Post by bluefedish on Jun 2, 2007 15:47:32 GMT -5
Epona is generally thought of as a horse goddess; her many Gaulish, Romano-British, Rhineland, Danubian and Roman bas-reliefs and statues show her either riding a horse or ass side-saddle or standing beside one, or between 2 or more of them, or occasionally lying half-naked along the back of one. The horse or ass was certainly her principal totem animal (though she was also sometimes depicted riding a horned goose through the sky), and it was this that caught the imagination of Roman cavalry units serving in Celtic lands, who adopted her as their patroness.
Epona shrines have been found in the stables of many Roman forts-even in Rome itself, in the barracks of the equities singulares, an imperial bodyguard recruited mainly from Batavians. She was the only Celtic goddess known to have been honored in Rome, where she was often called Epona Augusta or Regina and invoked on behalf of the Emperor. (Like so many others, she was sometimes triple, know as 'the three Eponae'.)
But this soldierly emphasis on her totem animal, however understandable, obscured her native essence, as 'the true image of the first mother goddess of the Celts' (Markale, Women of the Celts). Other writers concur. Phillips says that in the north British Celtic kingdom of Brigantia, she was the Great Mother, this was one of the places where she appeared as a goose-rider, and Phillips identifies her as 'the origin of the pantomime Mother Goose, who plucked the feathers from her steed to make a snowstorm'.
Returning to her horse totem - many authorities believe that the White Horse of Uffington, one of the best-known British hill-cut figures, was connected with her worship. (It's still considered lucky to wish while standing in its eye.) Lethridge (Witches: Investigating an Ancient Religion) sees the chalk-cutting at Wandlebury Camp near Cambridge, which is generally called Magog, as being in fact Epona; and her Great Mother image is certainly emphasized by the fact that the mounted figure has four breasts.
Her role as a fertility goddess is revealed elsewhere by her having a sheaf of corn in her lap, or carrying a cornucopia or goblet, and she's often shown accompanied by birds (especially a raven) or by a dog and holding what appears to be a serpent.
The birds represent 'the insular tradition, common to Britain and Ireland: this is the idea of an otherworld goddess or goddesses concerned with sexual love & fertility, and possessed of magick birds by whose singing all sorrow is forgotten, pain healed and even the dead are restored to life. The particular meaning of the raven is that it is the 'attribute of the war-fertility goddess.
Many Celtic goddesses have horse associations. For example, the Irish Macha, wife of Crunnchu, who had to race against the horse in the land while she was pregnant, and died at the winning-post giving birth to twins; the great mound 'Emain Macha commemorates the legend, and possibly an ancient ritual. Or 'Etain Echraide (Horse-riding), an Irish goddess of reincarnation. Or Cliodna, goddess of the happy Irish Otherworld, where horse-racing was favorite sport. Or Medhbh of Connacht, goddess of sovereignty, who could outrun the fastest horse. And in Wales, Rhiannon (Great Queen) was linked throughout her legend to a mare, and at one stage had to act as one. She too, incidentally, had birds 'whose singing awoke the dead & put the living to sleep, & her husband Pwyll was King Ross puts it, Rhiannon's characteristics are but a shadow of what once constituted a powerful Celtic goddess of Epona-Macha type.
A recurring element in the horse-symbolism is that of sovereignty. Medhbh is perhaps the clearest example of the goddess of sovereignty with whom the new King had to mate before he was recognized as such. But in one Ulster ritual (recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis, the 13th-century Welsh writer) the King's sovereignty was confirmed by actual intercourse with a mare. Immediately afterwords, Giraldus tells us, the mare was killed, carved up into pieces & thrown in boiling water. A bath was prepared for the King with the broth, and he sat in it while scraps of the meat were brought for him to eat & share with the people around him. Once this ritual had been performed, his rule and authority were assured.
2 ways of confirming sovereignty: intercourse with the goddess's human representative or with her totem animal - in the latter case followed by the communion of eating her flesh & administering it to the community.
Epona herself was said to have been born of a mare, in a legend which again seems to recall this ritual totemistic mating. Agesilaos, a late Greek writer, tells us that Phoulouios Stellos, who hated women, had relations with a mare. In time it gave birth to a beautiful little girl who was given the name Epona - not by her human father but by her (presumably divine) mare mother.
An interesting point here: the peoples of the British Isles are still generally averse to the eating of horseflesh, though there is little culinary justification for this reluctance, which many other countries don't share. Is this an unconscious memory of the time when horseflesh was sacred, only to be eaten on solmn ritual occasions, such as the October horse-feast when the taboo was lifted?
In medieval Denmark, the same memory was more specific. The 3-day horse-feast survived among pagan serfs, though banned by the church. Part of the ritual was the sprinkling of 'bowls of the horse's blood towards South & East - which explains the horse as an incarnation of the Spirit of the Solar Year, son of the Mare-goddess.
Another strange hint of the sovereignty theme: No one has explained satisfactorily as yet why the supposed leaders of the Anglo-Saxon invasion in the 5th century of our era should have been known as Hengist & Horsa, for "hengst" means a horse & "horsa" a mare. It's reasonably certain that their invasion didn't take place in the way it is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and it seems probable that the 2 mythical heroes were in reality religious conceptions'.
This is how Epona, the 'Divine Mare', has descended to us, as a goddess whose totem and symbol is the horse & who is a mother figure associated with fertility, a happy Otherworld & the dignity of leadership.
~~~~~Epona Statue ~~~~~~~~~ Epona Celtic Knot~~~~~
Epona shrines have been found in the stables of many Roman forts-even in Rome itself, in the barracks of the equities singulares, an imperial bodyguard recruited mainly from Batavians. She was the only Celtic goddess known to have been honored in Rome, where she was often called Epona Augusta or Regina and invoked on behalf of the Emperor. (Like so many others, she was sometimes triple, know as 'the three Eponae'.)
But this soldierly emphasis on her totem animal, however understandable, obscured her native essence, as 'the true image of the first mother goddess of the Celts' (Markale, Women of the Celts). Other writers concur. Phillips says that in the north British Celtic kingdom of Brigantia, she was the Great Mother, this was one of the places where she appeared as a goose-rider, and Phillips identifies her as 'the origin of the pantomime Mother Goose, who plucked the feathers from her steed to make a snowstorm'.
Returning to her horse totem - many authorities believe that the White Horse of Uffington, one of the best-known British hill-cut figures, was connected with her worship. (It's still considered lucky to wish while standing in its eye.) Lethridge (Witches: Investigating an Ancient Religion) sees the chalk-cutting at Wandlebury Camp near Cambridge, which is generally called Magog, as being in fact Epona; and her Great Mother image is certainly emphasized by the fact that the mounted figure has four breasts.
Her role as a fertility goddess is revealed elsewhere by her having a sheaf of corn in her lap, or carrying a cornucopia or goblet, and she's often shown accompanied by birds (especially a raven) or by a dog and holding what appears to be a serpent.
The birds represent 'the insular tradition, common to Britain and Ireland: this is the idea of an otherworld goddess or goddesses concerned with sexual love & fertility, and possessed of magick birds by whose singing all sorrow is forgotten, pain healed and even the dead are restored to life. The particular meaning of the raven is that it is the 'attribute of the war-fertility goddess.
Many Celtic goddesses have horse associations. For example, the Irish Macha, wife of Crunnchu, who had to race against the horse in the land while she was pregnant, and died at the winning-post giving birth to twins; the great mound 'Emain Macha commemorates the legend, and possibly an ancient ritual. Or 'Etain Echraide (Horse-riding), an Irish goddess of reincarnation. Or Cliodna, goddess of the happy Irish Otherworld, where horse-racing was favorite sport. Or Medhbh of Connacht, goddess of sovereignty, who could outrun the fastest horse. And in Wales, Rhiannon (Great Queen) was linked throughout her legend to a mare, and at one stage had to act as one. She too, incidentally, had birds 'whose singing awoke the dead & put the living to sleep, & her husband Pwyll was King Ross puts it, Rhiannon's characteristics are but a shadow of what once constituted a powerful Celtic goddess of Epona-Macha type.
A recurring element in the horse-symbolism is that of sovereignty. Medhbh is perhaps the clearest example of the goddess of sovereignty with whom the new King had to mate before he was recognized as such. But in one Ulster ritual (recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis, the 13th-century Welsh writer) the King's sovereignty was confirmed by actual intercourse with a mare. Immediately afterwords, Giraldus tells us, the mare was killed, carved up into pieces & thrown in boiling water. A bath was prepared for the King with the broth, and he sat in it while scraps of the meat were brought for him to eat & share with the people around him. Once this ritual had been performed, his rule and authority were assured.
2 ways of confirming sovereignty: intercourse with the goddess's human representative or with her totem animal - in the latter case followed by the communion of eating her flesh & administering it to the community.
Epona herself was said to have been born of a mare, in a legend which again seems to recall this ritual totemistic mating. Agesilaos, a late Greek writer, tells us that Phoulouios Stellos, who hated women, had relations with a mare. In time it gave birth to a beautiful little girl who was given the name Epona - not by her human father but by her (presumably divine) mare mother.
An interesting point here: the peoples of the British Isles are still generally averse to the eating of horseflesh, though there is little culinary justification for this reluctance, which many other countries don't share. Is this an unconscious memory of the time when horseflesh was sacred, only to be eaten on solmn ritual occasions, such as the October horse-feast when the taboo was lifted?
In medieval Denmark, the same memory was more specific. The 3-day horse-feast survived among pagan serfs, though banned by the church. Part of the ritual was the sprinkling of 'bowls of the horse's blood towards South & East - which explains the horse as an incarnation of the Spirit of the Solar Year, son of the Mare-goddess.
Another strange hint of the sovereignty theme: No one has explained satisfactorily as yet why the supposed leaders of the Anglo-Saxon invasion in the 5th century of our era should have been known as Hengist & Horsa, for "hengst" means a horse & "horsa" a mare. It's reasonably certain that their invasion didn't take place in the way it is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and it seems probable that the 2 mythical heroes were in reality religious conceptions'.
This is how Epona, the 'Divine Mare', has descended to us, as a goddess whose totem and symbol is the horse & who is a mother figure associated with fertility, a happy Otherworld & the dignity of leadership.
~~~~~Epona Statue ~~~~~~~~~ Epona Celtic Knot~~~~~
