THE ROLE OF AHALTEKE
HORSE IN THE FORMATION OF WORLD HORSE-BREEDING
MATERIALS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE
DEDICATED TO THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENT
TURKMENISTAN
The State Institute
of Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of Turkmenistan, Central Asia, and the
Orient under the President of Turkmenistan
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan
State Association “Turkmen Altary”
Editor-in-Chief
– Masson V.M.
pp.
103-104
G. BURGER (GERMANY)
THE HORSE IN THE CELTIC RELIGION, MYTHOLOGY, WARFARE
AND ART
The
archeological, oral and written sources testify for the Proto-Indoeuropean/Iranian
origin of the Celts. They had not only the same linguistic basis, but also many
common gods of the Pantheon. Celtic religious expression is represented in the
Roman period by epigraphy and iconography. By inscriptions we learn the names
of deities; imagery shows how they are perceived as physical manifestations of
the supernatural. One of the most worshipped godesses was the horse due to the
fact that the Celts, like their Indoeuropean ancestors and similar to the early
nomads of the steppess, were horsemen and warriors. The horse was not only
means of transport and economical basis, but represented a privilege of the
elite.
The Celtic horse-goddess was known under the names of
Epona (*ekyo=horse ), Macha and Rhiannon. She was the protectrice of the
cavalry, chariot and transport. Later she became even the goddess of the
Roman-Gaulish legionaries. She is represented either sitting on a side saddle,
holding a magical small bird or fruit, symbol of fertility, in her hand, or
standing between two horses.
Another evidence of her worship is a rite going back
to remote times: sitting around a big kettle warriors ate the bones and drank
the blood of a horse, a sort of magic to strengthen their sense of
community. The veneration of the horse-goddess
becomes most obvious by the sacrifices made for her by the druids.
The discs represented
together with her are usually explained by her connection with the sun, but
they can also mean contacts with the wheels of the chariot.
Many mystical
attributes link her with death as portrayals on steles put up near barrows of
aristocratic Celts testify. Another, still more distinct evidence of the link
of the horse with death, represent the horse-burials, though not very frequent,
compared to the Skythians. Instead of a horse, parts of a horse, harnesses or
chariots were put into the tumuli. The dead warrior was, together with food ,
put on his light prestige-chariot to be taken to the next world.
An enigmatic role plays
the white horse standing for wisdom, majesty, justice. Allusions to it are
already in the Sanskrit Rigveda of the second millennium B.C.
The Celtic warfare- strategy consisted of cavalry and
light, mostly two –wheeled, chariots. In the third and second centuries B.C.
the cavlry was replaced by chariots drawn by two horses and mounted by a guide
and a warrior. After having thrown his javelin, the latter jumped down,
fighting with his sword.
Their warfare-strategy enabled the Celts to conquer
most of Europe and even parts of the Near East.
The Celtic art does not only witness the Celts’ unique
creativity, but are also precious documents of Celtish feasts the high spots of
which were horse and chariot-racing engraved on bronze situlae (bucklets). Most
of representations of horses appear on coins, though transformed in fantastic
personages. The coins illustrate the Celtic
history and their conception of the world. They represent on the one side
engravings of a deity, on the other animals, mostly horses; either in the
fantastic La-téne-style or transformed by abstraction and reduction. The
portrayals witness to the artistic creativity as well as to their mythological
connection. The coins, having been used as offering in holy places, belong to
the sacred sphere. Thus the horse,
being represented on coins, also belongs to it. lt is known that the Celts were
greedy for luxury and gold. But as the
passage by Diodoros from Sicily (V,27) shows, to worship their gods was
for the Celts a duty and more important than to mass gold. He writes: there is much gold in the country
of the Celts which the natives pick up when the foam of the rivers bounces
against the rocks. They make of it
rings and bracelets for men and women, massive necklaces and even harnesses.
Much of the gold if offered to the deities to sacred places. Though the Celts
love money, nobody would dare to touch it of fear of their gods.
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