Epona - Horse Goddess

[TheWiseHedgewitch]

By erica on Monday, October 4, 2004 - 01:00 pm:

mm and morning to everyone (it's only 8am here)...i was wondering if ya'll could help me out with info on the goddess epona? have found just a bit on the web (enuff to wet my curiosity) but was wondering if anyone here had more than intro info...thanks!
bb

[TheWiseHedgewitch]

By RobH on Monday, October 4, 2004 - 07:19 pm:

I know she's often equated with Rhiannon (Welsh) so there may be some underworld links.I think the cult of the horse is a staple part of all paganistic cultures and particularly celtic ones.

There was quite a bit on this cult in the recent C4 Pagans program and there is a thread somewhere on this forum discussing it.

Also remember the old nursery rhyme Ride a white horse to banbury cross,or something like that? well I think this was about Rhiannon who is the lady with rings on her fingers and toes.I might have got them words slightly wrong as the last time I saw the rhyme was on a chocolate buttons packet when I was a kid.

[TheWiseHedgewitch]

By Merissa on Monday, October 4, 2004 - 08:02 pm:

Hi Erica, here's some information I've got on Epona, hope this helps:-

Horses were highly respected as valuable, noble animals by the ancient Gauls and Celts. Epona was the Goddess who protected horses, and she was never pictured without one. Shrines to her were often found in stables. She was very popular and her worship was widespread.

When the Romans overtook the Celtic regions, they adopted Epona without changing her nature. Shs is the only Goddess that the Romans so easily accepted. She became a favoured Deity by the men in the cavalry.

Even after Christianity had spread it's way across Rome, remnants of Epona's worship could still be seen in the simple rituals of the country folk, namely the 'hobby horse' dances.

The maiden goddess Epona is usually portrayed as riding a white mare side-saddle, sometimes with a foal, or standing surrounded by horses. Her symbol is the Cornucopia ("horn of plenty") which suggests that she may have been honoured as a fertility goddess, although she is most commonly known as a goddess of horses and travel. She fed her beloved horses from her cornucopia filled with corn and apples, symbolic of mother-love and abundance.

From the iron age, the Celtic goddess' faith spread across the whole of ancient Europe, eventually being embraced by the Romans and to a certain extent, Christianity. Epona had a shrine in almost every stable of the Roman empire - in fact, she was the only Celtic goddess to be honoured by the Romans with a temple in their capital city. Her annual festival in Roman times was around the 18th December (in Mantua/Italy), when her images in shrines and stables were draped in rose garlands.

Epona and her white mare accompanies the soul on its final journey to the other world, and in life she is associated with the white mare that brings dreams.

Associated With:
Horses
Fertility and abundance
Dreams and nightmares

Animal Symbols: Horse

Related essences: bayberry, cedar, pine, rose and rosemary

Related gemstones: cat's-eye, ruby and moonstone

Blessed Be

Merissa

[TheWiseHedgewitch]

By erica on Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - 03:46 am:

thanks, robh and merissa for the info...and rosewood, let me know if your book has anything too please...i feel really drawn to epona as i have reoccurring dreams (ever since i was a child) where i either am a horse or am part horse...in one dream i had the hindquarters of a horse and was very excited until i woke up and found it was only a dream! weird, i know...

[TheWiseHedgewitch]

By Francine on Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - 08:45 pm:

Hi Erica

I really like Epona too! Your dreams sound amazing! (You're not a Sagittarius are you by any chance?!) Have you seen the beautiful carving, I think from Celtic Gaul, which represents a horse's head?! It's I think in metal, from the side of a cauldron, really stunning, elegant, and dignified. I'll try and find out where it's from and let you know as you might want to find a copy of it. I know I've seen it recently but can't remember where!

Merissa, Rosewood and Rob have already given you a very comprehensive picture of Epona so there's only one thing I can add. My Dictionary of Celtic Mythology says that the Epidii tribe from Scotland, somewhere around Argyll, may have been particularly devoted to Epona. The word Epidii apparently means 'people of the horse'.

When I went walking in the far north-west of Scotland last summer, I walked by a huge, flat-topped hill called in Gaelic 'Hill of the Horse'. I said a silent hello and a prayer to Epona when I passed it. It was a very wild, remote and bleak place, though beautiful, and I wondered if any horses of this world would have fancied it up there, or whether it was more a place for a Horse Goddess to hang out! I hoped it was. I felt it was.

bb

[TheWiseHedgewitch]

By erica on Wednesday, October 6, 2004 - 02:36 am:

thanks for the added info francine...i'm gemini, by the way...i used to have a horse as a child and growing up was always helping someone out with their horse or working at a stable...now one of my neighbors has horses in a pasture adjoining our pasture so i go up and see them just about everyday...i often leave bundles of grass on the fence, kind of like offerings to the horses themselves and to epona as well...corny i know but doing so makes me feel better...