Epona

Epona è una figura della religione celtica passata poi alla religione romana, era la dea dei cavalli e dei muli. La presenza della cornucopia che, in alcuni casi, costituisce un simbolo tipico di questa divinità, pone ancora più in rilievo la sua funzione di protettrice e dispensatrice di doni e fertilità.
È verosimile l'esistenza di una dea pre-romana con le medesime attribuzioni, ma Epona era una divinità di origine gallica e il suo nome è celtico.
Taluni la indicano come incarnazione di un antico culto in onore dei cavalli, comune ai popoli venuti dalle praterie dell'Asia centrale, che si espansero lungo la valle del Danubio in Europa centrale ed occidentale.

Curiosità

• Epona viene citata nelle canzoni A Rose For Epona ed Epona del gruppo folk metal svizzero Eluveitie.
• Da lei deriva l'antico nome, Eporedia, dell'attuale città di Ivrea, in Piemonte, nella quale ancora oggi si effettua una delle più importanti fiere di cavalli d'Italia.
• Epona è anche il nome del cavallo di Link nella serie di videogiochi The Legend of Zelda.
• Si crede che la Festa di Epona si celebri il 2 novembre.^{[senza fonte]}
• Il termine pony deriva proprio dalla dea Epona.^{[senza fonte]}

Un rilievo di Epona, fiancheggiata da due coppie di cavalli, proveniente dalla Macedonia romana

I, QuartierLatin1968

A relief of the Gaulish horse goddess Epona from Salonica, Greek Macedonia, 4th century CE. According to the museum's label, Roman emperor Galerius may have been responsible for introducing the worship of Epona at Salonica.

 In Gallo-Roman religion, Epona was a protector of horses, ponies, donkeys, and mules. She was particularly a goddess of fertility, as shown by her attributes of a patera, cornucopia, ears of grain and the presence of foals in some sculptures. She and her horses might also have been leaders of the soul in the after-life ride, with parallels in Rhiannon of the Mabinogion. The worship of Epona, "the sole Celtic divinity ultimately worshipped in Rome itself", was widespread in the Roman Empire between the first and third centuries AD; this is unusual for a Celtic deity, most of whom were associated with specific localities.

Etymology

Although known only from Roman contexts, the name Epona ('Great Mare') is from the Gaulish language; it is derived from the inferred Proto-Celtic *ekwos 'horse', which gives rise to modern Welsh ebol 'foal', together with the augmentative suffix -on frequently, though not exclusively, found in theonyms (for example Sirona, Matrona) and the usual Gaulish feminine singular -a. In an episode preserved in a remark of Pausanias, an archaic Demeter Erinys (Vengeful Demeter) too had also been a Great Mare, who was mounted by Poseidon in the form of a stallion and foaled Arion and the Daughter who was unnamed outside the Arcadian mysteries. Demeter was venerated as a mare in Lycosoura in Arcadia into historical times.

Evidence

Fernand Benoît found the earliest attestations of a cult of Epona in the Danubian provinces and asserted that she had been introduced in the limes of Gaul by horsemen from the east. That suggestion has not been generally taken up.
Although the name is Gaulish, dedicatory inscriptions to Epona are in Latin or, rarely, Greek. They were made not only by Celts, but also by Germans, Romans, and other inhabitants of the Roman Empire. An inscription to Epona from Mainz, Germany, identifies the dedicator as Syrian.
A long Latin inscription of the first century BC, engraved in a lead sheet and accompanying the sacrifice of a filly and the votive gift of a cauldron, was found in 1887 at Rom, Deux-Sèvres, the Roman Rauranum. Olmsted reads the inscription as invoking the goddess with an archaic profusion of epithets: Eponina 'dear little Epona', Atanta 'horse-goddess', Potia 'powerful Mistress' (compare Greek Potnia), Dibonia (Latin, the 'good goddess')", Catona 'of battle', noble and good Vovesia. However, Olmsted's interpretation has not been generally accepted by other scholars; Meid interprets the same inscription as an invocation of Dibona in vulgar Greek for aid in a romantic dispute.
Epona's feast day in the Roman calendar was given as December 18 on a rustic calendar from Guidizzolo, Italy, although this may have been only a local celebration. She was incorporated into the imperial cult by being invoked on behalf of the Emperor, as Epona Augusta or Epona Regina.
The supposed autonomy of Celtic civilization in Gaul^{[clarification needed]} suffered a further setback with Fernand Benoît's study of the funereal symbolism of the horseman with the serpent-tailed ("anguiforme") daemon, which he established as a theme of victory over death, and Epona; both he found to be late manifestations of Mediterranean-influenced symbolism, which had reached Gaul through contacts with Etruria and Magna Graecia. Benoît compared the rider with most of the riders imaged around the Mediterranean shores.
Perceptions of native Celtic goddesses had changed under Roman hegemony: only the names remained the same. As Gaul was Romanized under the early Empire, Epona’s sovereign role evolved into a protector of cavalry. The cult of Epona was spread over much of the Roman Empire by the auxiliary cavalry, alae, especially the Imperial Horse Guard or equites singulares augustii recruited from Gaul, Lower Germany, and Pannonia. A series of their dedications to Epona and other Celtic, Roman and German deities was found in Rome, at the Lateran. As Epane she is attested in Cantabria, northern Spain, on Mount Bernorio, Palencia, as Iccona Loiminna^{[dubious – discuss]} in Portugal on the Lusitanian inscription of Cabeço das Fráguas.
A euhemeristic account of Epona's origin occurs in the Parallela Minora, which were traditionally attributed to Plutarch (but are now classed as "Pseudo-Plutarch"):

Fulvius Stellus hated women and used to consort with a mare and in due time the mare gave birth to a beautiful girl and they named her Epona. She is the goddess that is concerned with the protection of horses. So Agesilaüs in the third book of his Italian History.

The tale was passed along in the context of unseemly man-beast coupling in Giambattista Della Porta's edition of Magia naturalis (1589), a potpourri of the sensible and questionable, erroneously citing Plutarch's Life of Solon. It may represent some recollection of Indo-European horse sacrifice, such as the Vedic ashvamedha and the Irish ritual described by Giraldus Cambrensis, both of which have to do with kingship. In the Celtic ritual, the king mates with a white mare thought to embody the goddess of sovereignty.

Iconography

Sculptures of Epona fall into five types, as distinguished by Benoît: riding, standing or seated before a horse, standing or seated between two horses, a tamer of horses in the manner of potnia theron and the symbolic mare and foal. In the Equestrian type, common in Gaul, she is depicted sitting side-saddle on a horse or (rarely) lying on one; in the Imperial type (more common outside Gaul) she sits on a throne flanked by two or more horses or foals. In distant Dacia, she is represented on a stela (now at the Szépmüvézeti Museum, Budapest) in the format of Cybele, seated frontally on a throne with her hands on the necks of her paired animals: her horses are substitutions for Cybele's lions.

In literature and art

Epona is mentioned in The Golden Ass by Apuleius, where an aedicular niche with her image on a pillar in a stable has been garlanded with freshly picked roses. In his Satires, the Roman poet Juvenal also links the worship and iconography of Epona to the area of a stable. Small images of Epona have been found in Roman sites of stables and barns over a wide territory. Epona is also indirectly mentioned in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, as one of his characters is named for her- Éponine. In popular video game series The Legend of Zelda, the main character's horse is named "Epona" after the goddess. The game horse is always brown or chestnut, with a white mane.

In Great Britain

The probable date of c. 1380-550 BC ascribed to the giant chalk horse carved into the hillside turf at Uffington, in southern England, may be too early to be directly associated with Epona, and may not actually represent a horse at all. The West Country traditional hobby-horse riders parading on May Day at Padstow, Cornwall and Minehead, Somerset, which survived to the mid-twentieth century, even though Morris dances had been forgotten, was thought by folklorists through the 20th Century to have deep roots in the veneration of Epona, as may the British aversion to eating horsemeat. At Padstow formerly, at the end of the festivities the hobby-horse was ritually submerged in the sea. However, there is no firm evidence of the festival before the 18th Century
A provincial, though not crude, small (7.5 cm high) Roman bronze of a seated Epona, flanked by a small mare and stallion, found in England, is conserved in the British Museum. Lying on her lap and on the patera raised in her right hand are disproportionately large ears of grain; ears of grain also protrude from the mouths of the ponies, whose heads are turned towards the goddess. On her left arm she holds a yoke, which curves up above her shoulder, an attribute unique to this bronze statuette.
The Welsh figure Rhiannon rides a white horse but has no other attributes in common with Epona. A south Welsh folk ritual call Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare) is still undertaken in December, which some folklorists likewise have held up as an apparent survival of the veneration of the goddess, but again there is no firm evidence to support the age of the practice. The pantomime horse is thought to be a related survival.

Today

On Mackinac Island, Michigan, Epona is celebrated each June with stable tours, a blessing of the animals and the Epona and Barkus Parade. Mackinac Island does not permit personal automobiles; the primary source of transportation remains the horse, so celebrating Epona has special significance on this island in the upper midwest. The "Feast of Epona" involves the blessing of horses and other animals by a local churchman.
Epona is also worshipped today by neo-druids and other pagans and polytheists.

 Epona, III secolo d.C., proveniente da Freyming (Mosella), Francia (Musée Lorrain, Nancy)

Marsyas - Opera propria

Stela representing the Gallic goddess Epona, 3rd c. AD, from Freyming (Moselle), France. Musée lorrain, Nancy

Epona and her horses, from Köngen, Germany, about 200 AD.

Rosemania - https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosemania/4121249698

Köngen, Germany. About 200 AD The motif of the "Lady of the Animals" lives on this religious depiction. Flanked by two horses, Epona is shown sitting on a throne holding a fruit basket on her lap. The Celtic goddess was revered as the patroness for wagoners. She was also popular among the military. The images was mainly occurred in the provinces of Gaul and Germania. Kunst der Kelten, Historisches Museum Bern. Art of the Celts, Historic Museum of Bern.

 Diagram of J. Krem revealing the Celtic Uneller coin "Raven riding a Mare" (Bibliothèque nationale de France, cabinets des Medailles ) in the zodiac sign of Leo.

IsarJoey   

de l'auteur de fouilles archéologiques ː Moreau.

Frédéric Moreau et illustrations de Pilloy. Versement et modifications ː G.Garitan - Album Caranda, exemplaire de la B.M. de Reims.

1892

 Album Caranda par Moreau

1892

Album Caranda par Moreau

1892

 Album Caranda par Moreau

1892

Blason Appoigny 89

 Evangelische Stadtkirche St. Blasius in Bopfingen im Ostalbkreis (Baden-Württemberg), Epona-Relief aus römischer Zeit, an der südlichen Außenmauer neben dem romanischen Portal

 GFreihalter - Own work

Catalogue des objets d'antiquité, collection Caranda

catalogue du musée de la rue de la Victoire.

Frédéric Moreau; versement et modifications ː G.Garitan - catalogue des objets d'antiquité, collection Caranda de la B.M. de Re̠ims

1896

Sculpture of Épona ; 2nd, 3rd-century ; sandstone ; found in Le Hérapel site (Cocheren, Moselle, France) ; kept in Metz museum

Fab5669 - Own work   

Plastik "Epona" aus der Reihe - Drei keltische Gottheiten: Rosmerta, Sirona, Epona von Paul Mersmann der Jüngere, vor dem Hoteleingang in der Salzgasse in Dresden

SchiDD - Own work

Divinité féminine (¿Epona?) vêtue d’une tunique et d’une longue jupe à plis. Strasbourg, place du Château. Peut-être Ⅲᵉ siècle.

Katastrov - Own work

Kamienna rzeźba Epony znaleziona na wzgórzu Auxois (Francja)

Epona, Gallo-roman statue, from Allerey, Dijon archeological museum, France

Siannan - Own work 

 Epona, Gallo-roman sculpture from Brasey-en-Plaine, Dijon archeological museum, France 

Siannan - Own work

Dea Epona

lavoir de Fontenilles, Thisy, statue de la divinité gauloise Epona

Ibex73 - Own work 

 EPONA

Stèle dédiée à Epona. Epoque gallo-romaine. Calcaire. découvert à Grand (Vosges). Musée départemental d'art ancien et contemporain d'Epinal.

Ji-Elle - Own work 

  Thow other very old chalk cut horses are the White HOrse of Westbury in Wiltshire and the Red Horse of Tysoe in Warwickshire.

Heros the horseman and Epona, 2nd-3rd century AD. Found at Hurlets (Augusta), Vratsa region, Bulgaria. National Archeological Museum, Sofia

Ad Meskens - Own work 

 Epona 8x10 

bas-relief gallo-romain en marbre de Saint-Béat représentant la déesse celte Epona.

Ecole d'Agassac (31) - Own work 

 Epona Goddess of Horses and Fertility Art Blank Card

Pferdegöttin Epona. Dieses Bild wurde in Kempten (APC) fotografiert.

Brackenheim - Own work 

From the National Archaeological Museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris France - Stele to goddess Epona found at Lantéfontaine in France

Cangadoba - Own work 

 Epona the Horse Goddess 

by  Rachel Arbuckle. Copyright 

 Epona - Celtic Goddess/Protector of Horses by IngridKVHardy

“Epona the Horse Goddess” by Gene Avery North

  Epona by rhiafaery

ModernDayMystic

Epona

 EPONA protector of Horses in a sunflower garden

  Incarnation: Epona
Painting, 19.7 H x 27.6 W x 0.8 in
Izabela Ewa Oldak
Poland

 

Epona by LinAki92

Epona: Celtic Goddess of Horses, Dreams, and Travelers
Painting, 30 H x 24 W x 0.5 in
Emily Andress
United States

Epona Base Card Art - Ingrid Hardy by Pernastudios

 Itinerant Mythologies
Drawing, 30 H x 40 W x 0.1 in
Lacey Stinson
United States

 Epona and the birth of the two sisters by Ziom05

Goddess Epona by DJNebulous

 Epona Lady