Horny Moses

I was intrigued to discover Moses came down from Mount Sinai, not only with Ten Commandments but also flaunting a  pair of magnificent horns on his head. Michaelangelo too, was clearly impressed, sculpting Moses wearing horns that would make a stag proud.  

                                                            Okay, I exaggerate a little

Who else in the ancient world could boast such a fine pair of horns, or to put it another way, what do Alexander the Great and Moses have in common—other than horns? 

My hopes that I’d discovered a Von Daniken style link between ancient leaders and alien intruders were almost immediately dashed. In the case of Moses, it amounted to a simple mistranslation. The ancient Hebrew script for horn and shining are almost identical and so easy to mistake. (garan for shining face, geren for horn. To confuse things further, the vowels were usually omitted) Instead of coming down from Sinai with horns, he simply came down with a shining face. So, the theory goes—largely due to St Jerome who translated the bible into Latin using the wrong ‘grn’ and giving Moses a pair of horns. Others offer more subtle interpretations. 

In the case of Alexander, it was sheer opportunism on the part of the man who had just conquered Egypt, and Egyptian priests who knew a thing or two about flattery. Alexander was clearly the son of Amon, an Egyptian deity, usually portrayed with pair of ram’s horns on his head.

Ram or bull, horns indicated potency and power throughout the ancient world, and in more recent history, Native American shamans were similarly partial to buffalo horns. 

There remains though, one mystery: the cuckold usually portrayed with horns on his head. The word itself poses no problem, coming from the old French cucuault with its root in  cucu ie cuckoo, which lays its eggs in another bird's nest. But why link cuckolds to horns in such a disparaging way?

The answer may have its origins in early Christian propaganda, dissing the pagan world view and linking horns with the devil who from this period onwards is rarely seen without his horns. From the bestial, the satanic, to the hapless husband, horns are no longer seen as an enviable accessory, a  symbol of power – except amongst Morris Men.