THE GUNDESTRUP CAULDRON

by F. Graham Millar
Halifax Centre, RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada)
Website use with permission of the late copyright-holding author and based on the author's significant pioneer article which appeared in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 89, No. 4, Aug. 1995, pp.141-154. [An original graphic from the article above is not included here due to third-party copyright of the photograph. This .gif is from Andis Kaulins. Is it possible that this is the legendary Holy Grail ? - AK].

The Gundestrup Cauldron
Danish National Museum



Another piece of the puzzle is provided by the Gundestrup Cauldron, enabling us to recognize Cernunnos, or Lugh, as the constellation Boötes. The Cauldron, 69 cm in diameter ... was found in a bog at Gundestrup, Denmark, but is considered to have been made in the region of the Lower Danube - a region populated by Celts - whence it probably reached Denmark as booty or by way of trade. For a full description see Davidson (1975). It is plated with silver panels depicting the gods; one in particular enables us to recognize Cernunnos.

The Celts in many cases replicated the gods into different personae, often into trinities. Four panels on the Cauldron depict divinities as busts with arms upraised in the orans position. Some or all of them were probably replications resident in the constellation of Hercules, inheriting from Menat the function of supporting the sky. One of the panels with a figure having upraised arms on the Gundestrup Cauldron is accompanied by the wheel. He was Tyranus whose symbol, Mac Cana says, was the wheel. In my view this is Corona Borealis!

Let us now ask which of the images on the Gundestrup Cauldron might be Lugh, and to what constellation he might correspond.

The central image, the Horned One, is quite arresting. The other images on the panel are the neighboring constellations; subject to artistic license, they are in the right places. Ursa Major is turned around to face the Horned One to express his vassalship. Clockwise from the lower right, the following constellations can be recognized: Leo Major and Minor, Hydra, Boötes, Hercules / Ophiuchus (bearing horns), the Ass (an obsolete constellation), Ursa Minor, Delphinus, and Capricornus.

On comparing the central Horned One with Boötes on the star chart, one sees a compelling likeness: the Buddhic position of the legs, and the torc on his right arm corresponding in position with Corona Borealis; this was also Lugh's sling or Mes Gegra's brain.

Very anciently, the Horned One was resident in the constellation of Menat, which was Hercules plus Ophiuchus. As precession continued, the sky position of Menat ceased to signal the autumnal equinox, so the Horned One moved on into Boötes.

As mentioned earlier, snakes were used to mark important circles on the celestial sphere; for instance, Hydra marked the equator. Around 7500 BC the colure (meridian) of the autumnal equinox was marked by Serpens Caput, the snake in the hand of Menat. By 5000 BC the colure had moved to the staff in the left hand of Boötes.

The maker of the Gundestrup Cauldron depicted the staff as a mythical serpent; it is to be explained as an attribute transferred from Menat. The staff could also be imagined as the upwardly extended left arm. This sky figure was none other than Lugh Lamhfhada, of the Long Arm, who was similar to the Indian god Savitar, of the Wide Hand (Mac Cana 1970).

In the story of How Finn Got His Name, the Long Arm became the fish fork. Therefore, Lugh was a manifestation of the ancient Cernunnos, formerly dwelling in Menat, but later in Boötes. By this time he was called Lugh or Finn.
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