Epona- Celtic GodDeity"Great Mare"

The Birth of Epona

Her name means "Divine Horse" in Gaulish, from epos with the divine suffix -ona. A birth myth survives in a fragment preserved by the late antique writer Agesilaos, cited in a collection attributed to Pseudo-Plutarch. A man named Phoulonios Stellos despised human women and loved a mare instead. From this union a daughter was born, both human and divine, whom he named Epona. She became the protector of all horses and all who depended on them.

The Cult in Gaul

Epona's cult originated among the horse-breeding peoples of eastern Gaul, likely the Mediomatrici or Leuci tribes in what is now Lorraine. Dozens of inscriptions, reliefs, and bronze figurines from Gallic sites attest to her worship. At Alesia, where Vercingetorix made his last stand against Caesar, her dedications were found alongside those of other Gaulish deities.

In most surviving images, Epona rides sidesaddle on a mare, holding a cornucopia or an offering dish. In others, she sits between two horses who eat from her hands. Over three hundred reliefs and figurines survive.

Her worshippers came from all ranks. Horse-breeders venerated her for the health of their herds. Travelers invoked her for safe passage along the roads. Bronze figurines of the goddess, ten to fifteen centimeters tall, were placed in household shrines and at roadside way-stations. Stone reliefs carried simple dedications: Eponae sacrum, sacred to Epona.

Rome's Horse Goddess

Roman cavalry auxiliary units, many recruited from Celtic lands, carried Epona into every corner of the Empire. Cavalrymen set up altars in their barracks and decorated stables with her images. Apuleius describes a shrine to Epona set into a stable pillar, garlanded with roses. Juvenal mentions her alongside other stable gods.

Epona's festival fell on December 18. Stables were decorated with roses, and horses were exempted from work.

Rome routinely absorbed provincial deities by identifying them with existing gods. Lugus became Mercury. Sulis became Minerva. Epona kept her Gaulish name unchanged. She was never renamed, never merged into the existing pantheon. She entered Rome as herself.