Moritasgus is a Celtic

Gaulish language

The Gaulish language is an extinct Celtic language that was spoken by the Gauls, a people who inhabited the region known as Gaul from the Iron Age through the Roman period...

 epithet

Epithet

An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...

 for a healing god found in four inscriptions

Epigraphy

Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...

 at Alesia

Alesia (city)

thumb|200px|Vercingetorix Memorial in Alesia thumb|200px|right|The [[fortification]]s built by Caesar in AlesiaInset: cross shows location of Alesia in Gaul...

. In two inscriptions, he is identified with the Greco-Roman god Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

. His consort

Hieros gamos

Hieros gamos or Hierogamy refers to a sexual ritual that plays out a marriage between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities. It is the harmonization of opposites...

 was the goddess Damona

Damona

In Gallo-Roman religion, Damona was a goddess worshipped in Gaul as the consort of Apollo Borvo and of Apollo Moritasgus. Mary Jones interprets Damona's name as "Divine Cow" based on its resemblance to damos or "cow". She has sometimes been linked with the Irish goddess Boand on the basis of this...

.

Alesia was an oppidum

Oppidum

Oppidum is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome. The word is derived from the earlier Latin ob-pedum, "enclosed space," possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *pedóm-, "occupied space" or "footprint."Julius Caesar described the larger Celtic Iron Age...

 of the Celtic Mandubii

Mandubii

The Mandubii were a confederation of Gaulish tribes who lived in the areas of modern-day Bourgogne and Jura. Their capital was Alesia....

 in present-day Burgundy. A dedication to the gods alludes to the presence of a shrine at the curative spring, where sick pilgrims could bathe in a sacred pool. The sanctuary itself, located near the eastern gate of the town just outside the city wall, was impressive, with baths and a temple. In addition, there were portico

Portico

A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...

es, where the sick possibly slept, hoping for divine visions and cures.

Numerous votive objects were dedicated to Moritasgus. These were models of the pilgrims and the afflicted parts of their bodies: these included limbs, internal organs, genitals, breasts, and eyes. Surgeons' tools have also been found, suggesting that the priests also acted as surgeons.

The name Moritasgus, shared by a 1st-century BC ruler of the Senones

Senones

The Senones were an ancient Gaulish tribe.In about 400 BC they crossed the Alps and, having driven out the Umbrians settled on the east coast of Italy from Forlì to Ancona, in the so-called ager Gallicus, and founded the town of Sena Gallica , which became their capital. In 391 BC they invaded...

, has been analyzed variously. It probably means "Great Badger" or "Sea Badger." The European badger produced a secretion used in Gaulish medicaments, hence a possible connection with a healing god.

Selected bibliography

• Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Miranda Green. Thames and Hudson Ltd. London. 1997.