Editing Epona (section)

==Evidence==
[[Image:Epona.jpg|thumb|Epona and her horses, from Köngen, Germany, about 200 AD]]
Fernand Benoît found the earliest attestations of a religion of Epona in the [[Danubian provinces]] and asserted that she had been introduced in the ''[[Limes (Roman Empire)|limes]]'' of Gaul by horsemen from the east.<ref>Benoît, F. (1950). ''Les mythes de l'outre-tombe. Le cavalier à l'anguipède et l'écuyère Épona''. Brussels, Latomus Revue d'études latines.</ref> That suggestion has not been generally taken up.
 
Although the name is Gaulish, dedicatory inscriptions to Epona are in [[Latin language|Latin]] or, rarely, [[Greek language|Greek]]. They were made not only by [[Celt]]s, but also by [[Ancient Germany|German]]s, Romans, and other inhabitants of the [[Roman Empire]]. An inscription to Epona from Mainz, Germany, identifies the dedicator as Syrian.<ref>''CIL'' 13, 11801</ref>

A long Latin inscription of the first century BC, engraved in a lead sheet and accompanying the sacrifice of a filly and the [[votive gift]] of a cauldron, was found in 1887 at [[Rom, Deux-Sèvres]], the Roman Rauranum. Olmsted reads the inscription as invoking the goddess with an archaic profusion of epithets: ''Eponina'' 'dear little Epona', ''Atanta'' 'horse-goddess', ''Potia'' 'powerful Mistress' (compare Greek ''[[Potnia]]''), ''Dibonia'' (Latin, the 'good goddess')", ''Catona'' 'of battle', noble and good ''Vovesia''.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} However, Olmsted's interpretation has not been generally accepted by other scholars; Meid interprets the same inscription as an invocation of [[Divona|Dibona]] in vulgar Greek for aid in a romantic dispute.<ref>{{cite book |author=Wolfgang Meid |editor1-first=Pierre-Yves |editor1-last=Lambert |editor2-first=Georges-Jean |editor2-last=Pinault |pages=277–290 |title=Gaulois et celtique continental |chapter=Pseudogallische inschriften |year=2007 |publisher=Librairie Droz |isbn=9782600013376}}</ref>

Epona's feast day in the Roman calendar was given as December 18 on a rustic calendar from [[Guidizzolo]], Italy,<ref>Vaillant, 1951.</ref> although this may have been only a local celebration. She was incorporated into the [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|imperial cult]] by being invoked on behalf of the Emperor, as ''Epona Augusta'' or ''Epona Regina''.

The supposed autonomy of Celtic civilization in Gaul{{clarify|date=June 2015}} suffered a further setback with Fernand Benoît's study<ref>Benoît 1950.</ref> of the funereal symbolism of the horseman with the serpent-tailed (''"anguiforme"'') daemon, which he established as a theme of victory over death, and Epona; both he found to be late manifestations of Mediterranean-influenced symbolism, which had reached Gaul through contacts with [[Etruria]] and [[Magna Graecia]]. Benoît compared the rider with most of the riders imaged around the Mediterranean shores.

Perceptions of native Celtic goddesses had changed under Roman [[hegemony]]: only the names remained the same. As Gaul was Romanized under the early Empire, Epona's sovereign role evolved into a protector of cavalry.<ref>Oaks 1986:79–81.</ref> The cult of Epona was spread over much of the Roman Empire by the auxiliary cavalry, ''[[Ala (Roman military)|alae]]'', especially the Imperial Horse Guard or ''equites singulares augustii'' recruited from [[Gaul]], [[Germania Inferior|Lower Germany]], and [[Pannonia]]. A series of their dedications to Epona and other Celtic, Roman, and German deities was found in Rome, at the Lateran.<ref>Spiedel, 1994.</ref> Her cult is said to have been "widespread also in [[Carinthia]] and [[Styria]]".<ref>Kropej, Monika. “The Horse As a Cosmological Creature in the Slovene Mythopoetic Heritage". ''[[Studia Mythologica Slavica]]'' 1 (May/1998). Ljubljana, Slovenija. 156. https://doi.org/10.3986/sms.v1i0.1871.</ref>

As '''Epane''' she is attested in [[Cantabria]], northern Spain, on Mount Bernorio, Palencia;<ref>Simón.</ref> as '''Iccona Loiminna'''{{dubious|date=October 2012}} in  Portugal on the [[Lusitanians|Lusitanian]] inscription of [[Lusitanian language#Writing system|Cabeço das Fráguas]].

A [[euhemerist]]ic account of Epona's origin occurs in the ''Parallela Minora'', which were traditionally attributed to [[Plutarch]] (but are now classed as "Pseudo-Plutarch"):

<blockquote>Fulvius Stellus hated women and used to consort with a mare and in due time the mare gave birth to a beautiful girl and they named her Epona. She is the goddess that is concerned with the protection of horses. So [[Agesilaus (historian)|Agesilaüs]] in the third book of his ''Italian History.''<ref>Pseudo-Plutarch, ''Parallela Minora'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Parallela_Minora*.html#29 29], also found cited as 312e (= Agesilaus ''[[FGrHist]]'' F 1).</ref>
</blockquote>
The tale was passed along in the context of unseemly man-beast coupling<!--presumably this is what the originally confusing statement here had meant--> in [[Giambattista Della Porta]]'s edition of ''Magia naturalis'' (1589), a potpourri of the sensible and questionable, erroneously citing Plutarch's ''Life of Solon''.<ref>{{cite web|author=Giambattista Della Porta|title=Magia naturalis, sive De miraculis rerum naturalium|location=Lyon|year=1569|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z9j1m8oXBlEC}}{{page needed|date=May 2012}}<!--I'm not finding the reference to Epona in either the Antwerp 1562 edition or this one, which may be the correct date rather than 1589, though I'm nothing but grateful for the discovery of this charming work--></ref> It may represent some recollection of  [[Indo-European religion|Indo-European]] [[horse sacrifice]], such as the [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic]] ''[[ashvamedha]]'' and the [[Horse sacrifice#Irish|Irish ritual described by Giraldus Cambrensis]], both of which have to do with kingship. In the Celtic ritual, the king mates with a white mare thought to embody the goddess of sovereignty.<ref>[[Martin Litchfield West|M.L. West]], ''Indo-European Poetry and Myth'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 418.</ref><ref>Miriam Robbins Dexter, "Horse Goddess," in ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture'' (Taylor & Francis, 1997), p. 280.</ref>