Epona
Gaulish · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Gaulish horse goddess of protection and sovereignty, adopted by the Roman cavalry; the only Celtic deity with an official feast day at Rome.
Domains
- horses sovereignty
Powers
- Protect horses, mares, foals and their riders
Epithets
- the Great Mare The horse-goddess, protectress of horses, mares, and cavalry — honoured even in the Roman army calendarGallo-Roman dedicatory inscriptions and reliefs (primary)
Relations
- equated with: Iccona the Shining Mare-GoddessIccona widely read as *Ekwona 'mare-goddess', etymological counterpart of Epona; contested — Prósper (2002) derives it from *eik- 'strike'. The equation rests wholly on this flagged reconstruction, not shared cult.Cabeço das Fráguas rock inscription (Lusitanian: ICCONA LOIM[I]NNA) (primary); A. Tovar, 'L'inscription du Cabeço das Fráguas et la langue lusitanienne', Études Celtiques 11 (1966-67) (secondary)
- equated with: RhiannonReciprocal of welsh_rhiannon.equated-with — Consensus reads Rhiannon < *Rigantona as the Welsh literary reflex of the Gaulish horse-goddess type: riding, magic birds, foal-linked calumniated mother. Names unrelated; Hemming urges caution — functional equation.W. J. Gruffydd, Rhiannon: An Inquiry into the Origins of the First and Third Branches of the Mabinogi (1953) (secondary); M. J. Green, The Gods of the Celts (1986) (secondary)
Sources
- existence: 200+ Epona inscriptions; Roman feast 18 December; cavalry dedications on the Rhine (primary); Gaulish epos 'horse'; M. Euskirchen, Epona (1993) (secondary)