pan/ The Strange Triumph of Cernunnos over Pan]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Baphomet]]
*[[Pan]]

==External links==
*Jason Mankey, [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2012/06/the-strange-triumph-of-cernunnos-over-pan/ The Strange Triumph of Cernunnos over Pan], patheos.org
*Ceisiwr Serith, [https://youtu.be/3Ap3LEcfVig/ Cernunnos: Looking Every Which Way].

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Ancient history]]
[[Category:Deities]]
[[Category:Folklore]]
[[Category:Paganism]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]

Categories: Ancient history, Deities, Folklore, Paganism, Pseudohistory