Horse sacrifice - Citizendia

Many Indo-European branches show evidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggests that they derive from a PIE ritual. The horse ( Equus caballus) is a hoofed ( Ungulate) Mammal, one of eight living species of the family Equidae. Animal Sacrifice is the Ritual killing of an Animal as part of a Religion. The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European (IE peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European In most instances, the horses are sacrificed in a funerary context, and interred with the deceased. There is evidence from three branches of Indo-European of a major horse sacrifice ritual based on a mythical union of Indo-European kingship and the horse. The society of the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE existed during the Bronze Age (roughly fifth to fourth millennium BC and has been reconstructed The clearest picture is afforded by the Indian Aśvamedha is the clearest evidence preserved, but vestiges from Latin and Celtic traditions allow the reconstruction of a few common attributes. The Ashvamedha ( Sanskrit: sa अश्वमेध aśvamedhá; " Horse sacrifice " was one of the most important royal Rituals Latin is the name of various peoples or ethnicities related to the Latium region in the Italian Peninsula, to the Latin language, or to its descendants Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts

Some scholars, including Edgar Polomé, regards the reconstruction of a PIE ritual as unjustified due to the difference between the attested traditions (EIEC s. Edgar Charles Polomé (1920-2000 was a Belgian Indo-Europeanist and professor of comparative religions and languages at the University of Texas. The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture is an Encyclopedia of Indo-European studies and the Proto-Indo-Europeans. v. Horse, p. 278).

1 Etymology
2 Mythology
3 Comparative evidence
4 Archaeology
5 References
6 See also

Etymology

The Gaulish personal name Epomeduos is from *ek'wo-medhu- "horse+mead", while aśvamedha is either from *ek'wo-mad-dho- "horse+drunk" or *ek'wo-mey-dho- "horse+strength".

Mythology

Further information: horse worship

The reconstructed myth involves the coupling of a king with a divine mare which produced the divine twins. Horse worship is a pagan practice that may be demonstrated in Europe in the Iron Age, and perhaps in the Bronze Age. In Gallo-Roman religion Celtic mythology without citing a specific instance of Celtic mythology where Epona appears please --> Epona '''po''' nə The Divine twins are a Mytheme of Proto-Indo-European mythology. A related myth is that of a hero magically twinned with a horse foaled at the time of his birth (e. g. Cuchulainn, Pryderi), suggested to be fundamentally the same myth as that of the divine twin horsemen by the mytheme of a "mare-suckled" hero from Greek and medieval Serb evidence, or mythical horses with human traits (Xanthos), suggesting totemic identity of the Indo-European hero or king with the horse. Cúchulainn /kuːˈxʊlɪnʲ/ ( ( Irish for "Hound of Culann " also spelled Cú Chulainn, Cú Chulaind, Cúchulain, or Pryderi is the son of Pwyll and Rhiannon in Welsh mythology, and a king of Dyfed. Xanthos ( Lycian: Arñna, Greek: Ξάνθος was the name of a city in ancient Lycia, the site of present day Kınık, A totem is any supposed entity that watches over or assists a group of people such as a family Clan or tribe ( Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Webster's

Comparative evidence

The Indian Ashvamedha involves the following:

the sacrifice is connected with the elevation or inauguration of a member of the warrior caste
the ceremony took place in springtime
the horse sacrificed was a grey or white stallion
the stallion selected was one which excelled at the right side of the chariot
it was bathed in water wherein a sacrificed dog had been deposited
it was sacrificed alongside a hornless ram and a he-goat
the queen underwent "mock-coupling" with the stallion
the stallion was dissected and its portions awarded to various deities

The Roman Equus October involves:

the horse was dedicated to Mars
the sacrifice took place in September to October, corresponding to the Indian "month of the yoked horses" (ashvayuja). The Ashvamedha ( Sanskrit: sa अश्वमेध aśvamedhá; " Horse sacrifice " was one of the most important royal Rituals The Equirria (Festival of Mars - held on February 27, First Equirria and March 14, Second Equirria were holy days with religious and military significance
the horse sacrificed was a stallion which excelled at the right side of the chariot
the slaughtered stallion is dismembered and various parts (head and tail, and possibly the penis) are sent to different locations

The Irish ceremony as recorded by Geraldus Cambrensis:

the king likely (Geraldus is not explicit) couples with the mare to be sacrificed
the horse is dismembered and cooked in a cauldron, and consumed by the king who is also sitting in the cauldron

The Norse ceremony according to the description in Hervarar saga of the Swedish inauguration of Blot-Sweyn, the last or next to last pagan Germanic king, c. Gerald of Wales (c 1146 &ndash c 1223 also known as Gerallt Gymro in Welsh or Giraldus Cambrensis in Latin, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks is a Legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas Blot-Sven (Blot-Sven "Sweyn the Sacrificer" was a Swedish king c Germanic monarchy, also called barbarian monarchy, was a monarchical systemof government which was predominant among the Germanic tribes of Late Antiquity 1080:

the horse is dismembered for eating
the blood is sprinkled on the sacred tree at Uppsala. The Sacred tree at Uppsala was a sacred tree located at the Temple at Uppsala, Sweden, in the second half of the 11th century.

The Völsa þáttr also mentions religious veneration of the penis of a slaughtered stallion. Völsa þáttr is a short story which is only extant in the Flatey Book, where it is found in a chapter of Óláfs saga helga.

Archaeology

The primary archaeological context of horse sacrifice are burials, notably chariot burials, but graves with horse remains reach from the Eneolithic well into historical times. Chariot burials are Tombs in which the deceased was buried together with his Chariot, usually including his (more rarely her Horses and other possessions The Chalcolithic (Greek khalkos + lithos ' Copper stone' period or Copper Age period known as the '''Eneolithic''' ('''Æneolithic''' is a Herodotus describes the execution of horses at the burial of a Scythian king, and Iron Age kurgan graves known to contain horses number in the hundreds. Herodotus of Halicarnassus ( Greek: Hēródotos Halikarnāsseús) was a Greek Historian who lived in the 5th century BC ( 484 BC&ndash The Scythians or Scyths (Σκύθες Σκύθοι were an Iranian speaking people of horse-riding Nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic Kurgan (курга́н is the Russian word (of Turkic origin for a Tumulus, a type of Burial mound or barrow heaped over a There are also frequent deposition of horses in burials in Iron Age India. The Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent succeeds the Late Harappan (Cemetery H culture also known as the last phase of the Indus Valley Tradition The custom is by no means restricted to Indo-European populations, but is continued by Turkic tribes as the cultural successors of the Scythians. The Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern central and western Eurasia who speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family

References

J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams (eds. ), Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn (1997). The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture is an Encyclopedia of Indo-European studies and the Proto-Indo-Europeans.

Contents

Etymology

Mythology

Comparative evidence

Archaeology

References

See also