>>20606102>The attitude of the Jews to the pig was as ambiguous as that of the heathen Syrians towards the same animal. The Greeks could not decide whether the Jews worshipped swine or abominated them. On the one hand they might not eat swine; but on the other hand they might not kill them. And if the former rule speaks for the uncleanness, the latter speaks still more strongly for the sanctity of the animal. For whereas both rules may, and one rule must, be explained on the supposition that the pig was sacred; neither rule must, and one rule cannot, be explained on the supposition that the pig was unclean. If, therefore, we prefer the former supposition, we must conclude that, originally at least, the pig was revered rather than abhorred by the Israelites. We are confirmed in this opinion by observing that down to the time of Isaiah some of the Jews used to meet secretly in gardens to eat the flesh of swine and mice as a religious rite. Doubtless this was a very ancient ceremony, dating from a time when both the pig and the mouse were venerated as divine, and when their flesh was partaken of sacramentally on rare and solemn occasions as the body and blood of gods. And in general it may perhaps be said that all so-called unclean animals were originally sacred; the reason for not eating them was that they were divineJews associate pigs with Edom/Rome, which, remembering, was founded by Romulus and Remus, sons of Ares/Mars. The Sumerian version of Ares/Mars and Apollo (Aplu Enlil), Nergal, was also syncretized with Ninurta.
https://www.academia.edu/3201368/The_Dialogical_Beast_The_Identification_of_Rome_with_the_Pig_in_Early_Rabbinic_Literature_PhD_thesis_March_2013_ 