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From: Berlant@dynanet.com
Newsgroups: alt.christnet,alt.mythology,alt.religion.wicca
Subject: Re: Horned Moses (Re: Satan VS. Cerunnos (Re: Conversion ( was
 Re: Christian conversion, horned demons, horned gods)
Date: 26 Apr 1996 13:01:09 GMT
Organization: Societas Hermeneuticas
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In article <4lh51a$1rm@Nntp1.mcs.net>, ediamond@mcs.com (Eric Diamond) wrote:
>In article <4l6l2v$d1g_005@dynanet.com>
>Berlant@dynanet.com writes:
>
>> It seems to me that the significance of the horns on the Michaelangelo 
Moses 
>> may be more self-evident than the explanations in this thread have made it 
>
>Well, yeah, it is, actually. In the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrew reads that
>when moses came down from Mt. Sinai, he had a halo around his head. 
The literal Hebrew reads "horns of light".  It was a common misconception
>due to a translation error. 

i was wondering if you'd be kind enough to elaborate on this error.  i can't 
quite see how Heb. "keren" ("horn"), "heela", "halo"; and, "light", "or" would 
have lent themselves to such a misconception_ though the symbols have been 
intimately related to each other in myth and art. 

IT should also be noted that Heb. "keren" ("horn") reveals itself to be a 
variant of the stem "Cer-" of Cerrunnos and of the hypothesized indo-European 
roots ker-, which presumably yielded words for heads and horns_among other 
things.

Finally, there is also an interesting metaphor "to blow one's horn" that may 
have originally been associated with this symbolism_ considering especially 
that a) the shofar is the "horn" that has traditionally been blown as part of 
the Jewish New Year festival, and b) Moses in effect "blew his horn(s)" when 
he came down from the mountain.


> I have actually met people who believe that Jews have horns!

Some of them actually do. I have a Jewish friend that plays trumpet in a local 
orchestra. :-)
>
>Oy. Vey.

Steve Berlant

