Skull of a horse sacrificed by multiple sword blows during theIron Age (4-500 AD), found in Nydam Engmose, Denmark, at theZoological Museum, Copenhagen
Horse sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of ahorse, usually as part of a religious or cultural ritual. Horse sacrifices were common throughout Eurasia with thedomestication of the horse and continuing up until the spread ofAbrahamic religions, or in some places likeMongolia. The practice is rarely observed in some cultures[which?] even today.
Horses are oftensacrificed in a funerary context, and interred with the deceased, a practice calledhorse burial. There is evidence but no explicit myths from the three branches of Indo-Europeans of a major horse sacrifice ritual based on a speculated mythical union ofIndo-European kingship and the horse.[1] TheIndianAśvamedha is the clearest evidence preserved, but vestiges fromLatin andCeltic traditions allow the reconstruction of a few common attributes.
Some scholars, includingEdgar Polomé, regard the reconstruction of a purported common Proto-Indo-European ritual as unjustified due to the difference between the attested traditions.[2]
The reconstructed myth involves the coupling of a king with adivine mare which produced thedivine twins. A related myth is that of a hero magically twinned with a horse foaled at the time of his birth (for exampleCuchulainn,Pryderi), suggested to be fundamentally the same myth as that of the divine twin horsemen by the mytheme of a "mare-suckled" hero from Greek and medievalSerbian evidence, or mythical horses with human traits (Xanthos), suggestingtotemic identity of the hero or king with the horse.
A 19th-century painting, depicting the preparation of army to follow theAshvamedha sacrificial horse. Probably from a picture story depictingLakshmisa'sJaimini Bharata
Ashvamedha was a political ritual that was focused on theking's right to rule. The horse had to be a stallion and it would be permitted to wander for a year, accompanied by people of the king. If the horse roamed off into lands of an enemy then that territory would be taken by the king, and if the horse's attendants were killed in a fight by a challenger then the king would lose the right to rule. But if the horse stayed alive for a year then it was taken back to the king's court where it was bathed, consecrated with butter, decorated with golden ornaments and then sacrificed. After the completion of this ritual, the king would be considered as the undisputed ruler of the land which was covered by the horse.[3]
the sacrifice is connected with the elevation or inauguration of a member of theKshatriyavarna (warrior class).
the ceremony took place in spring or early summer.
the horse sacrificed was a stallion which won arace at the right side of thechariot.[4]
the horse sacrificed was white-colored with dark circular spots, or with a dark front part, or with a tuft of dark blue hair.[5]
it was bathed in water, in whichmustard andsesame are mixed.
it was suffocated alongside a hornless ram and a he-goat, among other animals.
the stallion was dissected along the "knife-paths"—with three knives made from gold, copper, and iron—and its portions awarded to variousdeities, symbolically invokingSky,Atmosphere andEarth, while other priests started reciting the verses ofVedas, seeking healing andrejuvenation for the horse.[6][7][8][9]
the horse was dedicated toMars, the Roman god of war
the sacrifice took place on theIdes of October, but through ritual reuse was used in a spring festival (theParilia)
two-horse chariot races determined the victim, which was the right-hand horse of the winning team
the horse is dismembered: the tail (cauda, possibly a euphemism for the penis) is taken to theRegia, the king's residence, while two factions battle for possession of the head as a talisman for the coming year
There is in a northern and remote part ofUlster, among theKenelcunil, a certaintribe which is wont to install a king over itself by an excessively savage and abominable ritual. In the presence of all the people of this land in one place, a white mare is brought into their midst. Thereupon he who is to be elevated, not to a prince but to a beast, not to a king but to an outlaw, steps forward in beastly fashion and exhibits his bestiality. Right thereafter the mare is killed and boiled piecemeal in water, and in the same water a bath is prepared for him. He gets into the bath and eats of the flesh that is brought to him, with his people standing around and sharing it with him. He also imbibes the broth in which he is bathed, not from any vessel, nor with his hand, but only with his mouth. When this is done right according to such unrighteous ritual, his rule and sovereignty are consecrated.[12]
This has been seen as propaganda meant to paint the Irish as a barbaric people and thus justify Anglo-Norman conquest.[13] However, there may be some truth in the account, because there are mentions of similar horse sacrifices associated with kingship in India (theashvamedha) and Scandinavia.[11]
TheStentoften Stone, bearing a runic inscription that likely describes ablót of nine he-goats and nine male horses bringing fertility to the land[14]
Horse sacrifice played a central role inGermanic paganism, with themeat typically being eaten afterwards. The most detailed account of ablót of a horse is given in the saga ofHákon the Good inHeimskringla in which horses and cattle are killed and their blood collected to be sprinkled over the walls of thehof, while their meat is cooked for the attendants.[15][16] This is consistent with archaeological finds dating to theEarly Medieval Period fromEngland andScandinavia showing deposits of horses that have been eaten.[15]
The primary archaeological context of horse sacrifice are burials, notablychariot burials, but graves with horse remains reach from theEneolithic well into historical times.Herodotus describes the execution of horses at the burial of aScythian king, and Iron Agekurgan graves known to contain horses number in the hundreds. There are also frequent deposition of horses in burials inIron Age India. The custom is by no means restricted to Indo-European populations, but is continued byTurkic tribes.
^Thomas V. Gamkrelidze; Vjaceslav V. Ivanov (1995).Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and Proto-Culture. Part I: The Text. Part II: Bibliography, Indexes. Walter de Gruyter.
^abDavidson, Hilda Ellis (1988).Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions. Syracuse University Press. p. 54.
^Est igitur in boreali et ulteriori Vltoniae parte, scilicet apud Kenelcunil, gens quaedam, quae barbaro nimis et abhominabili ritu sic sibi regem creare solet. Collecto in unum universo terrae illius populo, in medium producitur, iumentum candidum. Ad quod sullimandus ille non in principem sed in beluam, non in regem sed exlegem, coram omnibus bestialiter accedens, se quoque bestiam profitetur. Et statim iumento interfecto, et frustatim in aqua decocto, in eadem aqua balneum ei paratur. Cui insidens, de carnibus illis sibi allatis, circumstante populo suo et convescente, comedit ipse. De iure quoque quo lavatur, non vase aliquo, non manu, sed ore tantum circumquaque haurit et bibit. Quibus ita rite, non recte completis, regnum illius et dominium est confirmatum: English translation fromJaan Puhvel, "Aspects of Equine Functionality," inAnalecta Indoeuropaea (Innsbruck, 1981), pp. 188–189.
^Byrnes, Michael (2005). "Feis". In Duffy, Seán (ed.).Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. pp. 278–279.
^abMagnell, Ola (2019). "Animals of Sacrifice: Animals and the Blót in the Old Norse Sources and Ritual Depositions of Bones from Archaeological Sites".Myth, Materiality and Lived Religion:303–328.
Alberro, Manuel (2003): «El mito y el ritual indoeuropeo de la yegua: paralelos entre la India aria, la Irlanda céltica y la antigua Grecia», Flor. Il. 14, pp. 9-34.
Alberro, Manuel. (2004). "El rol del sacrificio del caballo en las estructuras míticas y religiosas de los pueblos indo-europeos relacionadas con el concepto dumeziliano tripartito de organización social". Habis, Nº 35, 2004, pags. 7-30.ISSN0210-7694.
Argent, Gala. "KILLING (CONSTRUCTED) HORSES – INTERSPECIES ELDERS, EMPATHY AND EMOTION, AND THE PAZYRYK HORSE SACRIFICES." In People with Animals: Perspectives and Studies in Ethnozooarchaeology, edited by Broderick Lee G. Oxford; Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2016. Accessed June 16, 2020. pp. 19-32. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh1dr8g.6.
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