Can I ask about Cernunnus? Why is the rancher killing the wolf in his name? Is it because he was possibly a god of fertility and the rancher wants to kill a threat to his cattle, or is there something else I am missing?
My understanding is Cernunnos was a fertility god, but also with a hunting aspect, similar to Artemis. There's also a (probably incorrect) theory linking Cernunnos to the much-later figure of Herne the Hunter. I was thinking more along these lines, but that's an astute observation, linking the fertility aspect to the cattle's propagation at the expense of the wolves. Oftentimes when writing poems like this I find there to be multiple layers of meaning I wasn't even consciously aware of when putting the words down, so thank you for pointing this out.
Great poem! I felt it…
Can I ask about Cernunnus? Why is the rancher killing the wolf in his name? Is it because he was possibly a god of fertility and the rancher wants to kill a threat to his cattle, or is there something else I am missing?
My understanding is Cernunnos was a fertility god, but also with a hunting aspect, similar to Artemis. There's also a (probably incorrect) theory linking Cernunnos to the much-later figure of Herne the Hunter. I was thinking more along these lines, but that's an astute observation, linking the fertility aspect to the cattle's propagation at the expense of the wolves. Oftentimes when writing poems like this I find there to be multiple layers of meaning I wasn't even consciously aware of when putting the words down, so thank you for pointing this out.
Poor Theia. Thank you for this poem.