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The Nautes Pillar, or Pillar of the BoatmenEsus and the Nautes Pillar While in Paris in November of 2005, I went to the Musée de Cluny to see a god. We went in and found him in the Frigidarium (the Musée de Cluny is built on an old Roman bath house)Esus I was, I admit, in awe. I wandered around the pillar, taking pictures of the other faces. Tarvos Trigaranus, The bull with three cranes Vulcan | Jupiter The plaque for the Esus block of the Pillar I walked around taking video of the entire piece, so I could remember exactly how it went together:
I then went in for some closer pictures of Esus and Tarvos Trigaranus: Esus Top | Bottom Normal view | Red filter Tarvos top The Three Cranes I next wandered over to block four, the only known inscription of the word "Cernunnos": Cernunnos, Only "ERNVNNO" remains legible. Note the beard, the torcs, and the antlers on which they hang Around the corner from Cernunnos was a guy called Smertios, possibly a Hercules sort of guy, and seems vaguely identified with that Roman deity. Smertrios (last part of this name recostructed) Around the corner again, we find Castor and Pollux: Castor | Pollux I headed over to block 1, and started snapping pictures of that block, finding with this pair of paired divinities: "Venus" and another deity | "Mars" and a female deity Also on that pillar, were these two: "Mercury" and a female divinity | "Fortuna" and another deity Block 2 held the following reliefs: The Nautes (sailors), no inscription | Men in arms, [EURISES] is the inscription Depicting the ceremony of dedication | The dedication of the Pillar The dedication reads as follows: TIB[ERIO] CAESARE AUG[USTO] IOVI OPTUMO MAXSUMO NAUTAE PARISIACI PUBLICE POSIERU N[T] This translates, roughly, as follows: "[Under the reign of] Tiberius Ceasar Agustus, to Jupiter, the very good, the very great, the sailors of the territory of the Parisii place this [monument] for the people." My Latin is a bit rusty, but that's close. Anyone want to make a better stab at it than I did? I also snapped a picture of the explanation they had on the wall: Of course, it's in French I admit that I stood rooted to the floor for a good amount of this. I did not touch the relief, though I very much wanted to. In fact, there was nothing I wanted more. Meghan asked to snap a photo of me with the pillar, so that everyone could see what the size was. I stand 6'4" tall. Me and Esus, together at last Satisfied, more or less, with the experience (I admit I wanted to just stand there a while longer, but we had a plane to catch), we headed out. Newest stuff:
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