The only evidence that has survived are inscriptions found on various artifacts. Interpretations of his role within Gaulish culture vary from a god of animals, nature, fertility and prosperity to a symbol of authority, strength, unyielding endurance and virility he has also been portrayed as a god of travel, commerce and bi-directionality or associated with crossroads, the underworld and reincarnation, symbolizing the cycle of life and death. Epigraphic evidence ĭue 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. A Gallo-Latin adjective carnuātus, "horned", is also found. Otherwise, variations of the name Cernunnos has also been found in a Celtic inscription written in Greek characters at Montagnac, Hérault (as καρνονου, karnonou, in the dative case). ![]() 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). "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. 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). The root also appears in the names of Celtic polities, most prominent among them the Carnutes, meaning something like "the Horned Ones", and in several personal names found in inscriptions. 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, who notes the instrument's animal-shaped bell. The etymon karn- "horn" appears in both Gaulish and Galatian branches of Continental Celtic. Karnon is cognate with Latin cornu and Germanic * hurnaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *k̑r̥no. The Gaulish form of the name Cernunnos is Karnonos, from the stem karnon which means "horn" or "antler," suffixed with the augmentative -no- is characteristic of theonyms. There are more than fifty depictions and inscriptions referring to him, mainly in the north-eastern region of Gaul. He is believed to have originally been a Proto- Celtic God. ![]() He is usually shown holding or wearing a torc and sometimes holding a bag of coins (or grain) and a cornucopia. In ancient Celtic and Gallo-Roman religion, Cernunnos or Carnonos is a god depicted with antlers, seated cross-legged, and is associated with stags, horned serpents, dogs and bulls. The Cernunnos-type antlered figure or horned god, on the Gundestrup Cauldron, on display, at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen
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