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Moccus

Celtic god identified with Mercury

Moccus is a Celtic god who is identified with Mercury.^[2] He is the boar- or swine-god of the continental Celtic tribe of Lingones. Moccus was invoked as the protector of boar hunters and warriors.^{[citation needed]} Boar meat was sacred among the ancient Celts,^[2] and features in accounts of feasts in Irish mythology.^[3] The Lingones, whose tribal center was at modern-day Langres, were a Gaulish tribe located in the area of the rivers Seine and Marne in what is now northeastern France. They were neighbors to the Celto-Germanic tribe of Treveri. Another tribe known as Lingones was located near the mouth of the Po River in northeastern Italy, and were known for agriculture, weaving and metalworking.^[4]

There was a dedicated feast day to Moccus.^[when?] He had a following in the Romano-Celtic period.^[5]

Historical attestation[edit]

The theonym Moccus is known from a single votive inscription from Langres, which reads as follows:

In h(onorem) d(omus) d(ivinae)
deo Mercur(io) Mocco
L(ucius) Mascl(ius?) Masculus et
Sedatia Blandula
mater ex voto^[6]
In honour of the divine house, to Mercury Moccus, Lucius Mascl(ius?) Masculus and his mother Sedatia Blandula [dedicate this] ex voto.

The name is derived from the Gaulish moccos 'pig' or 'wild boar', cognate with Old Irish mucc, Welsh moch, and Breton moc'h, all with similar meanings.^[7] The same root also appears in the personal names of a number of individuals in Gaul in such forms as Moccius, Moccia, Mocconius, Catomocus, etc.^[7]

Scholars such as Émile Thévenot and Philippe Jouët have connected Moccus with the god of Euffigneix, a Celtic sculpture depicting a torc-wearing god with a wild boar vertically over his torso.^[8] Thévenot points out that Euffigneix would have lain in the same tribal territory—that of the Lingones—as did Langres, where the Moccus inscription was found.^[9]

InThe Religion of the Ancient Celts (1911), J. A. MacCulloch noted that "the swine was a frequent representative of the barleycorn-spirit or of vegetation divinities in Europe" and that "the flesh of the animal was often mixed with the seed corn or buried in the fields to promote fertility". MacCulloch speculates that it was Moccus' role as a fertility god that led to his being identified with Mercury, whose Greek equivalent Hermes was associated with "fertility in flocks and herds".^[2]

Jouët connects Moccus with the Irish myth in Oidheadh Chlainne Tuireann, in which Lugh obtains the pig-skin of Tuis, which could heal any injury.^[10] Lugh is widely considered to be the Irish form of the Celtic god Lugus, an analogue of the Gaulish Mercury.^[11]

The pig in ancient Celtic religion[edit]

MacCulloch highlights the high status and prestige enjoyed by pigs or boars in Celtic cultures, including in religious and mythological contexts:

A cult of a swine-god Moccus has been referred to. The boar was a divine symbol on standards, coins, and altars, and many bronze images of the animal have been found. These were temple treasures, and in one case the boar is three-horned. But it was becoming the symbol of a goddess, as is seen by the altars on which it accompanies a goddess, perhaps of fertility, and by a bronze image of a goddess seated on a boar. The altars occur in Britain, of which the animal may be the emblem—the "Caledonian monster" of Claudian's poem. The swine is esteemed in Ireland, and in the texts monstrous swine are the staple article of famous feasts. These may have been legendary forms of old swine-gods, the feasts recalling sacrificial feasts on their flesh. Magic swine were also the immortal food of the gods. But the boar was tabu to certain persons, e.g. Diarmaid, though whether this is the attenuated memory of a clan totem restriction is uncertain. Bones of the swine, sometimes cremated, have been found in Celtic graves in Britain and at Hallstatt, and in one case the animal was buried alone in a tumulus at Hallstatt, just as sacred animals were buried in Egypt, Greece, and elsewhere. When the animal was buried with the dead, it may have been as a sacrifice to the ghost or to the god of the underworld.^[3]

Miranda Green considers the boar in Celtic religious contexts to represent both "war, because of their ferocity and indominability", and "prosperity, because pork was a favourite Celtic food and played an important part in feasting".^[12] Celtic warriors sported boar motifs on their helmets, standards, and carnyxes.^[12]

Modern worship[edit]

Moccus is worshipped in modern times by groups of Druids, Wiccans^[13] and Celtic polytheists. He is one of the main temple gods worshiped by members of the Shrine of the Irish Oak, who have assigned his feast day to the winter solstice due to his aspects as a protector, sun god, and giver of plenty.^[14]

References[edit]

See also[edit]

• Green, Miranda (1989). Symbol & image in Celtic religious art. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08076-2.
• Green, Miranda (1997). Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. ISBN 978-0500279755.
• Green, Miranda (2011). The Gods of the Celts. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0750934794.
• Green, Miranda (2005). Exploring the world of the Druids. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. ISBN 978-0500285718.
• Jouët, Philippe (2012). Dictionnaire de mythologie et de la religion celtiques. Yoran Embanner. ISBN 978-2-914855-92-1.

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