land," as if one of the god's functions connected him with
agriculture.[58] This is supported by another inscription to Mercurius
Cultor at Wurtemberg. Local gods of agriculture must thus have been
assimilated to Mercury. A god Moccus, "swine," was also identified with
Mercury, and the swine was a frequent representative of the corn-spirit
or of vegetation divinities in Europe. The flesh of the animal was often
mixed with the seed corn or buried in the fields to promote fertility.
The swine had been a sacred animal among the Celts, but had apparently
become an anthropomorphic god of fertility, Moccus, assimilated to
Mercury, perhaps because the Greek Hermes caused fertility in flocks and
herds. Such a god was one of a class whose importance was great among
the Celts as an agricultural people.

Commerce, much developed among the settled Gauls, gave rise to a god or
gods who guarded roads over which merchants travelled, and boundaries
where their transactions took place. Hence we have an inscription from
Yorkshire, "To the god who invented roads and paths," while another
local god of roads, equated with Mercury, was Cimiacinus.[59]

Another god, Ogmíos, a native god of speech, who draws men by chains
fastened to the tip of his tongue, is identified in Lucian with
Heracles, and is identical with the Goidelic Ogma.[60] Eloquence and
speech are important matters among primitive peoples, and this god has
more likeness to Mercury as a culture-god than to Heracles, Greek
writers speaking of eloquence as binding men with the chains of Hermes.

Several local gods, of agriculture, commerce, and culture, were thus
identified with Mercury, and the Celtic Mercury was sometimes worshipped
on hilltops, one of the epithets of the god, Dumias, being connected
with the Celtic word for hill or mound. Irish gods were also associated