Cernunnos

The use of the name this way is common, though not uncontroversial. As many as 25 depictions of the Cernunnos-type have been identified. Though this iconographic group is best attested in north-eastern Gaul, depictions of the god have been identified as far off as Italy (Val Camonica) and Denmark (Gundestrup). Cernunnos has been variously interpreted as a god of fertility, of the underworld, and of bi-directionality. His cult, attested iconographically as early as the 4th century BCE, seems to have been largely unaffected by the Roman conquest of Gaul, during which he remained unassimilated to the Roman pantheon. Cernunnos has been tentatively linked with Conall Cernach, a hero of medieval Irish mythology, and some later depictions of cross-legged and horned figures in medieval art. The Gallo-Roman Pillar of the Boatmen was discovered in 1711 under the choir of Notre-Dame de Paris. It is a religious monument, with depictions of Roman gods (Jupiter, 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).