The Horned One

[bgruagach]

There are all sorts of other ways of representing the annual dance between two competing gods. One common one in Celtic myth depicts one of the gods as the Oak, the other as Holly. Oak is at its height at the Summer Solstice, and the Holly is crowned at the Winter Solstice.

Another describes the two gods as both being very Earth-based -- one is the Horned God (representing the hunt and the animals that are hunted) and the other is the Green Man, representing the fruits of the plant world. This pair appears in a number of cultures besides Celtic ones. In Mesopotamian myth it is said to be represented by Gilgamesh (the hunter) and Enkidu (the vegetation wild man) for instance.