Horse worship
Horse worship is a spiritual practice with archaeological evidence of its existence during the
Horse worship still exists today in various regions of South Asia.
Bronze Age
The history of horse domestication is still a debated topic. The most widely accepted theory is that the horse was domesticated somewhere in the western Eurasian steppes. Various archaeological cultures including the Botai in Kazakhstan and Dereivka in Ukraine are proposed as possible candidates. However, widespread use of horses on the steppes is only noted from the late part of the third millennium BCE.[1]
The world's oldest horse burial and signs of horse worship (such as horse figurines among grave goods) were discovered at the Syezzheye cemetery of Samara culture in the Bogatovsky District.[2][3] The cemetery is dated to the 1st half of the 4th millennium BC.[4]
Iron Age
The
The French archaeologist Patrice Méniel has demonstrated, based on examination of animal bones from many archaeological sites, a lack of hippophagy (horse eating) in ritual centres and burial sites in Gaul, although there is some evidence for hippophagy from earlier settlement sites in the same region.[6]
Horse oracles are also attested in later times (see Arkona below).
There is some reason to believe that Poseidon, like other water gods, was originally conceived under the form of a horse. In Greek art, Poseidon rides a chariot that was pulled by a hippocampus or by horses that could ride on the sea, and sailors sometimes drowned horses as a sacrifice to Poseidon to ensure a safe voyage.
In the cave of Phigalia Demeter was, according to popular tradition, represented with the head and mane of a horse, possibly a relic of the time when a non-specialized corn-spirit bore this form. Her priests were called Poloi (Greek for "colts") in Laconia.
This seems related to the archaic myth by which Poseidon once pursued Demeter; She spurned his advances, turning herself into a
This bears some resemblance to the Norse mythology reference to the gender-changing Loki having turned himself into a mare and given birth to Sleipnir, "the greatest of all horses".
Germanic
Tacitus (Germania) mentions the use of white horses for divination by the Germanic tribes:
- But to this nation it is peculiar, to learn presages and admonitions divine from horses also. These are nourished by the State in the same sacred woods and groves, all milk-white and employed in no earthly labour. These yoked in the holy chariot, are accompanied by the Priest and the King, or the Chief of the Community, who both carefully observed his actions and neighing. Nor in any sort of augury is more faith and assurance reposed, not by the populace only, but even by the nobles, even by the Priests. These account themselves the ministers of the Gods, and the horses privy to his will.
Gallo-Roman
In
Early medieval
The Welsh legend of Rhiannon and the Irish legend of Macha, although first recorded in Christian times, may indicate memories of horse worship. The white horse of Rhiannon is another example of cultic use of white horses, which seems to be an Indo-European phenomenon.[8]
The temple fortress of Arkona, at
Similar horse oracles have been reported from
India
In
See also
- Epona
- White horse (mythology)
- Horse symbolism
- Horse burial
- Animal worship
- Domestication of the horse
- Horse (zodiac)
- Morzillo
Notes
- ISBN 9783110311211.
- ISBN 9789004160545.
- ISBN 978-0-8122-4041-2.
- ^ Васильев И.Б., Матвеева Г.И. Могильник у с. Съезжее на р. Самаре // Советская археология. 1979. №4.
- ISBN 9780521551328.
- ^ Society for Ancient Medicine Review. Department of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania. 1993. p. 131.
Hippophagy in pre-Roman Gaul can no longer be denied MULDER, J., 'A Historical Review of Wound Treatment in Animals,'
- ^ Nantonos & Ceffyl 2005
- ^ Hyland p.6
- Robert Hans van Gulik. Hayagrīva: The Mantrayānic Aspect of Horse-cult in China and Japan. Brill Archive. p. 9.
- ^ Gavin Floyd (1996), An introduction to Hinduism, Cambridge University Press
- ^ Mārg̲, Volume 43. p. 77.Originally from = University of Michigan
- ^ T. Volker (1950). The Animal in Far Eastern Art: And Especially in the Art of the Japanese Netzsuke, with References to Chinese Origins, Traditions, Legends, and Art. BRILL. p. 102.
- ^ Jagannath Cult in North - East India by Prof. Byomakesh Tripathy and Dr. Prabhas Kumar Singh
References
- W. H. Corkill. Horse Cults in Britain. London: Folk-Lore Society, 1950.
- ISBN 0-7509-2160-9
- Patrice Méniel. Les Sacrifices d'animaux chez les Gaulois. Paris: Errance, 1992. ISBN 2-87772-068-3
- Nantonos & Ceffyl. Geographical Distribution of Epona, EPONA.net, 2004-2007.
- Tacitus, Germania. Trans. Thomas Gordon. Available online In The works of Tacitus: With political discourses upon that author, 5th edn. corrected. Dublin: J. Williams, T. Walker, C. Jenkin, L. Flin, & W. Halhead, 1777-78.
- Robert Hans van Gulik. Hayagrīva: The Mantrayānic Aspect of Horse-cult in China and Japan. Leiden: Brill, 1935.