• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

The God(dess?) Cocidius

gyrtrash

gyrtrash

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Dec 27, 2001
Messages
1,139
Can anyone please furnish me with more information, or links, books etc. about this deity?



All I can find is that it was a Romano-British god of hunting, or forests, usually 'worshipped' around the north of England. Different sources on the 'net describe the deity as male or female.

And was (s)he a god(dess) of the Romans or the Brigante people?



Cheers
Dave
 
Male, sometimes conflated with Mars, i.e. Mars Cocidus.
 
Well, the majority of the links refer to a male deity, so you could take the balance of probability. But that would mean discounting the ones where they refer to a female deity.

So the consensus would appear to be - no one has a clue whether it's male or female :confused:

Unless we take the third option of a haemaphroditic deity. ;)
 
Seems to me that the diety was male, given the association with Mars...
 
JerryB said:
Seems to me that the diety was male, given the association with Mars...
Click to expand...

Helps you work rest and play...must be female.:)
 
JerryB said:
Seems to me that the diety was male, given the association with Mars...
Click to expand...

Yeah. Every mention but one I've come across mentions him as male. It could be that the other one was mistaken?

The representations of him that I've read about seem more 'Iron-age Briton' than Roman, but a mate on another mailing list sent me the info that he was 'worshipped primarily by members of the Roman army'. Though it does seem to me like the Roman legions were always absorbing native deities into their world view?
 
The army connection may be from the conflaton with Mars, and some finds associated with Cocidius found at the site of various forts (i.e. at Bewcastle). Then again, various gods and godesses were venerated at military sites - which doesn't necessarily mean that such gods are always of a military nature. And yes, the army worshipped a variety of deities from a variety of sources.
 
Thanks for the info folks!

I was talking to my local amateur historian a few months back. He knows I'm interested in neolithic cup-and-ring carvings, and he told me about a 'weird' carving on a rock in some suburban woods near me.
By complete chance (!) I bumped into the woman who knows the whereabouts of the carving, in the local park the other day.
Anyways, she showed me the image and said she'd send me a copy of the English Heritage inspectors report about it...

Turns out it's a recently discovered portrayal of the god Cocidius. A bit out of it's usual area, and the only one in Yorkshire. There was a Roman camp less than a kilometre away so maybe it was carved by a soldier from there who'd spent time at Hadrian's wall?

I put a plea for info out on a few mailing lists and was contacted by a bloke who's collating info about just this sort of thing.
Ahh, the wonders of t'internet. :)
 
That sounds really interesting! Any chance of posting a photo of the carving on here?
 
Quixote said:
That sounds really interesting! Any chance of posting a photo of the carving on here?
Click to expand...

I tried to take some pics yesterday but the carving is so indistinct (2000 years of weathering don't help!), and it's in woodland, that I don't think they'll turn out very well!
If they do, I'll post a pic!

Maybe a rubbing would work better?!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top