Sad how many cultures were wipeout by the Christian Catholic church back in the days. The stigma of their sins cannot be erased as how many times they want to reshaped history in their own beliefs.
In the Neil Gaiman book “American Gods” ,there’s a whole chapter about a commerce god whose name nobody can remember. Since you brought up the whole point about how Cernunnos just stands for “the horned one” and isn’t the god’s real name, it makes me think that the nameless god from that chapter was “Cernunnos”. So thank you for clearing up that mystery!
It is Pan the god of the wild, son of Hermes/mercury. Hermes doesn't have horns and not hoofs, his son though does and Pan's face carvings are similar to those fund of Cernunnos all over europe.
Thank you for this. There are too many videos presenting Cernunnos as if he was a DnD god in a fantasy setting. They have fantastical imagery as if that's historical information. You put it perfectly when you mentioned modern interpretation.
In my culture (trinidadian) we have someone named papa boios. He's the old man of the Forrest. Amazing how some folktales are so similar. Down to the body is similar!
Now I see where the idea of my favorite Daedric Prince Hircine came from I've always been fascinated with Mythology since I was a kid this video made me proud that I have Celtic Ancestry on my mom's side of my Family
The recognition you deserve is for people to stop thinking you're a god of nature and start appreciating you as the celtic god of Death and Rebirth. Literally the same modern people who decontextualized and reinterpreted Cernunnos as a god of "Nature" (a concept that the ancient celts did not even have, to our best knowledge; everything is natural to them) also wonder why the Celtic pantheon somehow lacks a god of Death....
@@EidolonSpecus Calm down. Are Death and Rebirth not part of Nature? The Horned God, as "god of hunting," knows the secrets of life and death; he IS Death. Death is part of Nature!
He was a Gaulish God and as we all know, Welsh and Gaulish were very similar. Curn means ‘horns ‘ and ‘un’ means one… So the direct translation is ‘Horned one’ but there is no mention of him in the Mabinogion,so he wasn’t featured in later Brythonic Mythology
He's Celtic in origin, which predates Gaelics and the Welsh. I know because its my ancestry. Gaelic culture arose and came to be when the Celts and Scandinavians merged, via Somerled. Then you have the Romans, Normans and Saxons, and others, who were groups of people who migrate, mated and merged, creating newer groups of peoples. The Welsh consider themselves modern Celts, but they follow them. "Gaul" was a Roman name for the Celts. Some speculate that Cernunnos is a variation of the Germanic Wotan, who is another variation of Odin (Nordic), which can be found as far as South America with Votan. Gods culturally cross over; example; Lugh is Hermes (Greek) who is also Thoth (Egyptian) and Nab (Babylonian) The names and terms you're using appeared further along the timeline of history, but during the earliest days the Celts occupied Great Britain, France, and Germany, then expanding outwards into Anatolia and as far as the Gobi Desert with the Tocharian Peoples. The Celts may even be the basis for India's ancient ideas of the "Aryans", signified by the migration, description of and the use of blue body paint, of the Celts.
There are some who believe that Finn Mac Cumhaill of Irish fenian mythology was an interpretation or a reincarnation to a degree of cernunnos. Depends on who you ask.
@@Thunor93 No. Pan is a horned god. Cernunnos is an antlered god. Antlers are not horns, their symbolism is completely different. Cernunnos is analogous to Pluto/Hades, not Pan, starting with ancient Roman and Greek authors who literally wrote about how the Gauls worshipped Pluto and Hades; and corroborated by the fact that the same Gauls who worshipped Cernunnos switched to worshipping the Gallo-roman Dis Pater/Pluto during/after the romanization of Europe.
@@Thunor93 Most current celticists in academia now think that Cernunnos was a psychopomp god of death, the underworld, and rebirth; not a god of "nature". The "god of nature" thing is mostly due to modern reinterpretations wanting to decontextualize and erroneously assimilate Cernunnos into the greco-roman Pan. But Cernunnos is an *_antlered_* god, not a "horned god" (the difference is important). He also was depicted as just a regular humanoid in a medidative pose wearing either a tunic and pants _(never with hooves)_ or textile armor/gambeson, and holding works of advanced "artificial" metallurgy such as torcs. He just happened to have antlers on his head, because it symbolized seasonal changes and death/rebirth; because antlers drop and regrow yearly while horns do not. We can conclude this from various historical and archaeological sources. But firstly from literally the same people (gallo-romans) who used to worship the gaulish Cernunnos before the romanization of Europe and who just still kept worshipping him for a long time as _Dis Pater,_ the (sometimes-still-antlered) gallo-roman god of the underworld, seasonal changes and the cycle of death and rebirth. Greco-romans saw him as an analogue to Pluto/Hades, not Pan. And romans who were contemporary to the conquests and colonization of the continental celts also attributed Cernunnos to Dis Pater from the start, claiming that the transalpine gauls worshipped him as a god of death and the underworld, similarly to how italian celts (cisalpine gauls) worshipped Pluto/Dis Pater like romans did. The main difference is that the celts had still kept the proto-indo-european beliefs in cyclical reincarnation, so their "god of death" was also the god of rebirth, and since death and birth are basically everywhere, the greco-roman gaze saw that as an association with a concept of "nature" that the celts wouldn't really have had, as far as we can tell. Celts didn't have a concept of "nature" as opposed to "non-nature", as far as we know. Their apparent belief that everything is ontologically authentic (i.e., _everything_ is natural, even human crafts like metallurgy) is typical with ancient indo-european cultures that had a cyclical concept of material existence. Technology and industry would just be human nature for ancient celts; it's just what humans do; like how beavers build dams and bees make hives. Cernunnos was indeed depicted "surrounded" by non-human animals a few times, but they generally don't seem to interact with him in any way and are apparently just _there._ It may be to illustrate that all living things a born and die, but that's a bit of a stretch; we have no idea what it means but we do know that it doesn't mean that Cernunnos was a god of the hunt; otherwise he'd more likely be hunting those animals (which he is _never_ depicted as doing) instead of sitting in a meditative pose.
I've never heard of Curnunnos before today. I know nature is not always about good or Evil, it just is and about balance. However sometimes it is about good or evil. For example, most people who don't know Curnunnos would think he's a Windego or similar to Baphomat, and therefore evil.
Good that you're starting to learn about Celtic mythologies, but unfortunately most of this video is kinda wrong. To be fair to the video's creator though, most of what you can find online about Celtic mythologies _is_ either outdated or just literally made-up/extrapolated; and rigorous sources are extremely scarce outside of obtuse academic texts. Most current celticists in academia now think that Cernunnos was a psychopomp god of death, the underworld, and rebirth; not a god of nature. Ancient celts had no concept of "nature" as opposed to "non-nature" or "artificial"; everything was natural to them, from mines to forges to dams, it's just what humans naturally do. The "god of nature" thing is mostly due to modern reinterpretations wanting to decontextualize and assimilate Cernunnos into the greco-roman Pan to make him fit aesthetically with the "horned god" archetype. But Cernunnos in antiquity was associated with Pluto/Hades, not Pan. Cernunnos is specifically an _antlered_ god, not a "horned god" (the difference is important). He also was depicted as just a regular humanoid in a medidative pose wearing either a tunic and pants (never with hooves) or textile armor/gambeson, and holding works of advanced "artificial" metallurgy such as torcs. He just happened to have antlers on his head, because it symbolized seasonal changes and death/rebirth; because antlers drop and regrow yearly while horns do not.
Cernunnos give us a glimpsed to an unknown world far in the past. Most people easily accept the conventional mainstream history as what modern historians and experts said otherwise. But sometimes there are things that are not part of this modern build-up model that people believed so. The horned god may be one if not the oldest known concept of a god that is long before the dawn of Mesopotamian civilization. Even old as far in prehistoric times where primitive humans or even Neanderthals the first that give birth the concept of deity/deities.
As a Lette, I can assure you that my tribe’s God has been entirely forgotten after 800 years. But it was probably some forest bloke who demanded blood sacrifices. Good times!
@Joe Alexander among continental Celts it may not have been a prohibition so much as the fact that Lvgvs had many "heads" or faces/aspects. People may just have specified which aspect of Lvgvs they were refering to. Lvgvs in Europe was a "shapeshifter" deity sometimes considered analogous to a prototypical version of what later became the norse Loke, but also shares many aspects with what later became Woden, being a mostly good-intentioned trickster who was worshipped as a sovereign or kingly/paternal figure in most Celtic pantheons; and who had companion ravens that served as his kingly envoys.
I also thought that the Green Man came about from an older God and your explanation putting together Cernunnos with other Gods into a line coming down through time is awesome because it make sense. Gods evolve because the people that believe in them change, over time as the people's needs of that God change so does the Gods Attributes change not over night, but over decades, generations. We can plainly see this as a fact with the Christian faith today, it is not practiced the same exact way today as is was in the beginning. I say that as a good thing, if things don't change they stop growing, they become stale and die off. Religion is no different, as time goes by we ha e incorporated the Christmas tree, Easter eggs, etc. They were not there in the beginning but we have them now, it does not make the Religion itself weaker but in fact makes it stronger because it brings in more people, it brings people from different cultural groups together for a common purpose, the teaching of the faith. So having Cernunos being a masculine nature God at the start and down the line you end up with the Green man is nothing short of amazing to me, thank for the video👏👏👏👏👏
@@djantouahmed7319 Exactly, the culture in which the religion is practiced reforms the religion to its members taste. The same religion is not necessarily practiced the same exact way in two different places. And over time the small changes lead to the two groups having two separate versions of the same religion. And let's not start with symbolism because we all know the same symbol displayed in one culture will have a totally different meaning in another.
@@MADSAHAD the eggs and bunnies are Celtic symbols of fertility and the yule tree being of Scandinavian origin used as fuel for fire over the 12 coldest and darkest days of the year marking the midpoint of winter and the coming of the planting season. Alternatively the yule tree being decorated with red and white ornaments comes from the Sami tribe and their veneration of Fly agaric mushrooms, being used in their religious practices.
People are afraid of what they don't understand and would think it's an evil monster or demon. But if you show it respect, you could learn to understand it and who knows how much more. 💀🦌
There are aspects of the God Odin that are similar/shared with this God. For one, the "wild hunt". Death (Odin is sometimes referred to as "Valfader or Valnir". "Val-" meaning death). And if you look at depictions of Odin from Germania (1st-5th cntr) or Anglo-Saxon England or Vendel era Scandinavia he is depicted with horns (though it is believed to be in helmet form). Point is, i think the "horned God" motiff was spread widely thru the indo-European world and lasted right up until the forced conversions of christianity.
You're right that the Horned God motif is very common, but it does not really apply to Cernunnos. Cernunnos is mostly a Gaulish deity and Gaulish polytheisms were more closely analogous to earlier indo-european-derived pantheons. For example, according to ancient Greek and Roman accounts he was analogous to Pluto and Hades in the greco-roman world, not Pan. Cernunnos has antlers, not horns. Antlers are a symbol of death and rebirth, unlike permanent horns. Cernunnos in ancient celtic religion was a psychopomp god of death, rebirth, the underworld, and seasonal changes. If there was to be a single Celtic pantheon, he'd fill the niche of god of Death and the Underworld, specifically. More Hades than Hermes.
Cernunnos has antlers, not horns. You're right that the Horned God motif is very common, but it does not really apply to Cernunnos. Cernunnos is mostly a Gaulish deity and Gaulish polytheisms were more closely analogous to earlier indo-european-derived pantheons. For example, according to ancient Greek and Roman accounts he was analogous to Pluto and Hades in the greco-roman world, not Pan. Antlers are a symbol of death and rebirth, unlike permanent horns. Cernunnos in ancient celtic religion was a psychopomp god of death, rebirth, the underworld, and seasonal changes. If there was to be a single Celtic pantheon, he'd fill the niche of god of Death and the Underworld, specifically. More Hades than Hermes.
@@EidolonSpecus Cern, and variants, literally means horn - it's where we get the word unicorn, among others. At some point, at least in English, it changed to hern(e) or horn. Cernunnos does have antlers, not horns, which is notable, but the word still literally means "horned one". It's entirely possible that the people who called him that didn't see as much significance in the difference as you do. (Also, if we're discussing the roles of the gods, Hermes was a psychopomp as well)
@@MsStBoom You're correct about Hermes being a psychopomp. And there are indeed *some* clear similarities between hermes and Cernunnos, which are attested and confirmed by current celticists; it's just not as clear a parallel though. Divine portfolios aren't really directly comparablebetween the two; Hermes is responsible for stuff that is wholly handled by other deities than Cernunnos in Celtic polytheism, and Cernunnos is also heavily associated with stuff that is not associated with Hermes (like actually having responsibility for the underworld, like Hades, instead of just bringing the people there). However for the matter of "Cern", polysemy is a thing and must be accounted for. You can make a conceptual distinction between two things that you still use the same word for; one word can mean significantly different things. I mean, it's entirely possible to conceptualize antlers as being a very specific type of horn. And the point I was mentioning in that regard was that we have archaeological evidence for antlers being seen as different from horns *in context,* by Gauls. And people who encounter antlers and horns on a regular basis (like most pre-industrial people) have much more ground to distinguish those two things than a person living a modern urban lifestyle would (which most archaeologists tend to be). Failing to distinguish horns and antlers is much more likely to be a modern tendency than an ancient tendency.
@@EidolonSpecus I'm not making any claim that Hermes (or Mercury) and Cernunnos are the same god, I'm not a big fan of Roman syncretism. When you compare Northern European gods to the names they were given by the Romans, some of them seem far off the mark to me. (Woden as Mercury, for instance, I understand, Thor as Jupiter I don't.) I'm not even convinced that a depiction of an antlered god found in one part of Europe is meant to be the same god as an antlered god depicted in another part of Europe. No matter how similar they may appear, most religions of the time were very localized.
Lost the back half of my comment somewhere - as somebody from a non-urban background, I consider the difference between antlers and horns to be pretty academic. They have different uses, sure, but they're pretty similar in form when they're attached to the animal.
Mason Medina I'm the same as you man. I never knew this God existed until I learned about Smite and discovered he was part of the Celtic roster in that game. And I have to say, since I started playing around New Years this year, Cernunnos has become my favorite Hunter in the entire game, rivaled only by Skadi.
I believe he is the same being as enki. His symbol was a snake. He also was the Master geneticist. Some of his other names Through the Ages have been Quetzalcoatl, cuckoo con, Osiris and Poseidon. It is true that he was tricked into being the positive counterpart in the Underworld. We live in a universe where polarity and Duality are laws so there had to be a positive and negative in both the underworld and above. He was the positive in the under world. Enki was the positive counterpart to his brother Enlil the sky god whose symbol was the eagle. If you look back through ancient history there has always been a battle between the snake and the eagle. The snake symbolizing the cultures that were peaceful and based on balance and harmony, and the Eagles were empiric and based on domination and War. This war is still being played out today as we can clearly understand by looking back at how the Americas was conquered by Rome. Genocide. A complete takeover of the Mayan civilization that is why we hear stories about Mayans doing human sacrifices. Because they were corrupted by the eagle empire. The evidence is by looking at the flags of certain countries throughout history. Point in case the Mexican flag right at this time depicts the eagle devouring a snake. This was not a flag that originated with the indigenous people.
Interesting. And as others have said, its sad that lost of stories have been lost to history. Could you start outline the text with a black border? It would make it easier to read that way. :)
I feel like that might more likely be Herne the Hunter, though some people argue they are one and the same, if i remember right, the legend of Herne is he was a man who was executed for hunting in the king's forest, and his spirit took to haunting the grounds in a shape that resembles his once prey
Unfortunately maybe. People keep mistaking Cernunnos for a god somehow associated with hunting even though he had little/nothing to do with it in antiquity; Cernunnos was literally assimilated to Pluto/Hades, not Pan or Artemis. Cernunnos was actually the celtic god of death and the underworld, _not_ a "god of the hunt" or "god of the wilds". He was just sometimes depicted around animals in art, possibly because all living things die, not just humans. Cernunnos was also specifically an _antlered_ god, *_not_* a "horned god". Antlers are very different from horns, because unlike horns they are seasonal; they "die" and drop when winter comes, and regrow or are "reborn" for summer. Horns are permanent, while antlers continuously change.
I wonder if they took part of this mythology to create the more modern baphomet? Idk I see similarly in them I just don't know how old the baphomet is in comparison to this one. Either way awesome content👌
Ancient Olive Green Druids had some connections with Cernunnos. I know he is real and crossing your legs and wearing Torcs and meditation 🧘♂️ 🧘♀️ until you take a nap can link you to worlds known and unknown. He lives in the Forest forever.
Why were antlers and horns SO prevalent in pagan and Celtic cultures? Was the elk the main source of food? Did they just think they were very beautiful and mesmerizing creatures? I feel like native Americans also hunted deer extensively and I’m sure there’s plenty of tribes that made antlered head dresses but it just seems to be a uniquely pagan and Celtic look. Maybe I’m just biased to think that though. I’ve always thought the pagan/Celtic imagery was very interesting looking
@@mysticwolfwitch a long time ago before the humans and the mega asteroid lived a race of sentient "dinosauroids" (honestly they were more like reptilian monotremes.) they saw there birds and longed to fly plus it helped avoid predator's so they used science mixed with "magic" (really its just the the electromagnetic field we all emit mixed with the brains "psyche" that makes a frequency interacting with the quantum mechanics of the realm) to alter there genetics so they could fly and have prolonged life. a war struck out between the males and females of the race and over time females were born with feather wings and males were born with "draconic/bat" wings. the people made 2 great cities of the world one for males and one for females the females had a more natural civilization style being one with nature. the males were more reckless wanting to show strength they built a beacon to pull a comet out of the sky and harvest it. (K2 extinction) the female city ""survived" they remaining females took they eggs and everyone to be one with the land helping the planet to grow. however they had rules and if you broke them you were banished and striped of your wings. there were ways to get accepted back into society like becoming a guardian which is you take over an area and let plants to grow for a number of centuries depending on your banishment. this guy is just one of those fellows trying to get home.
I should pray to this god. I've lost my humanity anyway. I feel more like an animal now than an actual human. And i'm associated with wolves as a guy i know call me Wolfman. Literally. He gave me that nickname, so maybe Cernunnos is the god i should pray to
Nah it all leads to the same thing, if you actually want something real (lasting in life/thru death not just for a few hours to feel better) go back to nature and pray to the universal God of heaven 🙏 Yeshua always answers if we listen just might not be the answer we wanted lol
@Chisszaru well that's your decision free will and all and while I see the correlation your making between parents making us and God (apparently only my god but for the sake of reference bear with) making us from the earth is not the same thing, however do as you wish I was just giving my opinion on what seemed like a question lol
I sometime think if people just thought of not destroying defeated cultures stories. Just how much of great stories have been lost because of petty squabble.
His true name is Enki As Cernunnos he made predator and prey lie down together in a quiet way, like.a Christ in nature. This is apt, because Enki was Yeshua too. He was also the much misunderstood Lucifer. Enki is Lucifer is Yeshua. 🔥
It’s sad how many stories have been lost to history. I wish that there was a way we could get a perfect transcription of all the mythological stories
Sad how many cultures were wipeout by the Christian Catholic church back in the days.
The stigma of their sins cannot be erased as how many times they want to reshaped history in their own beliefs.
Not lost to history- persecuted, crusaded and hidden from the people by rich elite families and the Catholic Church.
@@rogueascendant6611 stop blaming others for your mistakes.
@@Onikag 👍👍
@@Onikag also, the imperial roman ban on druidism certainly did not help. 🤷♂️
In the Neil Gaiman book “American Gods” ,there’s a whole chapter about a commerce god whose name nobody can remember. Since you brought up the whole point about how Cernunnos just stands for “the horned one” and isn’t the god’s real name, it makes me think that the nameless god from that chapter was “Cernunnos”. So thank you for clearing up that mystery!
Actually, there is a theory that that is actually Hermes, due to the fact that he runs a casino.
@@dakotacognion5219 lol🤣
It's mercury.
It is Pan the god of the wild, son of Hermes/mercury. Hermes doesn't have horns and not hoofs, his son though does and Pan's face carvings are similar to those fund of Cernunnos all over europe.
@@Thunor93 It's not Pan it's Cernunnos or the Horned one
Thank you for this. There are too many videos presenting Cernunnos as if he was a DnD god in a fantasy setting. They have fantastical imagery as if that's historical information. You put it perfectly when you mentioned modern interpretation.
In my culture (trinidadian) we have someone named papa boios. He's the old man of the Forrest. Amazing how some folktales are so similar. Down to the body is similar!
Shhhh we don't need them knowing. If you get my drift
@@LetoChristloser, acting like like you know anything, psh
Now I see where the idea of my favorite Daedric Prince Hircine came from I've always been fascinated with Mythology since I was a kid this video made me proud that I have Celtic Ancestry on my mom's side of my Family
My time has come. Finally the recognition I deserve
I´m so glad I live in a time where our ancient gods can share the comments box with us mortals, stay strong God brothers
Yes indeed
The recognition you deserve is for people to stop thinking you're a god of nature and start appreciating you as the celtic god of Death and Rebirth. Literally the same modern people who decontextualized and reinterpreted Cernunnos as a god of "Nature" (a concept that the ancient celts did not even have, to our best knowledge; everything is natural to them) also wonder why the Celtic pantheon somehow lacks a god of Death....
Ah oh!! I smell deceit lol
@@EidolonSpecus Calm down. Are Death and Rebirth not part of Nature? The Horned God, as "god of hunting," knows the secrets of life and death; he IS Death. Death is part of Nature!
OMG!! I ASKED FOR THIS!!! ✨🙀🙀🙀✨🖤 THANK YOU!!!
Definitely a mysterious and cool God* one of my favorites from Celtic beliefs*
Cernunnos reminds me of the Neolithic cave painting "The Sorcerer" which has has been theorized to be of a shaman. Perhaps not?
yes friend the root of all horned gods goes back to the neolotic erra
Thank you for covering the Horned One. It is always nice to see our gods in the Celtic sphere getting the respect and energy they deserve.
Quite so!!
Celtic mythology is especially fascinating. Thanks!
These videos are so interesting and the artwork is fantastic. I'm enjoying them immensely!
"THE DRUID?! Who listens to a man wearing an elk skull on his head?"
"Yes dear."
He was a Gaulish God and as we all know, Welsh and Gaulish were very similar. Curn means ‘horns ‘ and ‘un’ means one… So the direct translation is ‘Horned one’ but there is no mention of him in the Mabinogion,so he wasn’t featured in later Brythonic Mythology
He's Celtic in origin, which predates Gaelics and the Welsh.
I know because its my ancestry.
Gaelic culture arose and came to be when the Celts and Scandinavians merged, via Somerled.
Then you have the Romans, Normans and Saxons, and others, who were groups of people who migrate, mated and merged, creating newer groups of peoples.
The Welsh consider themselves modern Celts, but they follow them.
"Gaul" was a Roman name for the Celts.
Some speculate that Cernunnos is a variation of the Germanic Wotan, who is another variation of Odin (Nordic), which can be found as far as South America with Votan.
Gods culturally cross over; example; Lugh is Hermes (Greek) who is also Thoth (Egyptian) and Nab (Babylonian)
The names and terms you're using appeared further along the timeline of history, but during the earliest days the Celts occupied Great Britain, France, and Germany, then expanding outwards into Anatolia and as far as the Gobi Desert with the Tocharian Peoples.
The Celts may even be the basis for India's ancient ideas of the "Aryans", signified by the migration, description of and the use of blue body paint, of the Celts.
He's garlic not gaulish tho the two ancient civilisations did share certain gods but this one is exclusively a British one
Beautiful illustrations chosen to be featured in the video. Very professional. 👍
It’s always nice to learn about Celtic myths.
I always love learning about the more obscure mythologies and seen the connections between most European myth
Reminds me of the god in the movie the ritual, which I've seen recently! Love this channel!!!
Thanks for this wonderful video.
Just to remember, Cernunnos is a gaulish deity, that's the name he was given in Gaul. We don't know how he was known among the britons or the irish.
There are some who believe that Finn Mac Cumhaill of Irish fenian mythology was an interpretation or a reincarnation to a degree of cernunnos. Depends on who you ask.
He is also known as Pan amongst the Greeks and Italy as the son of Hermes. The Norse know him as Mimir the wise.
@@Thunor93
Source
@@Thunor93 No. Pan is a horned god. Cernunnos is an antlered god. Antlers are not horns, their symbolism is completely different.
Cernunnos is analogous to Pluto/Hades, not Pan, starting with ancient Roman and Greek authors who literally wrote about how the Gauls worshipped Pluto and Hades; and corroborated by the fact that the same Gauls who worshipped Cernunnos switched to worshipping the Gallo-roman Dis Pater/Pluto during/after the romanization of Europe.
@@Thunor93 Most current celticists in academia now think that Cernunnos was a psychopomp god of death, the underworld, and rebirth; not a god of "nature". The "god of nature" thing is mostly due to modern reinterpretations wanting to decontextualize and erroneously assimilate Cernunnos into the greco-roman Pan. But Cernunnos is an *_antlered_* god, not a "horned god" (the difference is important). He also was depicted as just a regular humanoid in a medidative pose wearing either a tunic and pants _(never with hooves)_ or textile armor/gambeson, and holding works of advanced "artificial" metallurgy such as torcs. He just happened to have antlers on his head, because it symbolized seasonal changes and death/rebirth; because antlers drop and regrow yearly while horns do not.
We can conclude this from various historical and archaeological sources. But firstly from literally the same people (gallo-romans) who used to worship the gaulish Cernunnos before the romanization of Europe and who just still kept worshipping him for a long time as _Dis Pater,_ the (sometimes-still-antlered) gallo-roman god of the underworld, seasonal changes and the cycle of death and rebirth. Greco-romans saw him as an analogue to Pluto/Hades, not Pan.
And romans who were contemporary to the conquests and colonization of the continental celts also attributed Cernunnos to Dis Pater from the start, claiming that the transalpine gauls worshipped him as a god of death and the underworld, similarly to how italian celts (cisalpine gauls) worshipped Pluto/Dis Pater like romans did. The main difference is that the celts had still kept the proto-indo-european beliefs in cyclical reincarnation, so their "god of death" was also the god of rebirth, and since death and birth are basically everywhere, the greco-roman gaze saw that as an association with a concept of "nature" that the celts wouldn't really have had, as far as we can tell.
Celts didn't have a concept of "nature" as opposed to "non-nature", as far as we know. Their apparent belief that everything is ontologically authentic (i.e., _everything_ is natural, even human crafts like metallurgy) is typical with ancient indo-european cultures that had a cyclical concept of material existence. Technology and industry would just be human nature for ancient celts; it's just what humans do; like how beavers build dams and bees make hives.
Cernunnos was indeed depicted "surrounded" by non-human animals a few times, but they generally don't seem to interact with him in any way and are apparently just _there._ It may be to illustrate that all living things a born and die, but that's a bit of a stretch; we have no idea what it means but we do know that it doesn't mean that Cernunnos was a god of the hunt; otherwise he'd more likely be hunting those animals (which he is _never_ depicted as doing) instead of sitting in a meditative pose.
Thank you it's always nice to hear about Cernunnos 👍
@Martin HampsonHe who is she?I thought i know all Goddess
@Martin Hampson Love of my life i have already and i would never ask no God or Goddess for money
I've never heard of Curnunnos before today. I know nature is not always about good or Evil, it just is and about balance.
However sometimes it is about good or evil. For example, most people who don't know Curnunnos would think he's a Windego or similar to Baphomat, and therefore evil.
Good that you're starting to learn about Celtic mythologies, but unfortunately most of this video is kinda wrong. To be fair to the video's creator though, most of what you can find online about Celtic mythologies _is_ either outdated or just literally made-up/extrapolated; and rigorous sources are extremely scarce outside of obtuse academic texts.
Most current celticists in academia now think that Cernunnos was a psychopomp god of death, the underworld, and rebirth; not a god of nature.
Ancient celts had no concept of "nature" as opposed to "non-nature" or "artificial"; everything was natural to them, from mines to forges to dams, it's just what humans naturally do. The "god of nature" thing is mostly due to modern reinterpretations wanting to decontextualize and assimilate Cernunnos into the greco-roman Pan to make him fit aesthetically with the "horned god" archetype. But Cernunnos in antiquity was associated with Pluto/Hades, not Pan. Cernunnos is specifically an _antlered_ god, not a "horned god" (the difference is important). He also was depicted as just a regular humanoid in a medidative pose wearing either a tunic and pants (never with hooves) or textile armor/gambeson, and holding works of advanced "artificial" metallurgy such as torcs. He just happened to have antlers on his head, because it symbolized seasonal changes and death/rebirth; because antlers drop and regrow yearly while horns do not.
🤔 This is really interesting. There definitely are differences that make sense. Cool, Thanks, 🤓🦌👤
Cernunnos give us a glimpsed to an unknown world far in the past.
Most people easily accept the conventional mainstream history as what modern historians and experts said otherwise. But sometimes there are things that are not part of this modern build-up model that people believed so.
The horned god may be one if not the oldest known concept of a god that is long before the dawn of Mesopotamian civilization. Even old as far in prehistoric times where primitive humans or even Neanderthals the first that give birth the concept of deity/deities.
As a Lette, I can assure you that my tribe’s God has been entirely forgotten after 800 years. But it was probably some forest bloke who demanded blood sacrifices. Good times!
Good times indeed!
Could you please do more videos about the various Irish cycles such as the Ulster cycle?
Think you’ll cover Lugh, Celtic god of the sky and light?
We could do that!
@Joe Alexander among continental Celts it may not have been a prohibition so much as the fact that Lvgvs had many "heads" or faces/aspects.
People may just have specified which aspect of Lvgvs they were refering to. Lvgvs in Europe was a "shapeshifter" deity sometimes considered analogous to a prototypical version of what later became the norse Loke, but also shares many aspects with what later became Woden, being a mostly good-intentioned trickster who was worshipped as a sovereign or kingly/paternal figure in most Celtic pantheons; and who had companion ravens that served as his kingly envoys.
Cernunnos has recently appeared in the acclaimed mobile game Fate Grand Order as the final boss in the sixth lostbelt.
Evil nero roman
Keep these amazing videos coming
Ah...so this is where Blizzard got their idea on Cenarius...very interesting
I wonder if Cernunos helped inspire Hircine from the Elder Scrolls?
A literal Elder God.
Thanks for sharing
I also thought that the Green Man came about from an older God and your explanation putting together Cernunnos with other Gods into a line coming down through time is awesome because it make sense. Gods evolve because the people that believe in them change, over time as the people's needs of that God change so does the Gods Attributes change not over night, but over decades, generations. We can plainly see this as a fact with the Christian faith today, it is not practiced the same exact way today as is was in the beginning. I say that as a good thing, if things don't change they stop growing, they become stale and die off. Religion is no different, as time goes by we ha e incorporated the Christmas tree, Easter eggs, etc. They were not there in the beginning but we have them now, it does not make the Religion itself weaker but in fact makes it stronger because it brings in more people, it brings people from different cultural groups together for a common purpose, the teaching of the faith. So having Cernunos being a masculine nature God at the start and down the line you end up with the Green man is nothing short of amazing to me, thank for the video👏👏👏👏👏
Easter eggs isn't part of the Christian celebration.
@@djantouahmed7319
My friend, the trees are for Christmas,
The eggs are for Easter
@@MADSAHAD those eggs aren't part of the celebration. It isn't even use around the world.
@@djantouahmed7319
Exactly, the culture in which the religion is practiced reforms the religion to its members taste. The same religion is not necessarily practiced the same exact way in two different places. And over time the small changes lead to the two groups having two separate versions of the same religion. And let's not start with symbolism because we all know the same symbol displayed in one culture will have a totally different meaning in another.
@@MADSAHAD the eggs and bunnies are Celtic symbols of fertility and the yule tree being of Scandinavian origin used as fuel for fire over the 12 coldest and darkest days of the year marking the midpoint of winter and the coming of the planting season.
Alternatively the yule tree being decorated with red and white ornaments comes from the Sami tribe and their veneration of Fly agaric mushrooms, being used in their religious practices.
People are afraid of what they don't understand and would think it's an evil monster or demon. But if you show it respect, you could learn to understand it and who knows how much more. 💀🦌
Quite!
Excellent!
I know everything about him what is to know but it's nice to hear it from you also👍😁❤
There are aspects of the God Odin that are similar/shared with this God. For one, the "wild hunt". Death (Odin is sometimes referred to as "Valfader or Valnir". "Val-" meaning death). And if you look at depictions of Odin from Germania (1st-5th cntr) or Anglo-Saxon England or Vendel era Scandinavia he is depicted with horns (though it is believed to be in helmet form).
Point is, i think the "horned God" motiff was spread widely thru the indo-European world and lasted right up until the forced conversions of christianity.
You're right that the Horned God motif is very common, but it does not really apply to Cernunnos. Cernunnos is mostly a Gaulish deity and Gaulish polytheisms were more closely analogous to earlier indo-european-derived pantheons. For example, according to ancient Greek and Roman accounts he was analogous to Pluto and Hades in the greco-roman world, not Pan. Cernunnos has antlers, not horns. Antlers are a symbol of death and rebirth, unlike permanent horns. Cernunnos in ancient celtic religion was a psychopomp god of death, rebirth, the underworld, and seasonal changes. If there was to be a single Celtic pantheon, he'd fill the niche of god of Death and the Underworld, specifically. More Hades than Hermes.
Och how great Cernunnos-Herne the Horned One.I respect the Deity very much 🦌
Cernunnos has antlers, not horns. You're right that the Horned God motif is very common, but it does not really apply to Cernunnos. Cernunnos is mostly a Gaulish deity and Gaulish polytheisms were more closely analogous to earlier indo-european-derived pantheons. For example, according to ancient Greek and Roman accounts he was analogous to Pluto and Hades in the greco-roman world, not Pan. Antlers are a symbol of death and rebirth, unlike permanent horns. Cernunnos in ancient celtic religion was a psychopomp god of death, rebirth, the underworld, and seasonal changes. If there was to be a single Celtic pantheon, he'd fill the niche of god of Death and the Underworld, specifically. More Hades than Hermes.
@@EidolonSpecus Cern, and variants, literally means horn - it's where we get the word unicorn, among others. At some point, at least in English, it changed to hern(e) or horn. Cernunnos does have antlers, not horns, which is notable, but the word still literally means "horned one". It's entirely possible that the people who called him that didn't see as much significance in the difference as you do. (Also, if we're discussing the roles of the gods, Hermes was a psychopomp as well)
@@MsStBoom You're correct about Hermes being a psychopomp. And there are indeed *some* clear similarities between hermes and Cernunnos, which are attested and confirmed by current celticists; it's just not as clear a parallel though. Divine portfolios aren't really directly comparablebetween the two; Hermes is responsible for stuff that is wholly handled by other deities than Cernunnos in Celtic polytheism, and Cernunnos is also heavily associated with stuff that is not associated with Hermes (like actually having responsibility for the underworld, like Hades, instead of just bringing the people there).
However for the matter of "Cern", polysemy is a thing and must be accounted for. You can make a conceptual distinction between two things that you still use the same word for; one word can mean significantly different things. I mean, it's entirely possible to conceptualize antlers as being a very specific type of horn.
And the point I was mentioning in that regard was that we have archaeological evidence for antlers being seen as different from horns *in context,* by Gauls.
And people who encounter antlers and horns on a regular basis (like most pre-industrial people) have much more ground to distinguish those two things than a person living a modern urban lifestyle would (which most archaeologists tend to be). Failing to distinguish horns and antlers is much more likely to be a modern tendency than an ancient tendency.
@@EidolonSpecus I'm not making any claim that Hermes (or Mercury) and Cernunnos are the same god, I'm not a big fan of Roman syncretism. When you compare Northern European gods to the names they were given by the Romans, some of them seem far off the mark to me. (Woden as Mercury, for instance, I understand, Thor as Jupiter I don't.) I'm not even convinced that a depiction of an antlered god found in one part of Europe is meant to be the same god as an antlered god depicted in another part of Europe. No matter how similar they may appear, most religions of the time were very localized.
Lost the back half of my comment somewhere - as somebody from a non-urban background, I consider the difference between antlers and horns to be pretty academic. They have different uses, sure, but they're pretty similar in form when they're attached to the animal.
Real early. Heard of Cernunnos from smite and it was interesting to learn about.
Mason Medina I'm the same as you man. I never knew this God existed until I learned about Smite and discovered he was part of the Celtic roster in that game. And I have to say, since I started playing around New Years this year, Cernunnos has become my favorite Hunter in the entire game, rivaled only by Skadi.
@@kevinnorwood8782 fr Hunter's my favorite so either Cernunnos or Hou Yi for me. Hou Yi got trickshots.
@@masonmedina4780 Hou Yi is one of my three backup Hunter mains, with the other two being Heimdallr and Medusa.
@@kevinnorwood8782 oh cool, I never played heimdall. Been meaning to try it.
Interesting story, most this creature work in under world.
Cernunnos is one of the inspirations for Pat Mills's Sláine Mac Roth from Albion/2000ad comics
I believe he is the same being as enki. His symbol was a snake. He also was the Master geneticist. Some of his other names Through the Ages have been Quetzalcoatl, cuckoo con, Osiris and Poseidon. It is true that he was tricked into being the positive counterpart in the Underworld. We live in a universe where polarity and Duality are laws so there had to be a positive and negative in both the underworld and above. He was the positive in the under world. Enki was the positive counterpart to his brother Enlil the sky god whose symbol was the eagle. If you look back through ancient history there has always been a battle between the snake and the eagle. The snake symbolizing the cultures that were peaceful and based on balance and harmony, and the Eagles were empiric and based on domination and War. This war is still being played out today as we can clearly understand by looking back at how the Americas was conquered by Rome. Genocide. A complete takeover of the Mayan civilization that is why we hear stories about Mayans doing human sacrifices. Because they were corrupted by the eagle empire. The evidence is by looking at the flags of certain countries throughout history. Point in case the Mexican flag right at this time depicts the eagle devouring a snake. This was not a flag that originated with the indigenous people.
St. Patrick travelled on the back of the devil to Ireland and rid the land of snakes.
Sedentary vs. Nomad. Horse vs. Cow.
In Celtic society the only people who could write were the Druids, so it makes sense that there is very little written about cernunnos.
Do Hecate next
look at India's pashupati seal, this old image is similar to the cauldron
Garudanunna - Garununna - Karnunna - Cernunnos
Cernunnos - Pothuraju, Sanathan
Stag - Hiran
Boar - Varaham
Ram - Aries/ Mesha, Kuja
Dog- Sanak
Serpent - Sanath, Sanandan
UA-cam recommended this to me on the day I'm finishing a story about Cernunnos and the many names he's known by. Funny that.
Reminds me of Hircine in the Elder Scrolls series. Anyone else?
THE OPEN EMBODIMENT OF THE NATURAL WORLD IS THIS THING CALLED FREEDOM!
Interesting. And as others have said, its sad that lost of stories have been lost to history.
Could you start outline the text with a black border? It would make it easier to read that way. :)
Unfortunately the software we use doesn't allow for that, but that is a good idea!
I wonder how Cernunnos will be interpreted in the GOW world, given one of the symbols on that missing panel was a Celtic spiral?
Makes me wonder if he inspired Hircine from the Elder Scrolls, The daedric prince of the hunt
That seems pretty likely actually.
I feel like that might more likely be Herne the Hunter, though some people argue they are one and the same, if i remember right, the legend of Herne is he was a man who was executed for hunting in the king's forest, and his spirit took to haunting the grounds in a shape that resembles his once prey
Unfortunately maybe. People keep mistaking Cernunnos for a god somehow associated with hunting even though he had little/nothing to do with it in antiquity; Cernunnos was literally assimilated to Pluto/Hades, not Pan or Artemis. Cernunnos was actually the celtic god of death and the underworld, _not_ a "god of the hunt" or "god of the wilds". He was just sometimes depicted around animals in art, possibly because all living things die, not just humans. Cernunnos was also specifically an _antlered_ god, *_not_* a "horned god". Antlers are very different from horns, because unlike horns they are seasonal; they "die" and drop when winter comes, and regrow or are "reborn" for summer. Horns are permanent, while antlers continuously change.
I wonder if they took part of this mythology to create the more modern baphomet? Idk I see similarly in them I just don't know how old the baphomet is in comparison to this one. Either way awesome content👌
Ancient Olive Green Druids had some connections with Cernunnos. I know he is real and crossing your legs and wearing Torcs and meditation 🧘♂️ 🧘♀️ until you take a nap can link you to worlds known and unknown. He lives in the Forest forever.
*Ave Panna Kernurnos Magna Deo*
I think there is a statue of him in god of war 2018 but i could be wrong
Ngl I wasn't sure how you were gonna finnish that last sentence
Hades, Charon, Shiva, The Ferryman, Dadga, Odin
So this is the thing from that black spot tv show ? On Netflix?
I keep having dreams about thus guy.
It's really weird and I don't know what that means
He's reaching out to you 🙂
maybe you are the chosen one
Why were antlers and horns SO prevalent in pagan and Celtic cultures? Was the elk the main source of food? Did they just think they were very beautiful and mesmerizing creatures? I feel like native Americans also hunted deer extensively and I’m sure there’s plenty of tribes that made antlered head dresses but it just seems to be a uniquely pagan and Celtic look. Maybe I’m just biased to think that though. I’ve always thought the pagan/Celtic imagery was very interesting looking
It's the Amanita Muscaria mushroom,anything is possible in hallucination
Pan the old god.
PAN, THE GREAT GOD IS ALIVE
Listen to "Noon of the Solstice "
Oh you mean Criss cross applesauce .
Herne is not anything to do with cernunos, he was a legend in in the UK and not mentioned until the 16th century
#MthysDecember2022!
❤️
well shesh if you wanted to know more about him and his people i can tell you a ton! fair warning it will sound crazy.
I'd like to know ☺️
@@mysticwolfwitch a long time ago before the humans and the mega asteroid lived a race of sentient "dinosauroids" (honestly they were more like reptilian monotremes.) they saw there birds and longed to fly plus it helped avoid predator's so they used science mixed with "magic" (really its just the the electromagnetic field we all emit mixed with the brains "psyche" that makes a frequency interacting with the quantum mechanics of the realm) to alter there genetics so they could fly and have prolonged life. a war struck out between the males and females of the race and over time females were born with feather wings and males were born with "draconic/bat" wings. the people made 2 great cities of the world one for males and one for females the females had a more natural civilization style being one with nature. the males were more reckless wanting to show strength they built a beacon to pull a comet out of the sky and harvest it. (K2 extinction) the female city ""survived" they remaining females took they eggs and everyone to be one with the land helping the planet to grow. however they had rules and if you broke them you were banished and striped of your wings. there were ways to get accepted back into society like becoming a guardian which is you take over an area and let plants to grow for a number of centuries depending on your banishment. this guy is just one of those fellows trying to get home.
5:57 is that the Fonz
Yeah that guy at minute 3:56
Ive always wondered if the actual story of god was lost along time ago and we just have a lot of fake myths/ people just using "god" for money
So you mean Thranduil is god too?
கருணாஸ்
ரிஷபம்
மிருகசீரிஷம்
#ௐநமசிவாய
Omm Sri Pashupatinathayee Namaah.
Never heard of this guy...
This is a good example of the way the Catholic Church to display the ancient gods as deamons and the Satan.
Why don't you Just come out and say it???... He is PAN!!!
Deer god!
There’s a fantasy book that I read has used this god for its story..but under a different name..WARHAMMER fantasy books..
Which book? I'd like to read it.
"CERN"-UNNOS
Umarak the Hunter?
Do a video on El CHUPACABRA
Chupacabras* english speakers loves to eat the last S XDDD
@@zoazede2098 true my bad lmao, maybe there's one big leader of all the chupacabras, El Jefe if you will
@@megadong2398 XDDD interesting idea! 😹😹😹👍👍
I should pray to this god. I've lost my humanity anyway. I feel more like an animal now than an actual human. And i'm associated with wolves as a guy i know call me Wolfman. Literally. He gave me that nickname, so maybe Cernunnos is the god i should pray to
Nah it all leads to the same thing, if you actually want something real (lasting in life/thru death not just for a few hours to feel better) go back to nature and pray to the universal God of heaven 🙏 Yeshua always answers if we listen just might not be the answer we wanted lol
Why pray to the made when you can skip right to the maker?
@@selliepaddie2066 i'm not a christian
@@selliepaddie2066 why should i pray to my parents?
@Chisszaru well that's your decision free will and all and while I see the correlation your making between parents making us and God (apparently only my god but for the sake of reference bear with) making us from the earth is not the same thing, however do as you wish I was just giving my opinion on what seemed like a question lol
Ah yes a documentary of the legendary pocket monster *XERNEAS* aka the deer deity.
He's also Pluto/Hades though.
I sometime think if people just thought of not destroying defeated cultures stories. Just how much of great stories have been lost because of petty squabble.
I thought it was pronounced “Sir-nuh-nos”?
Looks like an American Skin Walker.
Ptah was one.
His true name is Enki
As Cernunnos he made predator and prey lie down together in a quiet way, like.a Christ in nature.
This is apt, because Enki was Yeshua too.
He was also the much misunderstood Lucifer.
Enki is Lucifer is Yeshua.
🔥
curse stack big chungus spinny boi
Cernunnos sounds an awful like Herne, wonder if they are the same beinh.
☝️👹🤘
Smite
No cause he had really long wheat blond hair
wonder what would archaeologists make of images they dig up...like Hello Kitty or some popular anime of the time...
any Indians here ???? in comments section ???
Christians didn’t attribute the horned god to Satan in order to discredit him, it was because he shares a lot of aspects with Satan.
The pronunciation of his name is killing me lol
Fluffball
Pashupati
Blonde is a feminine blond is a male