Cernunnos Looking a Different Way

Cernunnos: Looking a Different WayAuthor(s): David Fickett-WilbarReviewed work(s):Source: Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Vol. 23 (2003), pp. 80-111Published by: Department of Celtic Languages & Literatures, Harvard UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25660728 .

Accessed: 08/01/2013 14:00

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Department of Celtic Languages & Literatures, Harvard University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Tue, 8 Jan 2013 14:00:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=dcllhu

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25660728?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Cernunnos: Looking a Different Way

David Fickett-Wilbar

Of the many deities worshiped by the ancient Celts, Cernunnos is

certainly one of the more enigmatic. This god with the antlers, sitting so

calmly, seems at once civilized and savage, and the contradiction poses a

challenge that is hard to resist. The academic literature, however, doesn't

make him out as enigmatic at all. To Anne Ross, he is "lord of wild

beasts," and "patron of commercial prosperity" (1967, 38); to Proinsias

MacCana he is "lord of the animals" (1983, 42); to Udo Strutynski "Lord of the Animals" (1983, 45); to David Rankin, "lord of living beings" (1986, 184); and to Miranda Green "lord of beasts and fecundity" (1986, 184) and "a fertility-image" (1986, 194). The case seems closed.

This almost exact agreement makes me nervous, however. When

such conclusions are repeated from source to source in almost identical

language I have to wonder if the authors are simply passing on received

tradition. Now we certainly do not have to reinvent the wheel, but there is

sometimes a need for taking a fresh and deeper look at something long

thought settled. My disquiet is heightened by the lack of evidence generally presented for identifying Cernunnos as Lord of the Beasts.

Except for the ubiquitous panel from the Gundestrup cauldron (fig. 4), the

attitude seems to be that the mere fact that Cernunnos has antlers is

sufficient to prove the case.

What arouses my suspicion even more is that not only did an in-depth

study conducted by Phyllis Pray Bober, in 1951, conclude that he was to be connected to the Underworld rather than the forest, but even when she

is referenced her primary conclusion, that Cernunnos was identified with

Pluto, is not often mentioned. True, we read that Cernunnos was perhaps the Dis Pater mentioned by Caesar (Ross, 1967, 49), or that he was "lord

of death" (Rankin, 1996, 265). The often noted connection between

Cernunnos and prosperity is also relevant. However, in general writers on

Cernunnos seem unaware of Bober's work. Since it has been fifty years since Bober, it seemed worth while to open the case again.

The name "Cernunnos" is only found associated with an image in one

inscription, on a block found under Notre Dame in Paris (MacCana, 1970,

42) (fig. 1). (The inscription "Jupiter Cernunus" also appears once, on a



DAVID FICKETT-WILBAR

"little book" (libellus) from Dacia, dedicated by the president of an

association of Jupiter Cernenus (magister Iouis Cerneni; Dessau, 1962m no. 7215), which, however, tells us nothing about the deity other than his

name, so it will not be part of this discussion.) Discernible on the block is

the relief of a bust of a balding man with antlers on which are hung tores.

As well as antlers, he has the ears of a deer. Over his head is the

inscription generally read as "Cernunnos." Whatmough (1970, 172) will

only allow "ern nno" for it, in its present condition. The block is indeed

much worn, and was only in slightly better condition when it was found, but based on eighteenth century drawings of the piece we can say with

fairly good confidence that it did once say "Cernunnos" (Ross, 1967, 135). The bottom of the block has been lost, but the original size may be

determined by the figures on the other sides of it. From the proportions of

the figure of Cernunnos it is clear that originally the block included the

entire figure and that he must have been sitting. It is important to note that

the pillar this block was part of was set up by sailors, something which

must be taken into consideration in any attempt to unravel the sort of deity we are dealing with.

Figure 1. The Notre Dame Pillar

81



CERNUNNOS

The title itself appears to come from the Proto-Indo-European root

*k(e)r-n(o), "horn or antler," (which changes in Celtic to *kornu/kernu) with the theonymic *-no- and the first person singular ending -s. The full

meaning of the name would thus be "The god with antlers" (Ross, 1967, 135). It is often stated that since the name occurs only this once it would

not be appropriate to say that it represents the "name" of the deity

represented. There are difficulties with this, however.

The labels above the Roman divinities on the pillar (Iovis, Vulcanus, Castor, and perhaps Fortuna) are ones that are certainly considered names, as are those of the other Celtic ones (Esus and Smeri[ Jos). To hold that this one deity of all those mentioned is given a title rather than a name

does not seem to me to be reasonable. The suggestion also requires that

there be a firm difference between a "title" and a "name." Now it is

certainly true that there are cases where we can identify a title as opposed to a name, such as Apollo being called "Son of Leto." One thing used to

define the difference seems to be etymological transparence; if we can say what an appellation means, it's a title rather than a name. Since

"Cernunnos" can be "translated" into the language of those who inscribed

it, by this reasoning it has to be a title. The problem with this reasoning is that all deity "names" seem to

have been originally titles. "Jupiter" is "Shining Sky Father," "Agni" is

"Fire," etc. And, to take an example from the pillar of the sailors itself, there has been much speculation over the etymology of "Esus." This

presupposes that something recognized as the name of a Celtic god must

have been originally something that we would more commonly term a

"title." This requires us to ask the question of when a title is promoted to

the status of a name. When it is used often enough? When it has become

etymologically opaque? If a child in an English-speaking country is called "Faith," does she have a title rather than a name because the word is both

etymologically transparent and found more frequently as a common noun?

All in all, then, it seems odd that this one appellation has been denied the status of a "name." I think it best to consider it to have that status.

It may therefore be said that there exists a group of representations of

Gaulish deities that seem to represent a single deity, with the name

"Cernunnos." The majority of these images come from a fairly restricted

area around Paris and Reims. Two, from Val Camonica and Gundestrup,

82




images are glaring exceptions and will need to be explained. These images are of figures that are connected with certain attributes: deer's antlers; arms in the orans position or in the lap; a container of coins or grains in

the lap; a serpent or serpents with a ram's head, which he grasps behind

the head, or encircle him, or both; tores, both worn and held; and crossed

legs. It must be remembered that not all depictions that can be identified as Cernunnos will have all of these attributes. Some of these, such as the

tore and ram-headed serpent, are also found in conjunction with other

deities. Of the over thirty examples, I will examine those which seem to

me to hold the greatest amount of information. In short, those which are

identifiable as Cernunnos only on the basis of other monuments but supply no further data have been excluded. I have limited my investigations further to the ones from Val Camonica, the Gundestrup cauldron, and

Gaul, but there have been suggestions that his images are found in

England and Ireland, and I will deal with them first. There are three images that come from England that have been

claimed to be of Cernunnos. A coin found near Petersfield, Hampshire.

(Boon, 1982) depicts what appears to be an antlered head, with a ladder

and wheel between the antlers. I am not convinced that what he wears on

his head are indeed antlers, since they have no tines. It is also unsure

whether they are growing from his head, or are part of a crown. Further, a

wheel is not part of other images of Cernunnos. Rather than comparing this image with Cernunnos, it would seem more appropriate to relate it

with the horned helmets from the Tiberian Arc d'Orange, France, illustrated by Ross (1967, 159, fig. 109) and Boon (1982, fig. 9, 279),

which also bear wheels between their horns.

This complex of horned helmet and wheel can be found as well on

the panel of the Gundestrup cauldron depicting a god holding a wheel; he is aided in this by a smaller figure who wears a horned helmet (Fig 2). The similarity with the Orange helmet is increased by their both having knobs on the end. I would suggest the possibility of a deity connected with wheels, horns, and serpents, which overlaps the Roman equivalents of Mars and Jupiter (and is in fact a Gaulish reflex of the Proto-Indo

European myth of the dragon-slaying), but to investigate this further would take us too far afield.

83



CERNUNNOS

Figure 2. Wheel God from the Gundestrup Cauldron

A better case can be made for an image of Cirencester (Ross, 1967,

plate 43a), which shows a man grasping two horned serpents by the neck.

They seem to grow from the ends of his legs, or else his legs are folded

under him. His arms are bent into a semi-orans position, which may

simply be necessitated by the height of the snake's necks. On either side

of his head are rings with ovals in them which are generally interpreted as

baskets of grain, coins, or eggs. He doesn't clearly have antlers; it does seem as if something is growing from his head, but the piece is broken off.

However, if the arc the broken piece would have formed is completed, there doesn't seem to have been room for antlers. Although this piece is

strongly probable, then, a definite identification of the image as one of

Cernunnos is not possible. A suggested image from Clonmacnois, County Offaly, in Ireland is

even more problematic, being less clearly an image of Cernunnos (Ross, 1967, 147). It depicts a figure whose crossed legs are interlaced with his arms. Something growing from his head is intertwined as well, but this is as likely to be hair as antlers. On the whole, the apparent antlers and

crossed legs might better be interpreted as ornamental motifs. Despite Anne Ross's confidence, I have my doubts that this figure has antlers; in

84




any case, again none of Cernunnos' other identifying characteristics are

present. (Ross, 1967, 147). It has been suggested by some (e.g., Ross, 1967, 149-151) that the

Irish hero Conall Cernach is related to Cernunnos in some sense. Ross

bases this in part on the name "Cernach," which is usually translated

"victorious," but which she suggests could have been a homophone which

has the meaning "angled, having corners." More important, she sees a

similarity with the iconography of Cernunnos in a scene from Tain Bo

Frdich, in which, when Conall approaches a poisonous serpent, the

serpent slides into his belt, and is later released without harm to either.

That does indeed sound similar to the images of Cernunnos is which a snake or snakes encircle the deity's waist. Ross also identifies Cernunnos

with Dis Pater, and notes that Conall Cernach is an ancestral figure. However, Conall Cernach is described in Mesca Ulad as one of the three best warriors in Ireland (Coe, 1995, 245), for whom "victorious" would be a considerably more appropriate name than "having corners." The total lack of martial imagery in the representations of Cernunnos make the connection between the two unlikely. Finally, that Cernunnos is Dis Pater is questionable, and therefore can not be used to identify him with other

figures.

Explaining the religious meaning of Cernunnos is difficult because there is no mythology clearly associated with him. Any conclusions about his nature must therefore come from the images which can clearly be deemed as of him, and therefore it is to those images that we now turn. The oldest depiction is from the Val Camonica in Italy, one of a number of rock carvings made by a people who were likely Celts. The figure that has been identified with Cernunnos was carved in the fourth cent. BCE. It is a

figure of a man with antlers, who wears a long robe, and has his arms raised in the orans position. Around his right and possibly his left arm are

loops which may represent tores, while underneath his left arm is a curved line which may represent a snake (Anati, 1961, 172).

85



CERNUNNOS

Figure 3. Val Camonica Rock Drawing

The other images are from the Roman period, with the exception of that found on the Gundestrup cauldron (Fig. 4). This silver and gilt cauldron was discovered in Jutland and while its workmanship appears to be Thracian (as Bergquist and Taylor, 1987, have shown), the figure on the Cernunnos panel is clearly Celtic.

Figure 4. Panel from the Gundestrup cauldron

86




This panel, from the inside of the cauldron, depicts a man with folded

legs, a tore in his right hand and a ram-headed serpent in his left. His arms

are in the orans position, and there are antlers with seven tines on his head.

To his left are numerous animals: two lions opposing each other; a single lion, a boy riding a fish, and a bull, all facing away from the main figure, and a dog facing him. (The dog has sometimes been identified as a boar, but it lacks the bristles of the typical Celtic boar and its tail is far too long. Bober (1951, p. 19) identifies it as a hyena.) To his right are a large stag whose antlers are duplicates of his, and a smaller bull, both of which face him. The bull matches the one on the other side of him; they both face to Cernunnos1 left.

Closely paralleling the Gundestrup panel is a depiction on a silver bowl from Lyon. Here we find a draped seated figure, whose head is

unfortunately missing, so there is no proof that he wore antlers. He is, however, wearing a tore and holding one in his right hand; in his left is a

cornucopia. To his right is a stag, and to his left is a dog, and a tree with a

snake wrapped around it (Wuilleunier, 1936; Olmsted, 1979, plate 63.2; Ross, 1967, fig. 98). The similarity of the composition with the Gundestrup cauldron is striking. On the other side of the bowl is Mercury, with his money bag, counting out money on an table, and with a tortoise

by his side. This Cernunnos figure is the most Romanized of all his

depictions, being draped like a classical god and reclining rather than

cross-legged. Here he holds a cornucopia in his left hand, which was

likely a means of expressing in Roman symbolism the wealth represented by the tore. The snake has therefore been displaced from his hand, and is instead shown wrapped around a tree, a motif which would have been in the repertoire of a Roman or Greek silversmith, since it was the canonical

way of representing the snake of the Hesperides. It has likely lost its ram's head for the same reason.

Perhaps the most impressive depiction comes from Reims (fig. 5). This relief shows a balding and bearded cross-legged man, sitting in front of what appears to be a Roman-style temple. On his head are the broken stubs of antlers. On the bottom of the pediment above his head are the remains of the tips of their tines, four to each antler; on the pediment itself is a rat. Cernunnos wears a tore around his neck and an arm ring on his

right arm. Over his left arm is a bag from which he is pouring out what

87



CERNUNNOS

are most likely coins, which stream down to pass between a bull and a

stag. To his right is Apollo and to his left is Mercury. (See MacCana,

1970, 43.)

Figure 5. Reims

There are other images of Cernunnos, some of which will be dealt

with later, but we have seen his most defining characteristics. The most

defining of these is, of course, his antlers. I will deal with them in greater detail later; for now I wish simply to observe that because of them it is

quite logical to presume that he originally was a hunting deity or god of

the forest (Duval, 1981, 151). The dog that is sometimes found with Cernunnos may provide another link with hunting. Hunting was important to the inhabitants of Val Camonica (Anati, 1961, 173); however hunting did not form a major part of the Gaulish economy in the historic period, so

it is unlikely that a god who maintained only that meaning would have

continued to be worshiped. Further, other than the antlers, the

iconography does not suggest hunting. There is only one possible

88




representation, from La Celle-Mont-Saint-Jean, in which there is any obvious connection with hunting. This is a statue of an upright man with the remains of antlers on his head, who holds a bill in his left hand and a bow in his right (MacCana, 1970, 67.) The presence of the bill is enough to show that if this deity was associated with hunting, it was not with

hunting alone. In fact, he is here shown as holding a tool connected with the wild and animals, and a tool connected with the domestic and plants.

Connected with theories of Cernunnos as a hunting god are the

descriptions of him as Lord of the Animals. As I have already stated, this view is based largely on the Gundestrup cauldron, on which he is surrounded by animals. However, the majority of the animals are

insignificant from an iconographic point of view. Two of the animals are

lions apparently fighting each other, and two more are the bulls which form a matched set, one at either side of the panel. Finally, there is a boy riding a fish, a rather unlikely figure for a hunting god or lord of the animals to have attending him. It is only the stag and the dog which are

paying any attention to Cernunnos, which, as we have seen, are found on the cup from Lyon, but without the other animals (excepting the serpent);

we may therefore conclude that it is those animals alone which are

significant. Further, there are other deities on the cauldron who are surrounded by

animals (e. g., the wheel god shown in Fig.2). If the animals represented around Cernunnos show that he is Lord of the Animals, I do not think it unfair to say that the animals represented with the other deities declare them to be Lords ofthe Animals, and to ask the question of just how many Lords of the Animals the commissioners of the cauldron had. Even more

so, and I say this only slightly flippantly, if the animals show that Cernunnos was Lord of the Animals then doesn't the boy on the fish show that he was the Lord of Boys on Fish? Except for the stag and dog, then, the surrounding animals appear to be more decoration than iconography, a case of a silversmith filling space.

The ram-headed serpent is the most unusual of Cernunnos' attributes, so unusual that Miranda Green writes that it is "too idiosyncratic a beast to

belong to more than one culture" (1986, 26). It is not, however, an attribute of Cernunnos alone. On the Gundestrup cauldron it is found in the company of a deity on the interior plate we have already seen (fig. 2).

89



CERNUNNOS

There are other animals surrounding the deity, three griffins and two dogs, and the serpent does not seem to be more important than any of the others. It is also found on another plate, where it accompanies a group of

warriors.

What is it, then? Attempts to divine its meaning have relied on analyses of the symbolism of snakes and sheep in Celtic religion. Thus, the snake portion has been interpreted as chthonic (Bober, 1951, 26). Ross (1967, 151

- 152) finds the widespread European belief in snakes as

guardians of treasure to be relevant, which is not unreasonable in light of the wealth that is shown with Cernunnos. The ram has been seen as either an animal of fertility or a sacrificial beast (Bober, 1951, 26). The combination of the two is seen by Green (1986) as creating an animal in

which the fertility aspects of snake and ram are combined. All these speculations might be unnecessary, however, or at least

misdirected, because the ram-headed serpent is not, in fact, unique to

Celtic culture. It is found as far way from Gaul, and even Gundestrup and Val Camonica, as China, where it is a common motif on Shang Dynasty (1523-1027 BCE) bronzes (e. g., Hentze, 1965, fig. 25). That such an

unusual combined creature is found so distant in time and space from our area of interest is at first startling, but not unreasonable. We need only think of the silk embroidery from a grave at Hochmichele (Frey, 1991, 87) to know that there was a link between China and Celtic Europe. Bober

herself, as far back as 1951, had noticed the ram-headed serpent's existence in China, observing, "In all likelihood it is to be added to the

long list of motives from the art of the steppe peoples which were

accepted by La Tene craftsman," but this hint appears not to have been

followed up on.

The large gap in time and space between Cernunnos and the Shang

dynasty is bridged in part by such pieces as a part of a horse harness from

Great Tsimbalka in Scythia (Artamonov, 1969, plate 186; 57-58), dated to the 4th century BCE. There we see a woman from whose waist grow

serpents that curl up to be held in her hands. Artamonov identifies their

heads as those of lion-griffins, but they bear a remarkable resemblance to

ram's heads, and at least establish a steppe motif of snakes with the heads

of other animals. The bridge to Cernunnos is completed by a greave from

Vratsa, in Thrace, dated to the fourth century BCE (Fol and Marazov,

90




1977, 87). On this silver and gilt greave, made in the shape of a woman,

appear two, and possibly four, ram-headed serpents. (Megaw (1970, 133) points out that the ivy leaves on the inner panel of the Gundestrup cauldron also appear on the greave.) We can therefore bring that animal

close to the Gundestrup cauldron.

We can, in fact, bring it very close. Bergquist and Taylor (1987) have argued convincingly that although the cauldron may contain Celtic imagery, it was made by Thracian silversmiths, most likely in northern Thrace itself. It can therefore be shown that the ram-headed serpent existed as an artistic motif in the very area in which the Gundestrup cauldron was created. The Val Camonica snake doesn't have a ram's

head; the Gundestrup snake does. It is reasonable to conclude that the ram's head was added to the iconography of Cernunnos by the Thracian

makers of the Gundestrup cauldron. We might therefore say that at least as far as this one attribute is concerned Cernunnos is not a purely Celtic

deity, but that his iconography is a combination of Celtic and Thracian elements.

This solution of the origin of the ram-headed serpent doesn't

necessarily answer the question of its meaning, but it suggests a direction to look. Since the creature was not an invention of the Celts, it is less

important to look at the Celtic associations of the animals from which it is

formed, than at the ram-headed serpent as already a composite being when it entered Celtic symbology. Hentze does not deal directly with the ram headed serpent, dealing instead with the other symbols on the vessels. He nonetheless deals with ram and serpent symbolism found there, linking them into a complex related to the moon, renewal, the calendar, and water.

On the Thracian greave and in Scythia, however, there is none of this.

Rather, the ram-headed serpent appears here as a decorative motif. That this free-floating motif was used by the Thracian silversmiths of the

Gundestrup cauldron to depict the serpent present in the Val Camonica style Cernunnos could well have been a purely artistic decision, but even so it clearly struck a chord in the minds of the Gauls who worshiped Cernunnos. What chord could that have been? We have already seen how

serpents have chthonic symbolism. One way in which cultures interpret this chthonicism of snakes is to see them as monsters; indeed, as the worst of monsters, who perversely hoard wealth that should instead be

91



CERNUNNOS

distributed to bind society together. We see this in India, for instance, where the great monster whose death is necessary for the world to come

into being is Vrtra, a serpent (Macdonell, 1974 (1897), 54 - 66), who

imprisons cows. If a serpent is ideologically an opponent of order, a

monster made of two animals is doubly anomalous. A creature that had its

origin in China as a combination of lunar symbols might have struck the Thracian silversmiths (or their Celtic clients) as instead a simply more

grotesque version of the monstrous snake. This, then, would be the

meaning of the ram-headed snake: it is the archetypal monster, associated with the underworld, death, and disorder, which withhold treasure. It is

significant that Cernunnos is usually shown subduing the serpent; even in cases in which he is described as feeding them, there is no question of who is in charge.

Cernunnos' crossed legs have been used to support theories of eastern

influence (Bober, 1951, 21-5), but the most common suggestion is that

they may simply represent the normal sitting position of the Gauls, as reported by Diodorus (28) that the Gauls "do not sit in chairs when they eat, but sit on the ground using the skins of wolves and dogs" (Koch, 1995, 11; tr. Philip Freeman). Strabo (4.4.3) concurs with their not sitting in chairs, but tells us that they "eat sitting on beds of straw" (Koch, 1995,

17; tr. Benjamin Fortson). Both are drawing from Posidonius, who, as

quoted by Athenaeus (4.36), also mentions the straw, writing that "the

Celts place dried grass or straw on the ground when they eat their meals"

(Koch, 1995, 9; tr. Philip Freeman). (Something which I have not seen noted is that none of these authors claim that the Gauls sat on the ground at any time other than eating; this at least should make us doubt whether

the cross-legged posture can be said to have been, in fact, their normal

sitting position in general.) The "sitting on the ground" theory can not be maintained, however.

The cross-legged posture is specifically significant to Cernunnos. Of the

more than thirty of his images, I am aware of only four which are

standing. Further, of the statues which are cross-legged, there are only a

small number which we can identify as not being Cernunnos. Even more

indicative of the close identification of Cernunnos with crossed legs is that

even when he is paired with a goddess, as at Sommerecourt (Bober, 1951,

32) and Saintes (Bober, 1951, 29), the goddess sits on a chair, but he sits

92




cross-legged. We see, therefore, that the cross-legged posture is strongly identified with Cernunnos in a way not shared with other deities.

At Val Camonica, Cernunnos is shown standing; the next time we see

him, on the Gundestrup cauldron, he is sitting. What has happened? I

would like to suggest that the position was assigned to Cernunnos for

purely practical, artistic reasons. It was common in Val Camonica to

depict what appear to be divine figures only from the waist up, with arms

in the orans position (see, for example, Anati, 1961; 220, 221). The image of Cernunnos there, however, is of the entire figure. If we now turn to the

Gundestrup cauldron, we find that all of the figures which strike us as

deities (with perhaps the exception of the being who is putting men into or

pulling men out of some vessel) are in the same half form as at Val Camonica. In this, we have a simple transference of iconographic tradition from Val Camonica to the Gundestrup cauldron. (As an aside, this provides a new piece of Celticity for the cauldron.) The size and

shape of the cauldron panels meant that if the half-figure deities were to be

depicted in a way that filled the space, they would be considerably larger than a Cernunnos depicted in full (especially considering that he has antlers as well); there simply wouldn't have been enough room for him. His body would have been shrunken in significance and with it, his own. The solution was to still show him in full, but to fold his legs under him so as to be able to make his proportions bigger.

We have already seen how the ram-headed serpent is likely to have entered the iconography of Cernunnos through the Gundestrup cauldron. It is therefore not unexpected for this other artistic motif to have been

applied to Cernunnos in the same way, again through the cauldron. Because of the presence of these two motifs and their seeming origin in the Gundestrup cauldron, I suspect that the cauldron was in fact known by the Gauls who worshiped Cernunnos. Based on its artistic merits, size, and

value, it could have become a model for Gaulish religious depictions. The

half-figure style of representation would not have had a parallel in Gaul, but the crossed legs of Cernunnos could have been seen as part of his nature and adopted into Gaulish representations of him. There is even the

possibility that the god himself was adopted in this way, explaining the limited distribution of his worship, the consistency of the way he was

depicted, and the strong identification of him as having crossed legs.

93



CERNUNNOS

An obvious objection to this theory would be the images from the sanctuaries of Entremont and Roquepertuse. These images, dated

variously from the fourth to second century BCE (Ross, 1967, 65; MacCana, 1983, 109), include cross-legged men. There are, however, a number of reasons to dismiss this possibility. One of the images from Entremont (Brunaux, 1988, 37) still possesses its head. This head has no antlers. It may, of course, represent a priest sitting ritually in the position of his god. There is also the case that Entremont and Roquepertuse are

examples of the Celto-Ligurian type of temple. In fact, they are the two

examples of this style. It is so unusual that in his classification of Celtic

temples Brunaux (11) lists four types; Belgic, Vierecckschanzen, spring sanctuaries, all of which have numerous examples, and Celto-Ligurian; that is, Entremont and Roquepertuse. He further points out a strong Greek and Iberian influence in the Celto-Ligurian temples. We are thus put on

warning that we are likely to be dealing here with "aberrant" imagery. The deity or deities worshiped at these sanctuaries have no other

iconography in common with Cernunnos. The sanctuaries contain not

only images of severed heads, both in the round and in relief, but niches for actual ones. There is a particularly artistic engraving in stone of horses' heads (MacCana, 1983, 108). Most striking of all is a large bird, most likely a goose, that sits overlooking the portico from Roquepertuse, the pillars of which contain niches for severed heads or skulls (MacCana, 1983, 100). The aggressive goose, severed heads, and horses would indicate either a god of war (Ross, 1967, 65), or a shrine to the honored dead (Brunaux, 1988,38).

Finally, we must remember that the earliest images that can be identified with confidence as Cernunnos are from northeastern Italy and

Thrace several centuries later. In order for the Celto-Ligurian artistic tradition to have influenced Cernunnos' iconography, it would have had to travel from southern Gaul to northeastern Italy and northern Thrace

without leaving a trace in between, and then to reappear in central Gaul by way of Gundestrup in Denmark. That seems unlikely in the extreme.

Cernunnos' arms are generally either in the orans position or in his

lap. They are in the orans positions in the two earliest images, those from Val Camonica and the Gundestrup cauldron. The orans is a very common one in Val Camonica, where, as we have seen, it is particularly closely

94




linked with deities or other numinous beings. It may have had a specific

meaning in that culture, such as receiving, giving, or protecting, or even as

an expression of presence. Whatever its meaning, however, that meaning was not peculiar to Cernunnos in Val Camonica. The orans position on

the cauldron may be a continuation of the symbology from Val Camonica, as with the other deities, or simply used by the silversmiths as an effective way of showing Cernunnos holding two objects. Even on the cauldron

this position is not confined to Cernunnos; all of the male figures are

shown this way. (All of the females have at least one arm across their

breasts.) In the later representations, he has his hands in his lap. This has

a clear reason; the tore has been replaced or supplemented by a filled bowl

or bag, and Cernunnos is therefore holding that symbol. The tore is early on one of the major attributes of Cernunnos,

appearing with him on the Val Camonica image. While many deities are

shown wearing one of them, it is Cernunnos who is typically equipped with at least two, wearing one and carrying the other in his hand or on his arms or antlers. He is therefore associated with it in a way not shared by other deities. The fact that other deities often wear tores indicates a

possibility that one of their meanings might be as an emblem of divinity. Alternatively, since it is also a common attribute of warriors, both in statues and classical accounts, it could be a symbol of power in general. Based on the value of many of the actual tores which have been found and

the presence of them in hoards and depositions, along with coins

(Fitzpatrick, 1992, 396), however, they may serve as well as indicators of wealth. That this is the case with Cernunnos is shown by the tore's being replaced in some of his images by a purse, or the two being represented

together. That this is the case is further shown by the fact that when

Cernunnos carries it in his hand or wears it on one arm, it is in his right hand or arm. When the serpent is found on only one side, it is on his left.

In Indo-European symbology and language, the left is associated with the dark side of existence and the right with the bright. In English this is reflected in the words "sinister" and "dexterous." If, therefore, the tore is

representative of wealth, with that which is positive, and the serpent with

death, that which is negative, those are the appropriate sides for them to be. Cernunnos is therefore seen, in this symbolism, to sit or stand between

paired opposites.

95



CERNUNNOS

The stag and bull, found on the relief from Reims, may be seen as

opposing symbols as well. Cattle are the archetypal Indo-European

symbol of domesticated wealth. This is seen as far back as in Proto-Indo

European, from which the fact that a sentence can be reconstructed

*peH2- wiH2ro- pekwu-, "protect men and cattle" (Watkins, 1995, 210) shows both the importance of cattle and the fact that cattle can stand for

everything one owns. Deer, on the other hand, are the logical animal to

also serve as representatives of wealth, this time of wild rather than tame.

To the left of the Cernunnos figures from Gundestrup and Lyon is a

dog. This animal is not frequently discussed in relation to Cernunnos, but

its importance is made clear on both vessels; at Lyon it is one of the three

animals connected with him, while at Gundestrup it is the only animal

other than the stag and bull that is looking towards him. Since the bull

should be considered to be merely part of the background, the stag and the

dog form an opposing pair at Gundestrup as well as at Lyon. Dogs are

frequently associated with the land of the dead in Indo-European mythology (Lincoln, 1979, 274). The interpretation of the dog with

Cernunnos as a "hellhound" would explain its position at the left of

Cernunnos as well as its connection with the ram-headed serpent. If we

interpret the dog in relation to the stag at which it looks over Cernunnos, the two may be seen as a linked pair, as the hunter and the hunted.

The panel on the Gundestrup cauldron is thus seen as a very carefully constructed system, as laid out in Table 1. We see here that this symbolic

system is composed of four elements, arranged in a square around the

figure of Cernunnos. These may be considered as columns or as row.

When the columns are compared, we find opposition, whereas the rows

give us equivalences.

96




Table 1: Gundestrup Cauldron

Tore: Snake: Culture Mediator between Nature Wealth Positive and Negative Hoarder of Wealth Positive Negative

Mediator between r Mediator between Culture and Nature |

cernunnos || Nature gnd Cu|ture

^ II II docp Nature Mediator between r , ~"

Wealth Positive and Negative n 1 .... Death

_Hunted_||_||_

The symbols on the right side of Cernunnos are positive symbols, and those on the left are negative. We have already seen the significance of the right-left opposition. In addition, there is a representative of nature

and one of culture on each side, making each complete in that opposition. Between these sets of opposing symbols sits Cernunnos, who serves as

mediator between opposites; in fact, as a reconciler of opposites in his

very self, as a combination of man and animal. A similar set of oppositions is found, as we have seen, at Reims, in

the figures of the stag and bull. Here the stag has a negative value, as the wild animal compared to the more beneficent domestic bull. There is a

further set of opposites: Apollo, god of healing and light, and Mercury, the psychopomp who leads the souls of the dead into the dark. Again they are found on the appropriate sides, and again they are part of a system of four opposites arranged in a square, with the added opposition and

completion of a human (godly) figure and an animal on each side. (This system is charted out in Table 2.) And again Cernunnos sits between,

reconciling human and animal in his very nature.

97



CERNUNNOS

Table 2: Reims

Apollo: Mercury Healing Mediator between Psychopomp Bright Life and Death Dark

Human form ||_| Human form

Mediator between r Mediator between Human and Animal |

ernunnos | Human and Anima|

x^l!!^ Mediator between ^J?.?" Tame T ....... W d A . . Tame and Wild A . .

_Animal_||_||_Animal_

Fewer symbols are found in the image from La Celle-Mont-Saint

Jean, but the system is still relatively complex. In one hand we find a

bow, which is connected with the wild and animals, and in the other a

billhook, connected with the tame and plants.

Table 3: La Celle-Mont-Saint-Jean

Bi"hook: I Mediator between I * I*m* Three Pairs AWlld. Plant , ?_? Animal

Nurturing || ofOPPOS'tes | p^ealing In these three representations, then, we find a complex system of images,

representing balanced opposites on each side of an image who contains

opposites within his very self, with Cernunnos serving as mediator

between opposites, both externally and internally. This is, then, is his role, a god who reconciles opposites.

This view of Cernunnos sheds light on another enigmatic deity, the

tricephalous. The areas in which these gods were worshipped were

essentially the same. (See maps 12, 13, 14 in de Vries, 1961; 159, 164, and 168). Because of this, their worshippers were also likely to have been

the same.

98




Fig. 6. Tricephalous from Soissons

There is strong evidence for a close relationship between the two. In the case of the pillar from Soissons, this is indicated by there being the head and beginning of the body of a ram-headed serpent beneath it (as well as a

rooster, a symbol of Mercury, tying that deity in as well.) There are as

well a number of representations in which the two are conflated, such as on a planetary vase from Bavay (Pettazzoni, 1949; MacCana, 1983, 44), a

relief from Bolards (Duval, 1981, 151), and statues from Autun and Condat.

In the case of the latter two, the antlers are removable. This has been

interpreted by some (e.g. Green, 1981, 401) as indicating the possibility of seasonal rituals, in which the antlers of Cernunnos were added and removed so as to correspond to the pattern of deer in nature. This would

only have been possible for the Condat stature, however; the Autun statue

(as well as the one in Sommerecourt, which also has antler holes) possesses traces of solder in the holes. In other words, the antlers were

permanently soldered in. In the case of the Autun statue, the use of natural antlers is ruled out by its size (18.5 cm). A more parsimonious explanation is that making statues in the round with antlers that aren't

99



CERNUNNOS

detachable is a difficult operation, likely to fail by the breaking of the antlers, either in the carving or after (a fate which befell the La Celle

Mont-Sainte-Jean statue at some point), and, in the case of stone figures, requiring a large amount of stone, much of which would simply be

wasted.

The three heads of a Gaulish tricephalous (fig. 6) aren't spread equally about the figure; rather, one looks forward and one to each side.

This is, of course, an obvious way of depicting a tricephalous in relief, such as on the planetary vase, but the Autun and Condat three-dimensional

images are also depicted in this way. At Autun, this is made clear by the two heads that look to the side being much smaller than the one which faces forward, while at Condat it is the center head which wears a tore and

has antler holes. Rather than the tricephalous having three individual

heads, then, it has one primary one which faces forwards, and two

secondary ones which face left and right. The tricephalous, identified in

part with Cernunnos, is therefore the god who looks both ways; i e., the

god who sits between, a god who unites opposites, and a god of bi

directionality. It is easy to see how a deity with the nature of Cernunnos as I have

set forth here might be spiritual satisfying. However, all people, including sailors on the Seine, have other, more worldly concerns, and any deity that

does not address them in some way is unlikely to be worshipped. It is

therefore necessary to ask what role Cernunnos could have played both in

society and the life of the individual. Lacking texts, and even generally the context for our images, we can only investigate whether Cernunnos

can be associated with other deities whose roles are better understood. The

obvious place to look for equivalent deities is, of course, the interpretatio romana. Before turning there, however, I would like to deal with an

image from the Indus valley civilization which is often compared to that of Cernunnos on the Gundestrup cauldron.

This seal, from Mohenjo-Daro, a city of the Indus Valley civilization, and dated to the second millennium BCE (Taylor, 1992, 89), shows a man

with growths from his head sitting in a cross-legged position surrounded

by animals (MacCana, 1970, 38). We have already seen, from the case of

the ram-headed serpent, that the distance in time and space between the

two does not permit us to rule out a connection out of hand. There are,

100




however, significant differences between the two that make any such connection highly unlikely.

There are first aspects of each which are lacking on the other. The most typical attributes of Cernunnos, the tore and the ramheaded snake (or any snake at all), are absent from the seal. The horns on the head of the

figure on the Indus Valley seal can easily be seen not as horns growing from his head, but as parts of a headdress. In fact, since they join seamlessly into the fan-shape between them, they are not actually two horns. (It is particularly ironic that the triplicity ofthe headdress is used by some Indologists to identify the figure as a proto-Siva (Sir John Marshall, referenced in Sullivan, 1964, 119), while Celticists are using the two horns to identify it with Cernunnos.)

Even more damaging to the theory of an identity between the two is that the figure on the seal is most likely female. Herbert Sullivan (1964, 119) has argued strongly that what has been identified by some as a

phallus is in fact a decoration hanging from the figure's waistband, and that such waistbands are in the Indus Valley found only on females.

Further, the figure on the seal wears armlets, which are also found only on

female figures. With the absence of the important characteristics of

Cernunnos, and the identification of the Indus Valley figure as female, the similarities between the seal and the Gundestrup Cernunnos are seen to be

merely superficial. Such superficial similarities may have been enough, however, for an

image of this type, not necessarily directly from India itself, but from a culture between India and Thrace, to have served as a model for the artistic form of the Gundestrup panel. A search for such intermediates is a task for art historians, particularly those specializing in the art of the

steppes, but since such templates are unlikely to have been relevant to the

religious meaning of Cernunnos (just as in the case of the ram-headed

serpent), I will not deal with the question any further here.

However, comparing Cernunnos with deities from the Indo-European world is more legitimate, so as to determine if he has a place in the

religious systems of those cultures rather than being uniquely Celtic. The first place to work is obviously in the interpretatio romana, looking at both deities that accompany him and deities with whom he is conflated. (I have already noted the name of "Jupiter Cernenus," However, since, as

101



CERNUNNOS

noted, the name is not accompanied by any defining characteristics, this

deity will not be considered here.) On the "Cernunnos" block from Paris, he is accompanied, on his right and the opposing side, by the Dioscuri. On his left is the Gaulish Smertullos, shown killing a snake with a club. The Dioscuri are not otherwise found with him, however, so nothing more can be said.

Cernunnos is shown twice with Hercules, on the back of the statuary group from Saintes and on a lost altar from Le Chatelet (Bober, 1951, 51; C6), known only from two nineteenth century drawings, on one side of which was a standing figure with a purse who has two things extending from his head. (The other two faces show Victory and a goddess with an

open purse in one hand and coins in the other.) Bober is inclined to see Cernunnos here; however, in light of our only knowing of this piece from two drawings, the execution of which could well have been influenced by

what the artists wanted the image to show, it is impossible to be sure that this represents Cernunnos.

I see two possible reasons that Hercules might have been connected with Cernunnos. First, Hercules was seen as, among other things, a killer of serpents (e. g. that of the Hesperides, which we have already seen on

the Lyon cup), and the grasping by Cernunnos of the ram-headed serpent could have been seen as a similar act. Bober (1951, 31) would identify the Smertullos from Paris with Hercules as well. Second, Hercules was, because of his travels on his labors, a patron of merchants, such as the sailors on the Seine would have been.

Cernunnos is accompanied by Apollo three times, on the two reliefs from Reims and that from Vendeuvres. On both of the first two he is

shown to Cernunnos' right, with Mercury to his left; he is also on

Cernunnos' right at Vendeuvres. The image on the side of the block to

Cernunnos' right is destroyed, but it has been suggested, quite reasonably, that it was originally of Mercury, as at Reims (Bober, 1951, 51). If so, all three depictions of Apollo would put him to Cernunnos' right, with

Mercury on Cernunnos' left. This would indicate that Apollo is not

particularly associated with Cernunnos, but only in opposition to Mercury. I have explained the reason for this grouping above, and see no reason to

revise my opinion.

102




Bober suggested identifying Cernunnos with Pluto (44). She based this on the later Romanized images showing him bearded and balding (Reims and Paris), which is a typical way of showing Pluto, and the presence of the rat at Reims; placed where it is, it would seem to place Cernunnos underground. Further, when discussing the Saintes grouping she suggested that the smaller figure to the goddess's left should be identified as a subsidiary goddess, making the three images as a whole

likely to represent Pluto, Ceres, and Proserpina. While these arguments are reasonable, it does not mean that we have to equate Cernunnos with

Dis Pater, lord of the dead, but rather with Pluto, god of wealth, which, as

we have seen, is certainly one aspect of Cernunnos.

The deity most commonly depicted with Cernunnos is Mercury. We

have seen him twice at Reims, and possibly at Vendeuvres, as well as on

the Lyon cup. Even more important, Mercury is himself depicted several

times in Gaul in ways connected with Cernunnos. We thus find several

images of Mercury cross-legged (Bober, 1951, A9; Benoit, 1969, fig.

143). The wings on Mercury's petasos are sometimes represented as

virtually horns (e.g., at Staufenberg; Benoit, 1969, fig. 145). In at least one case, at Clermont, the appearance is strongly one of antlers. There are as well several images in which Mercury is accompanied by a ram-headed

serpent (Bober, 26). We have seen that this serpent is not unique to

Cernunnos, and a connection with it could have been suggested by the snakes on Mercury's caduceus; nonetheless, the connection is highly suggestive.

The connections between Cernunnos and Mercury go the other way as well. We have already seen that although the tore remains particularly associated with Cernunnos (even on the heavily Romanized Lyon cup), it

is accompanied or replaced by the purse of Mercury in a number of

images. It is clear, then, that Cernunnos and Mercury were seen by the Gallo-Romans as overlapping, either as identified with or accompanying each other. This raises the question of why. There is a connection with wealth in both cases, but Pluto is also connected with that, and he is barely connected with Cernunnos.

The explanation may come through a suggestion made by Calvert Watkins (1970b) of the possibility of an Indo-European god of exchange and reciprocity. He describes this god as one of bidirectionality, of

103



CERNUNNOS

ensuring the distribution of wealth, and of communicating between the

worlds of the gods and of humanity. The specific deities he links with these are Hermes, Pan, and the Vedic PuSan, with the inclusion of

Mercury stated but not specifically dealt with in detail. Of these, it is

likely that the least familiar will be PuSan, so I will discuss him in greater detail than the others.

PuSan is a god of merchants, those who travel to and fro. Originally,

though, he was a god of domestic animals, flocks, creatures which are

neither wild nor tame, and are kept on the outskirts of inhabited territory, on land neither wild nor tame. As a god of the herds, he is also possessing

(Rig Veda 1.89.6), increasing (1.89.5), and bestowing (1.142.6) of wealth (MacDonell, 1897, 36). As "master of the way" (6.53.1; Watkins, 1970a), he also functions as a psychopomp:

May Pusan carry you from here, the knowing one, none of whose cattle perish, shepherd of the world.

May he lead you to those Fathers.

(10.17.3; after Geldner, 2003)

Pusan is thus a god of go-betweens, of liminal states, of wealth, and of the

journey of the soul. If we now turn back to the classical world, the first deity to draw our

attentions is the Greek Pan, whose name is likely linguistically cognate with "Pusan" (Polome, 1997, 415). While he is often thought of as a god of the wild, he is rather god of the flocks, inhabiting neither wild forest nor tame village and farmland, but the half-wild, half-tame pastures. With

his horns and cloven hooves, he partakes in himself of both the animal and

the human. He is not himself connected with wealth (except insofar as

domestic animals are wealth), but his father Hermes most certainly is.

Hermes is himself a god of the borders, with his cairns or herms marking the edges of properties. And we have already seen that Mercury, the

Roman equivalent of Hermes, is the most common deity depicted with

Cernunnos. I have summarized the shared characteristics of these deities

in Table 4.

104




Table 4: Mercury and Cognates_

Mercury Hermes Pan Pusan Wealth: Wealth: Distribution Wealth: Wealth:

Possessing, Sheep Herds, "Bring Bestowing Prosperity"

Psychopomp Psychopomp Psychopomp

Mediator Mediator between Mediator between up and up and down between up and

down down

Messenger Messenger Messenger of gods of gods of sun

Identified with Identified with Son of Hermes; "Pusan" Hermes Mercury, "Pan" cognate with cognate with

_father of

Pan_"Pusan"_"Pan"_ Roads and "Master of the travellers way, protector

_of travellers

"

Merchants Merchants Merchants

Doors Offered to on threshold

Announcer of Announcer of

sacrifice sacrifice

Goat Goat Goat Goat

Leads bride to Leads bride to groom groom

Borders Borders

Herds, Pastures Herds

Physical deformity: Physical Part goat deformity:

Toothless

Worshiped in Lives in and is caves worshiped in caves

Snakes Snakes

Goes & returns Goes & returns Goes & returns

Ships

Grain Grain (gruel)

105



CERNUNNOS

This evidence indicates at the very least a central and eastern isogloss of a

god of bidirectionality associated with wealth. Many of the characteristics

I list may seem almost obviously connected - a god of roads might

naturally be thought of as a psychopomp. Others, however, are a bit

surprising, such as a connection with goats. Even more interesting, especially for the purposes of this paper, is

that Cernunnos may be added to the group, as is shown in Table 5. (I have

added some characteristics of the earlier deities that gain in importance with the inclusion of Cernunnos.) The table confirms my contention that

Cernunnos is not a god of the wild, but rather a deity connected with one

of the most characteristic elements of culture, namely commerce.

Table 5: Cernunnos Cognates_

Mercury Hermes Pan Pusan Cernunnos Wealth: Wealth: Wealth: Wealth: Wealth: Possessing, Distribution Sheep Herds, Possessing,

Bestowing "Bring Prosperity" Bestowing

Psychopomp Psychopomp Psychopomp Psychopomp:

Between Apollo and Mercury

Mediator Mediator Mediator Mediator between between between between

up and down up and down up and down up and down (tore and snake)

Messenger of Messenger Messenger

gods of gods of sun

Identified Identified Son of Hermes; "Pusan" Accompanied with Hermes with Mercury, "Pan" cognate cognate by, and

father of Pan, with "Pusan" with "Pan" identified with, Mercury

Patron: Patron: Patron: Roads and "Master of the Sailors on Seine travelers way, protector of

travelers

Merchants Merchants Merchants Merchants

106




Table 5: Cernunnos Cognates (cont.)_

Mercury Hermes_Pan Pusan Cernunnos

Doors Offered to on Sits on threshold threshold

_(e.g. Reims)

Announcer of Announcer of

sacrifice_sacrifice_ Goat Goat Goat Goat Goat/Deer

Leads bride to Leads bride to groom groom_

Borders Borders Liminal zone of forest

Herds, Pastures Pastures Herds of cattle and

_deer

Physical Physical Physical deformity: deformity: deformity:

Part goat Toothless_Part deer

Worshiped in Lives in and is Underground caves worshiped in at Reims

caves _

Snakes Snakes Snakes

Goes and Goes and Goes and Looks both returns returns returns ways

_(three heads)

Ships Sailors

Grain Grain (gruel) Grain?

The correspondence of characteristics as given in the table therefore

extends Watkins' list of connected deities into a Celtic culture,

establishing his suggested god of bi-directionality as indeed an Indo

European one. It also explains why Cernunnos was related specifically to

Mercury, since they are not purely gods of wealth (which may come from

under the ground, Pluto's realm), but of wealth created and exchanged

through commerce.

107



CERNUNNOS

In summary, then, although, pace Bober and others, Cernunnos was

considered a god of material prosperity, he was so by means of his nature as a god of the in-between, of bi-directionality, of the reconciliation of

opposites. He was both wild and tame, god of healing and god of death, of the hunter and the hunted, of nature and of culture, and in his very

person human and animal. Under this interpretation, his iconography seems ambiguous because it was meant to be. He is an ambiguous god, and always was. Ambiguity does not conceal his nature; it reveals it.

Illustration sources:

Dangler, Michael, Figure 1.

Bachmann, Dieter A., Figure 2, taken from:

(http://commons.wikimedia.Org/wiki/Image:Gundestrup C.ipg)

Anati, E. (Cf. below, Figure 3, page 86)

Thyssen, Malene, Figure 4, taken from:

(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User/Malene)

Courcelle-Seneuil, J.L., Figure 5, Les Dieux gaulois d'apres les

monuments figures. Paris: 1910. taken from:

(http://c0mm0ns.wikimedia.0rg/wiki/Image:Autel_de_Reims.jpg)

Esperandieu, Emile, 7700, Figure 6. Recueil General des Bas-Reliefs, Statues et Bustes de la Gaule Romaine. Tome Onzieme: Supplements

(Suites). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale. 1937. 7700, p. 35-36.

Works cited:

Anati, Emmanuel. Camonica Valley. New York: Alfred A. Kopf, 1961.

Anderson, Alan O. Tain Bo Fraich. Revue Celtique 24 (1903), 127- 154.

Artamonov, M. I. The Splendor of Scythian Art: Treasures from Scythian Tombs, tr. V. R. Kupriyanova. New York: Frederick A. Praegar, 1969.

Benoit, Fernand. Art et Dieux de la Gaule. France: Arthaud, 1969.

108




Bergquist, Anders; and Taylor, Timothy. "The Origin of the Gundestrup Cauldron." Antiquity 61 (March, 1987), 10-24.

Bober, Phyllis Pray. "Cernunnos: Origin and Transformation of a Celtic

Divinity". American Journal of Archaeology, 55 (1951), 13 - 51.

Boon, George C. "A Coin with the Head of the Cernunnos". Seaby Coin

and Medal Bulletin, no. 769 (Sep., 1982), 276 - 82.

Coe, Paula Powers. "Macha and Conall Cernach: A Study of Two

Sonographic Patterns in Medieval Irish Narratives and Celtic Art".

Doctoral dissertaion. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Dissertation Express Services, 1995.

Dessau, Hermannus. Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, vol II Berlin:

Weimannos, 1962.

de Vries, Jan. Keltische Religion. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1961.

Duval, Paul-Marie. Cernunnos, le Dieu aux Bois de Cerf. Dictionnaire

des Mythologies et des Religions des Societes Traditionnelles et du Monde Antique, ed. Yves Bonefoy. Paris: Flammarion, 1981.

Esperandieu, Emile. Recueil General des Bas-Reliefs, Statues et Bustes de

la Gaule Romaine. Tome Onzieme: Supplements (Suites). Paris:

Imprimerie Nationale. 1937.

Fitzpatrick, A. P. "The Snetisham, Norfolk, Hoards of Iron Age Torques: Sacred or Profane?" Antiquity (1992), 3958.

Fol, Alexandar, and Marazov, Ivan. Thrace and the Thracians. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1977.

Frey, Otto Hermann. "'Celtic Princes' in the Sixth Century BC", in The Celts. Kruta, Venceslas, et al. (ed.), 80 - 102. New York: Rizzoli, 1991.

Geldner, Karl Friedrich. Der Rig-Veda aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche ubersetzt. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.

(originally published 1951).

109



CERNUNNOS

Green, Miranda. Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art. London:

Routledge, 1981.

-The Gods of the Celts. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble Books, 1986.

Hentze, Carl. "Gods and Drinking Serpents". History of Religions 4:2

(Winter, 1965), 179-208.

Koch, John T. The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe and Early Ireland and Wales. Maiden, MA: Celtic Studies Publications, 1995.

Lincoln, Bruce. "The Hellhound". Journal of Indo-European Studies, 7:3 & 4 (Winter, 1979), 273

- 85.

MacCana, Proinsias. Celtic Mythology. New York: Hamlyn Publishing Co., 1970.

Macdonell, A. A. Vedic Mythology. New York: Gordon Press, 1974

(1897).

Markey, T. L. "Indo-European Etyma for 'Left, Left-Handed' and Markedness Reversal". The Mankind Quarterly 23:2 (Winter, 1982), 183 - 194.

Olmsted, Garrett S. The Gundestrup Cauldron. Collection Latomus 162. Brussells: Revue D Etudes Latines, 1979.

Pettazzoni, Raffaele. "Gaulish Three-Faced God on Planetary Vases". Journal of Celtic Studies 7:1 (Nov., 1949), 35

- 46.

Polome, Edgar C. Pastoral God. In Mallory, J. P.; and Adams, D.,

Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn

Publishers, 1997.

Rankin, David. Celts and the Classical World. New York: Routledge, 1996(1987).

Ross, Anne. Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in Iconography and Tradition. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967.

Sullivan, Herbert P. "A Re-Examination of the Religion of the Indus Civilization". History of Religion, 4:1 (Summer, 1964), 115-25.

110




Strutynski, Udo. "Honi Soit Qui Mai Y Pense: The Warrior Sins of Sir Gawain". In Homage to George Dumezil. Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph No.3 ed. Edgar C. Polome. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man, 1983.

Taylor, Timothy. "The Gundestrup Cauldron". Scientific American, 266:3 (March 1992), 84-9.

Watkins, Calvert. "Language of Gods and Language of Men: Remarks on Some Indo-European Metalinguistic Traditions". Myth and Law

Among the Indo-Europeans. ed. Jaan Puhvel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970a.

-"Studies in Indo-European Legal Language, Institutions, and

Mythology". In Indo-European and Indo-Europeans: Papers presented at the 3rd Indo-European conference at the University of Pennsylvania, ed. Cardona, George; Henry M. Hoenigswald, and Alfred Senn. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970b.

-How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

-"A Celtic Miscellany". Proceedings of the Tenth Annual UCLA

Indo-European Conference, ed. Karlene Jones-Bley, Martin E. Huld, Angela Delia Volpe, and Miriam Robbins Dexter. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man, 1998.

Wuilleunier, P. Goblet en Argent de Lyon. Revue Archeologiquie, series 6 (July

- Sept., 1936), 46- 53.

Whatmough, Joshua. The Dialects of Ancient Gaul. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.

Ill



Documents

Cernunnos Looking a Different Way