Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Epona-Roman Goddess of Horses and Fertility
Epona-Roman Goddess of Horses and Fertility
Goddess of Horses
The essay
Carey T. Coleman Jr.
[Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of
the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of
the contents of the document.]
Carey Coleman
Margo Miller
9-12-10
Abstract essay on Epona: The Gallo Roman goddess and protectress of horses and riders
Whilst playing a videogame I observed a horse, and reading characters words caught that the
horse’s name was Epona. I thought nothing of the symbolism behind “Epona” the horse, which like
Alexander and Bucephalus, was only tamable by the Hero of Time (Link). That being said with research
on horses in general in ancient history, one notices how horses are majestically portrayed and how both
civilizations worshiped many gods. Epona was popular back in the ancient day, but today she is forever
immortalized by todays artists, and videogame designers. Epona, from the research I found was the only
Epona had the ability to take human form or horse form and she was frequently seen as a strong,
beautiful woman with a long mane of hair or as a magnificently strong horse, “. Typically, as a horse she
is white; despite the image shift that Nintendo performed in creating their “Epona” as a brown horse
with white hair. Her normal coloring, white, is known to symbolize her purity and goodness (to horses
Epona is a highly nurturing goddess, her naturalistic portrayals hint at her earthy quality and her
concern for the earth and the land that her horses ride on and her riders ride. Gene King portrays her
vision of Epona naked on a white horse. The very naturalistic, pastoral texture contributes to the
contrast between the owls and wolves. The moon in the background is very symbolic of darkness but
light in darkness as well. The water she rides on is very shimmery from the light from the moon. The
picture clearly illustrates her animal side by the way Epona savors the ride on her horse which could
allude to the duality of her character, being portrayed either as a white horse or a fairly attractive
Her benevolent nature is seen in a 4 th century relief from Roman Macedonia. She is sitting on a
thone-like chair and is surrended by 4 horses, 2 on each side. The symmetry of it could suggest that no
horse is or horses are worth more than another is, so that would go under her mother tendencies, which
for a goddess who also is for fertility, would fit. What is somewhat strange is they are all at the same
level of height. A similar piece of work is a sculpture from the second century AD in Köngen, Germany.
It has Epona with just two horses and in this she is also seated on a chair. The bizarre twist is Epona is
holding a fruit basket, and I usually associate fruit with fertility and abundance…like in the phrase “be
fruitful and multiply”. Epona here, is attired in Celtic robes, which does indefinitely hint at her Celtic
origins.
The point I stress is that Epona was the only Celtic deity that the Romans actually worshiped
throughout their massive empire. The main places one would find artifacts for her would be in stables
and places where army folk stayed, hence her purpose of protecting horses and their riders, also
indirectly I could infer the aloof behavior (sexual desire) of soldiers on leave could account for her
The Parthenon, though Greek I am sure they had white horses on their Parthenon frieze. I
would make that claim based on Haynes’s book The Parthenon Frieze and the plates inside it. Most
ancient Roman and Greek portrayals of horses were white in general (unless on a vase).
I would say despite the plethora of content we have today on Epona, she was more used in
ancient times. She was a Celtic goddess who became a roman goddess and was the only Celtic god