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Many Indo-European branches show evidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggests that they derive from a PIE ritual. 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 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. Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ...
Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ...
A sheep is led to the altar, 6th century BC Corinthian fresco. ...
The Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE) were a patrilineal society of the Bronze Age (roughly 5th to 4th millennium BC), probably semi-nomadic, relying on animal husbandry. ...
The Latins were an ancient Italic people of Latium Vetus (Old Latium), who migrated to the area in the 2nd millennium B.C. from the north []. Although they lived in independent city-states, the Latins had a common language (Latin), common religious beliefs and a close sense of kinship, expressed...
This article is about the European people. ...
Some scholars, including Edgar Polomé, regards the reconstruction of a PIE ritual as unjustified due to the difference between the attested traditions (EIEC s.v. Horse, p. 278). The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture or EIEC, edited by James P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams, was published in 1997 by Fitzroy Dearborn. ...
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. 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. Horse worship is a pagan practice that may be demonstrated in Europe in the Iron Age, and perhaps in the Bronze Age. ...
The Divine twins are a mytheme of Proto-Indo-European mythology. ...
Young Cúchulainn, 1912 illustration by Stephen Reid. ...
In Welsh mythology, King Pryderi of Dyfed was the son of Pwyll and Rhiannon. ...
In Greek mythology, Xanthos (yellow) was an alternate spelling for Xanthus. ...
A totem is any natural or supernatural object, being or animal which has personal symbolic meaning to an individual and to whose phenomena and energy one feels closely associated with during ones life. ...
Comparative evidence The Indian Ashvamedha involves the following: The Ashvamedha ( horse sacrifice) is one of the most important royal rituals of Vedic religion, described in detail in the Yajurveda (TS 7. ...
- 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 disected 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 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 Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) or Gerald De Barri, to give his Norman name, one of the greatest Welsh writers in Latin, was born at Manorbier, Pembrokeshire around 1146. ...
- 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
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. 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. There are also frequent deposition of horses in burials in Iron Age India. The custom is by no means restricted to Indo-European populations, but is continued by Turkic tribes as the cultural successors of the Scythians. Chariot burials are tombs in which the deceased was buried together with his chariot, usually including his horses and other possessions. ...
The Chalcolithic (Greek khalkos + lithos copper stone) period, also known as the Eneolithic or Copper Age period, is a phase in the development of human culture in which the use of early metal tools appeared alongside the use of stone tools. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Scythia was an area in Eurasia inhabited in ancient times by an Indo-Aryans known as the Scythians. ...
Sarmatian Kurgan 4th c. ...
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. ...
References - J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams (eds.), Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn (1997).
The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture or EIEC, edited by James P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams, was published in 1997 by Fitzroy Dearborn. ...
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