In Gallo-Roman religion, Epona was the protector of horses, ponies, donkeys, and mules. She was particularly a fertility goddess, as evidenced by her attributes of a patera, cornucopia, ears of wheat, and the presence of foals in some sculptures. She and her horses may also have been the leaders of the soul in the ride to the afterlife, with parallels in Rhiannon of the Mabinogion.
Epona, the Gallic goddess who became Roman
The cult of Epona, the only deity Celtic eventually worshipped in Rome itself, as patroness of cavalry, was widespread in the Roman Empire between the first and third centuries CE; this is unusual for a Celtic deity, most of whom were associated with specific localities.
Epona is associated with the horse, the emblematic animal of the Gallic military aristocracy, whose expeditions led to the spread of her cult, and later with the mule..
Her horsemanship cult was accepted globally by Roman civilization. Represented by a mare and a cornucopia, the latter sometimes replaced by a basket of fruit, she is the great horsewoman goddess or mare goddess.
The inscriptions give it many qualifiers, often of low Latin: Eponina (little Epone), Atanta (holy goddess), Potia (powerful lady, from the Homeric epithet ποτνία / potnia), Dibonia (good goddess), Catona (battle) or Voveria.
Later, when she was integrated into the Roman religion, she received the titles of Augusta and Regina, like other Gallic divinities such as Vesunna Augusta.
The frequency of remains of Epona in military sites and the traces of worship rendered by soldiers or cavalry officers reveals that these are clearly Celts recruited as auxiliaries or as regulars in the Roman army who introduced the veneration of Epona, protector of horses or at least closely associated with them. Thus, his cult was transmitted by the soldiers. Gallic incorporated into the Roman armies by the Romans themselves between the first and third centuries AD.
Apparently extraordinary for a divinity of Gallic origin, Epona managed to integrate herself into the Roman calendar and even join the Roman pantheon. While in the imperial era, the trend was rather towards the Romanization of traditional Gallic gods, Epona kept her own identity. The Romans easily associated the horse with the Gallic peoples.
The Roman calendar would have dedicated December 18 to him, as shown by the agricultural calendar of Guidizzolo, in Italy. even if it may be a simple local celebration.
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On this day, the Gallo-Romans celebrated Epona, the goddess of cavalry. The only Celtic deity to have been worshipped in Rome, she entered the Roman pantheon and calendar. Epona represents the Gallic aristocracy, very present after the conquest of Gaul by Caesar. #mythology #myth #legend #calendar #18December #epona #rome #gaul
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