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Epona is a Celtic theonnym derived from epos 'horse' and the divine suffix. It can be translated as 'divine mare' or 'sacred mare'. And indeed, we find a large quantity of representations of a goddess associated with horses. In Roman times, Epona is widely attested - in sculpture and Latin inscriptions.
We find two major types of Epona representations (see also: Epona website [external])
The link between mare and foal seems to be quite important, as we shall see when we discuss the connections between Epona and Rhiannon. |
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The Rhiannon-Epona Connection | La connexion entre Rhiannon et Epona | Die Rhiannon-Epona Beziehung
Claude Sterckx has quite convincingly demonstrated the structural parallels between the Gallo-Roman Epona and the account on Rhiannon in the Welsh Mabinogi (or Mabinogion) (see Sterckx 1986, 45-7).
Who is Rhiannon?
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And while he sat there, they saw a lady, on a pure white horse of large size, with a garment of shining gold around her, coming along the highway that led from the mound; and the horse seemed to move at a slow and even pace, and to be coming up towards the mound. “My men,” said Pwyll, “is there any among you who knows yonder lady?” “There is not, Lord,” said they. (........) ..said Pwyll, “go unto the palace, and take the fleetest horse that thou seest, and go after her.” And he took a horse and went forward. And he came to an open level plain, and put spurs to his horse; and the more he urged his horse, the further was she from him. Yet she held the same pace as at first. And his horse began to fail....
(click here for original source)
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EPONA - Goddess of fertility, fecundity & re-birth | déesse de la fertilité, de la fécondité et de la re-naissance | Göttin der Fruchtbarkeit & Wiedergeburt
If this was the case then Epona’s function would have to be understood in the context of a complex myth concerning rebirth and fertility of men, animals and soil.
The deity would be the ‘mother goddess’: mother and wife of (what Caesar called) Dispater and part of a perpetual cycle of life and death (see Sterckx 1986, 92-3; Duval 1976, 49-51). In pre-Roman iconography we might identify Epona and aspects of the Rhiannon myth on coins and sculpture: a goddess on horseback and, even more common, depictions of a mare, often accompanied by a her foal. She is thus a chtonic goddess with comparable functions to mother earth: "Terra Mater" (see section: Supreme Celtic Goddess). And therefore, we could see the myth of the sacred mare (Rhiannon/Epona) as a metaphor for the conflict between chthonic and celestial forces, whereby only the union between the two creates fertility and fecundity. This brings us to the representation of a/the 'native' god of thunder on horseback. |