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What is the evidence for Cernunnos? | Quelle est la preuve que Cernunnos existait?
Throughout Europe and across time we can find various attestations of a horned
god - usually sitting in a cross-legged position - and yet it is difficult to confirm whether a god Cernunnos really existed. Above all, not every god with horns or antlers was Cernunnos. There is quite a bit of variation... For example:
CERNUNNOS ARCHETYPES | GUNDESTRUP | REIMS | PILLAR OF THE BOATMEN: similaire, mais différent | similar, but different | ähnlich und doch anders...
More evidence to be considered:
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INTERPRETATION | ANTLERS & HORNS | RAMURES & CORNES | GEWEIH & HÖRNER
For the word Cernunnos, cf. Delamarre 2003, p. 106f, s.v. carnon ‘corne, trompe’: Delamarre suggests "dieu cornu, dieu à la corne". Taking into account the Indo-European root ker- ‘to grow’, we can suggest a deity of growth, fertility and rebirth.
The antlers of the stag may be a symbol for the cycle of growth and renewal, which might explain their frequent depiction in Gallo-Roman art. The stag might also have played a role in mythology though its exact function escapes us (there are numerous accounts involving stags in Welsh and Irish mythology), and in Roman times, the stag was represented in various sculptural representations of gods that are not usually associated with it (for example with Vulcanus and
Mercury). Is this a reference to the same Cernunnos myth? It seems that this theonym describes a particular manifestation of a divine being. But like most of the other allegedly "pan-Celtic" deities, epigraphic attestations to Cernunnos are extremely rare. Besides Paris and Montagnac, there is a Deus Cerunincus from Luxembourg, and in Portugal we find Carneus (at Arrayolós and Villavicosa). Otherwise we find allusions to a horned god, like the I.O.M. Corniger (rather than Cornuto) from Montjustin (Vaucluse). Do the various allusions to antlers and stags which we can collect from across Western Europe refer to a single deity or mythical story or are they merely a symbol for the cycle of birth and death? |