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EPONA

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 708 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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EPONA , a goddess of horses, asses and mules, worshipped by the See also:

Romans, though of See also:

FOREIGN

foreign, probably Gallic, origin. The See also:

MAJORITY (Fr. majorite; Med. Lat. majoritas; Lat. major, greater)

majority of See also:

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

inscriptions and images bearing her name have been found in See also:

Gaul, See also:

Germany and the See also:

DANUBE (Ger. Donau, Hungarian Duna, Rumanian Dunarea, Lat. Danubius or Danuvius, and in the lower part of its course Ister)

Danube countries; of the few that occur in See also:

Rome itself most were exhumed on the site of the See also:

barracks of the See also:

EQUITES (" horsemen " or " knights," from eques," horse ")

equites singulares, a foreign imperial See also:

BODY

body-guard mainly recruited from the Batavians. Her name does not appear in See also:

TERTULLIAN (c. 155-c. 222)

Tertullian's See also:

list of the indigetes di, and See also:

JUVENAL (DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS) (c. 60-140)

Juvenal contrasts her See also:

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

worship unfavourably with the old See also:

ROMAN

Roman Numa See also:

RITUAL (from Lat. ritus, a custom, especially a religious rite or custom)

ritual. Her cult does not appear to have been introduced before imperial times, when she is often called See also:

AUGUSTA

Augusta and invoked on behalf of the See also:

EMPEROR (Fr. empereur, from the Lat. imperator)

emperor and the imperial See also:

house. Her See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief See also:

FUNCTION

function, however, was to see that the beasts of See also:

BURDEN, or BURTHEN

burden were duly fed, and to protect them against accidents and malicious See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence. In the countries in which the worship of Epona was said to have had its origin it was a See also:

COMMON

common belief that certain beings were in the See also:

HABIT (through the French from Lat. habitus, from habere, to have, hold, or, in a reflective sense, to be in a certain condition; in many of the English senses the French use habitude, not habit)

habit of casting a spell over stables during the See also:

NIGHT

night. The Romans used to See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place the See also:

IMAGE (Lat. imago, perhaps from the same root as imitari, copy, imitate)

image of the goddess, crowned with See also:

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

flowers on festive occasions, in a sort of See also:

SHRINE (Lat. scrinium, a case or chest for books, hence a casket; from scribere, to write, Fr. ecrin, Ital. scrigno)

shrine in the centre of the See also:

ARCHITRAVE (from Lat. arcus, an arch, and trabs, trabem, a beam)

architrave of the See also:

STABLE

stable. In See also:

ART

art she is generally represented seated, with her See also:

hand on the See also:

head of the accompanying See also:

HORSE (a word common to Teutonic languages in such forms as hors, hros, ros; cf. the Ger. ross)

horse or See also:

animal. See Tertullian, Apol. 16; Juvenal viii. 157; See also:

PRUDENTIUS, AURELIUS CLEMENS (348-c. 410)

Prudentius, Apoth. 197; See also:

APULEIUS, LUCIUS

Apuleius, Metam. iii.

27; articles in Daremberg and Saglio's Dict. See also:

DES

des antiquites and Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie.

End of Article: EPONA

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