Editing Maponos (section)

==Later tradition==

===Welsh mythology===
Maponos surfaces in the [[Middle Welsh]] narrative, the [[Mabinogion]], as [[Mabon ap Modron|Mabon]],<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fleuriot |first=Léon |title=Le vocabulaire de l'inscription gauloise de Chamalières |journal=Études Celtiques |volume=15 |issue=1 |date=1976 |pages=173–190 [189] |doi=10.3406/ecelt.1976.1570 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_1976_num_15_1_1570 |lang=FR |quote=Mais le monde brittonique garde bien le nom lui-même [du dieu Maponos]: Mabon mab Modron est Maponos fils de Matrona. |trans-quote=But the Bryttonic world retains the name [of god Maponos]: Mabon mab Modron is Maponos son of Matrona.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Birley |first=Eric |chapter=The Deities of Roman Britain |title=Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (ANRW) |trans-title=Rise and Decline of the Roman World |volume=18/1. Teilband Religion (Heidentum: Die religiösen Verhältnisse in den Provinzen) |editor=Wolfgang Haase |pages=3–112 [56] |location=Berlin, Boston |publisher=De Gruyter |date=1986 |doi=10.1515/9783110861464-002 |isbn=978-3-11-086146-4 |quote=... the name and something of the tradition of Maponus survived into the heroic age of Wales: in the Mabinogion Mabon appears as a mighty hunter, and his name is undoubtedly derived from an old Celtic word ''*maqono-s'', meaning a boy or youth.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Irby-Massie |first=Georgia L. |chapter=Celtic Healer and Warrior Maiden |title=Military Religion in Roman Britain |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |publisher=Brill |date=1999 |pages=142–157 [145] |doi=10.1163/9789004351226_006 |isbn=978-90-04-35122-6 |quote=The deity survived in Welsh myth as the heroic hunter Mabon who, in the "Mabinogion," was abducted from his mother at birth and imprisoned until Culwch's companions rescued him.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Myths and legends of the Celts |last=MacKillop |first=James |author-link=James MacKillop (author) |date=2006 |location=London; New York |publisher=Penguin |page=35 |quote=Maponos, most commentators now agree, contributes to the conception of the Welsh divine hero Mabon.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mees |first=Bernard |title=Celtic Curses |publisher=Boydell and Brewer |date=2009 |page=17 |doi=10.1515/9781846157004-005}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Maier |first1=Bernhard |last2=Windle |first2=Kevin |chapter=Gallo-Roman Culture |title=The Celts: A History From Earliest Times to the Present |pages=117–134 [124] |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |date=2017 |doi=10.1515/9781474427210-012|isbn=978-1-4744-2721-0 }}</ref> son of [[Modron]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |title=Pagan Britain |pages=340–396 [363–364] |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2014 |doi=10.12987/9780300198584-011}}</ref> who is herself the continuation of Gaulish [[Dea Matrona|Matrona]] (“Matronly Spirit”). The theme of Maponos son of Matrona (literally, ''child of mother'') and the development of names in the [[Mabinogion|Mabinogi]] from [[Brythonic languages|Common Brythonic]] and [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]] theonyms has been examined by Hamp (1999),  Lambert (1979), and Meid (1991). Mabon apparently features in the tale of a newborn child taken from his mother at the age of three nights, and is explicitly named in the story of ''[[Culhwch ac Olwen]]''.

A similar character in Welsh literature is Mabon son of [[Mellt]], who may in fact be the same as Mabon son of Modron.<ref>{{cite book |first=John T. |last=Koch |chapter=Mabon fab Modron |title=The Celts: history, life, and culture |volume=2: I-Y |editor1=John T. Koch |editor2=Antone Minard |date=2012 |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=146}}</ref>

Scholars [[Proinsias Mac Cana]] and [[Roger Sherman Loomis]] suggested that Maponos survived in [[Arthurian mythology]] as Mabon, Mabuz and Mabonagrain.<ref>{{cite book |first=Roger Sherman |last=Loomis |title= Arthurian Tradition & Chretien De Troyes |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |date=1949 |page=53 |quote=The Welsh Mabon reappears in the romances as Mabon, Mabuz, and Mabonagrain.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Celtic mythology |last=Mac Cana |first=Proinsias |date=1970 |location=Feltham |publisher=Hamlyn |page=33}}</ref>

===Irish mythology===
His counterpart in [[Irish mythology]] would seem to be [[Aengus|Mac(c) ind Ó‘c]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fee |first1=Christopher R. |first2=David A. |last2=Leeming |title=Gods, Heroes, & Kings: The Battle for Mythic Britain |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2004 |pages=67–68 |quote=... a sacred youth who became Maponos and later Mabon in Wales, son of the great mother Modron or Matrona. In Ireland, Mabon was Mac ind Og or Aonghus Og (Angus or Oenghus), son of the god known as the Dagda (Daghdha) and the sacred river Boann. |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174038.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-517403-8 }} Online edn, Oxford Academic, 3 Oct. 2011. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mees |first=Bernard |title=Celtic Curses |publisher=Boydell and Brewer |date=2009 |page=17 |doi=10.1515/9781846157004-005}}</ref> (Hamp 1999) (“Young Son”, “Young Lad”), an epithet of Angus or Oengus,<ref>{{cite book |title=Celtic mythology |last=Mac Cana |first=Proinsias |author-link=Proinsias Mac Cana |date=1970 |location=Feltham |publisher=Hamlyn |page=33 |quote=In Ireland the obvious parallel to Mabon-Maponos is ''Mac ind Óg'', 'The Young Lad', also known as ''Oenghus''.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Myths and legends of the Celts |last=MacKillop |first=James |author-link=James MacKillop (author) |date=2006 |location=London; New York |publisher=Penguin |page=35 |quote=The British divinity [Maponos] is additionally the counterpart of the Irish Angus Óg, god of youth, beauty and (qualifiedly) love, especially when he is referred to by one of the many forms of his patronymic, Mac Óc, Mac-ind-Óc, etc.}}</ref> the eternally youthful spirit to be found in [[Newgrange]] called [[Brú na Bóinne|Bruigh na Bóinne]], a pre-Celtic [[Neolithic]] [[Tumulus|barrow]] or [[chambered tomb]]. [[Irish mythology]] portrays him as the son of [[the Dagda]], a king of the [[:Category:Irish gods|Irish gods]], and of [[Boann]], a personification of the [[River Boyne]]. In [[Irish mythology]], the Macc Óc frequently features as a trickster and a lover.