Path: Supernews70!Supernews73!supernews.com!howland.erols.net!news.idt.net!woodstock.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!sandymac.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: sandymac@sandymac.demon.co.uk (Alexander Maclennan) Newsgroups: alt.satanism,alt.magick.tyagi,talk.religion.misc,alt.religion.wicca Subject: Re: Satan and Horned Gods (was Re: Satanic Witch Question...) Date: Sat, 07 Mar 1998 01:27:38 GMT Organization: disorganised Message-ID: References: <6df249$f2n$1@shell.accesscom.com> <#uY6xpkR9GA.104@upnetnews02.moswest.msn.net> <6dh986$9im$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <6dpopn$6nj$1@nnrp1.crl.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: sandymac.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: sandymac.demon.co.uk [158.152.14.157] X-Newsreader: Offlite 0.09 / Termite Internet for Acorn RISC OS Lines: 43 Xref: Supernews70 alt.satanism:87924 alt.magick.tyagi:15013 talk.religion.misc:349889 alt.religion.wicca:115367 Tzimon Yliaster wrote: > > Note that an even older form of the "horned god" is found in > Mohenjo-Daro; this is known in India as "Pashupati", which can translate > either to "lord of beasts" or "lord of bound souls". The sole > representation of Cernunnos currently known, from the Gundestrapp > cauldron, is almost exactly a replica of the figures from Mohenjo-daro, > right down to the position in which he's seated. There are also two > elephants depicted on the cauldron which have not been adequately > explained to date. > The Pashupati cult may date back as far as the late Neolithic period > from available evidence, and in any case pre-dates anything known of > Wotan or Herne by several centuries. > cf. Alain Danielou, "Gods of Love and Ecstacy / Shiva and Dionysos" > Gundestrup is far from being the sole representation of Cernunnos if the name is used for stag horned figures. The name only occurs once, on a representation in the Cluny Museum in Paris and the initial C on that is not now legible. Unlike the Indus figure, Cernunnos is never phallic, though on a very early one from Val Camonica, a worshipper alongside him is decidedly so. Stag horned figures are widespread in continental Europe, in Belgic occupied Britain and in Ireland. For a very full survey of the iconography see PP Bober, Cernunnos, Origin and Transformation of a Celtic Divinity. American Journal of Archaeology 1951. There was a report fairly recently of studies of the Gundestrup Cauldrom and it was suggested that the artist may have been from India. Many of the panels were thought to depict members of the Indian pantheon. The elephants look to me to be the work of someone who had never seen one but had heard a description. I have the article filed away but it is not to hand at the moment. -- Alexander MacLennan sandymac@sandymac.demon.co.uk