Editing Cernunnos (section)

==Name==
===Pillar of the Boatmen===
{{further|Pillar of the Boatmen}}
{{multiple image|
|header=Cernunnos on the Pillar of the Boatmen
|image1=Pilier des Nautes Cernunos.jpg
|caption1=Its present state
|image2=Gaulish deity Cernunnos.jpg
|caption2=18th century drawing
|total_width=400
}}
The Pillar of the Boatmen is a Gallo-Roman carved pillar discovered in 1711 under the [[Choir (architecture)|choir]] of [[Notre-Dame de Paris]]. It is a religious monument, with depictions of Roman gods ([[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]], [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]], and [[Castor and Pollux]]) alongside native Gaulish deities (such as [[Esus]] and [[Smertrios]]), dedicated by a corporation of boatmen from the city of [[Lutetia]] (Roman [[Paris]]). The dedication dates it to the reign of [[Tiberius]] (14-37 CE).<ref name=L14>''[[Recueil des inscriptions gauloises|RIG]]'' II.1 [https://riig.huma-num.fr/documents/PAR-01-01 L-14] via ''Recueil informatisé des inscriptions gauloises''. Accessed on 9 December 2024.</ref> Legends below the images identify the Roman and Gaulish deities by name. In fact, this is the only monument on which Celtic deities are identified by name with captions.<ref name=Altjohann/>{{rp|67–71}}

On one block from the pillar, a frowning, bearded figure is depicted from the shoulder up. His face is human, but his upper head is animal-like: hairless and bulging. Atop his head is a pair of [[wikt:bifid|bifid]] deer's antlers, with two short, pointed extrusions (perhaps ears or bull's horns) between them. A torc hangs on each of his antlers. The lower half of the block is lost, but given its original height, the figure could not have been standing. Therefore (in line with other figures identified as Cernunnos) the panel is often believed to have originally shown him cross-legged.<ref name=L14/><ref name=Vertet>{{cite journal |last=Vertet |first=M. Hugues |title=Observations sur le dieu "Cernunnos" de l'autel de Paris |date=1987 |journal=Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France |volume=1985 |pages=163–177 |doi=10.3406/bsnaf.1987.9155 }}</ref>{{rp|165}}

Above the antlered figure is a one-word legend. When information about the pillar was published in 1711, this legend was reported as "Cernunnos". However, the block is now badly damaged. Many of the letters are only partially visible; the letter "C" is entirely gone.<ref name=L14/> [[Joshua Whatmough]] has gone as far as to say that in its present state "only 'nn' is certain".<ref name=Whatmough>{{cite book |title=The Dialects of Ancient Gaul: Prolegomena and Records of the Dialects |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=1970 |last=Whatmough |first=Joshua |isbn=978-0-674-20280-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/dialectsofancien0000what |url-access=registration }}</ref>{{rp|517}} The reading from 1711 has sometimes been mistrusted. [[Joseph Vendryes]] and Whatmough argue (following the Dacia inscription) that it read "Cernennos".<ref name=Olmsted>{{cite book |title=The Gods of the Celts and the Indo-Europeans |last=Olmsted |first=Garrett S. |date=2017 |edition=Revised |url=https://www.academia.edu/38135817 |location=Tazewell, VA }}</ref>{{rp|335}} {{ill|Françoise Le Roux|fr}} was sceptical about the existence of the final "s".<ref name=LeRoux/>{{rp|324}}

===Possible other attestations===
[[File:Carnonos on RIG I G-224.jpg|thumb|A [[capital (architecture)|capital]] with [[Gaulish]] {{lang|xtg|καρνονου}} or {{lang|xtg|καρνομου}}]]
A [[capital (architecture)|capital]] found in [[Aumes]], France{{efn|''[[Recueil des inscriptions gauloises|RIG]]'' I G-224}} is inscribed with a short [[Gaulish]] text in [[Greek letters]]. [[Michel Lejeune (linguist)|Michel Lejeune]] has interpreted this inscription as a dedication to a god {{lang|xtg|καρνονου}} (translit. {{transliteration|xtg|karnonou}}; in English, "Carnonos"), whom he tentatively connects with the god Cernunnos. However, both Lejeune's reading and his interpretation of this inscription have been contested. Whatmough and [[D. Ellis Evans]] prefer the reading {{lang|xtg|καρνομου}} (translit. {{transliteration|xtg|karnomou}}); and [[Emmanuel Dupraz]] has argued that the inscription states that an object {{lang|xtg|καρνον}} (translit. {{transliteration|xtg|karnon}}) is being offered, rather than giving the name of a god.<ref name=G224>''[[Recueil des inscriptions gauloises|RIG]]'' I [https://riig.huma-num.fr/documents/HER-03-01 G-224] via ''Recueil informatisé des inscriptions gauloises''. Accessed on 9 December 2024.</ref><ref name=Evans>{{cite book |last=Evans |first=D. Ellis |title=Gaulish Personal Names: A Study of Some Continental Celtic Formations |location= Oxford |publisher= Clarendon Press |date=1967}}</ref>{{rp|327}}

A [[wax tablet]] from [[Dacia]]{{efn|{{CIL|3|p 0924,01}}}} records a decree of 167 CE dissolving one {{lang|la|collegi(i) Iovi Cerneni}} ("[[Collegium (ancient Rome)|collegium]] of Jupiter Cernenus"), a funerary association.<ref>{{cite web |title=[69] Decree Dissolving an Association (167 CE) |url=http://www.philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations/?p=3231 |access-date=9 December 2024 |date=13 December 2018 |website=Associations in the Greco-Roman World |first=John S. |last=Kloppenborg }}</ref> David Fickett-Wilbar identifies this as a reference to Cernunnos, though he comments that it "tells us nothing about the deity other than his name".<ref name=FickettWilbar/>{{rp|80–81}} [[Theodor Mommsen]] suggested the byname {{lang|la|Cerneni}} derived from the name of nearby [[Corna (Lycaonia)|Korna]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=[[wikisource:de:RE:Cernunnos|Cernunnos]] |encyclopedia=Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft |volume=III,2 |date=1899 |pages=1984 |last=Ihm |first=Max |location=Stuttgart |publisher=Metzler }}</ref> a hypothesis that has been followed my Michael Altjohann.<ref name=Altjohann>{{cite book |last=Altjohann |first=Michael |chapter=Cernunnos-Darstellungen in den gallischen und germanischen Provinzen |pages=67–79 |date=2003 |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Noelke |title=Romanisation und Resistenz in Plastik, Architektur und Inschriften der Provinzen des Imperium Romanum. Neue Funde und Forschungen |location=Mainz |publisher=von Zabern }}</ref>{{rp|70}} Le Roux is also sceptical that it is a reference to Cernunnos, as she thinks the ''[[interpretatio romana|interpretatio]]'' of Cernunnos as the Roman god [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]] is unlikely.<ref name=LeRoux/>{{rp|328}}

A bronze [[tabula ansata]] from [[Steinsel]], [[Luxembourg]],{{efn|{{AE|1987|772}}}} dating between the late 2nd and early 3rd century CE, is dedicated to one {{lang|la|Deo Ceruninco}} ("god Cerunincus"). Though close in name to Cernunnos, the editors of ''[[L'Année épigraphique]]'' argue that the form of the name entails that it must be another (probably [[Treveri]]an) god.<ref name=AE>{{cite book |chapter=No. 772 (Trois Gaules) |title= L'Année épigraphique 1987 |date=1990 |pages=220 |publisher=Presses Universitaires de France |jstor=25607525 }} = {{cite book |chapter=No. 542 (Trois Gaules) |title= L'Année épigraphique 1989 |date=1992 |pages=167–168 |jstor=25607598 |publisher=Presses Universitaires de France }}</ref>

===Etymology===
The earliest etymology, proposed by [[Alfred Holder]], connected Cernunnos's name with a Celtic word for horn, a [[reflex (linguistics)|reflex]] of [[proto-Indo-European]] *{{wikt-lang|ine-x-proto|ḱerh₂-}} ("horn, hoof"). Hence, Holder analysed the name as "The Horned God". This etymology has the advantage of a close link with Cernunnos's iconography. However, [[Ernst Windisch]] and [[Leo Weisgerber]] pointed out that [[Indo-European ablaut|ablaut form]] of the proto-Indo-European root in Celtic is {{lang|cel-x-proto|karno}}{{efn|The presence of this ablaut form in proto-Celtic is attested by two Gaulish words for trumpets ({{lang|xtg|karnon}} and ''[[karnyx]]''), [[Middle Welsh]] {{lang|wlm|carn}} ("hoof"),  [[Old Breton]] {{lang|obt|carn}} ("horse's hoof)", and perhaps [[Old Irish]] {{lang|sga|cruë}} ("hoof"). Semantically similar words with an o vowel (such as two Insular words both meaning horn, Old Irish {{lang|sga|corn}} and Welsh {{lang|cy|corn}}) are probably loanwords from the Latin ({{lang|la|cornu}} for "horn"), but Gaulish toponyms showing the form might hint at the presence of the reflex {{lang|cel-x-proto|korno}} ("horn") in proto-Celtic.<ref name=Nussbaum>{{cite book |last=Nussbaum |first=Alan |date=1986 |title=Head and Horn in Indo-European  |url=https://archive.org/details/nussbaum-head-and-horn-in-indo-european-1986 |location=Berlin/New York |publisher=Walter de Gruyter }}</ref>{{rp|5–6}}<ref name=Matasovich>{{cite book |first=Ranko |last=Matasović |title=Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic |url=https://archive.org/details/matasovic-etymological-dictionary-of-proto-celtic |volume=9 |location=Leiden / Boston |series=Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series |publisher=Brill |date=2009 }}</ref>{{rp|191}}}} rather than {{lang|cel-x-proto|kerno}}.<ref name=LeRoux>{{cite journal |last=Le Roux |first=Françoise |journal=Ogam |volume=5 |date=1953 |pages=324–329 |title=Cernunnos |url=https://bibliotheque.idbe.bzh/data/cle_63/OGAM_Tradition_Celtique_1953_nA_25-26_.pdf#page=10 }}</ref>{{rp|325}}<ref name=deVries>{{cite book |last=de Vries |first=Jan |title=Keltische Religion |date=1961 |url=https://archive.org/details/keltischereligio0000vrie |url-access=registration |location=Stuttgart |publisher=W. Kohlhammer }}</ref>{{rp|105}}

Weisgerber proposed that the theonym derived from [[proto-Celtic]] {{lang|cel-x-proto|kerno}} ("angle, excrescence"),{{efn|Attested by Old Irish {{lang|sga|cern}} ("angle, corner"), Middle Welsh {{lang|wlm|cern}} ("corner, jaw, cheek, side"), Middle Breton {{lang|xbm|quern}} ("top"), Cornish {{lang|kw|Kernow}} ("[[Cornwall]]").<ref name=Nussbaum/>{{rp|113}}<ref name=Matasovich/>{{rp|215}}}} a reflex of the same proto-Indo-European root.<ref name=deVries/>{{rp|106}}<ref name=Matasovich/>{{rp|203}} Le Roux concurred with Weisgerber; she associated proto-Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|kerno}} with the meaning "top of the head", and argued that Cernunnos's name should be interpreted as "the one who has the top of his head like a deer".<ref name=LeRoux/>{{rp|328–329}} Vendryes suggested that the name was cognate with the [[Old Irish]] word {{wikt-lang|sga|cern}} ("hero").<ref name=Vendryes>{{cite book |title=Féil-sgríbhinn Eóin Mhic Néill: Essays and Studies presented to Professor Eoin MacNeill |editor-last=Ryan |editor-first=John |chapter=Prydain et Britanni |last=Vendryes |first=Joseph |pages=160–166 |location=Dublin |publisher=Three Candles |date=1940 }}</ref>{{rp|162}}