词条 | Horse sacrifice |
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Many Indo-European religious branches show evidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggests that they derive from a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) ritual. ContextHorses are often sacrificed in a funerary context, and interred with the deceased, a practice called horse burial. There is evidence but no explicit myths from the three branches of Indo-Europeans of a major horse sacrifice ritual based on a mythical union of Indo-European kingship and the horse.[1] The Indian Aśvamedha is the clearest evidence preserved, but vestiges from Latin and Celtic traditions allow the reconstruction of a few common attributes. Some scholars, including Edgar Polomé, regard the reconstruction of a PIE ritual as unjustified due to the difference between the attested traditions.[2] EtymologyThe Gaulish personal name Epomeduos is from ek'wo-medhu- ("horse + mead"), while aśvamedha is either from ek'wo-mad-dho- ("horse + drunk") or ek'wo-mey-dho- ("horse + strength"). Mythology{{see|Horse worship|White horse (mythology)}}The reconstructed myth involves the coupling of a king with a divine mare which produced the divine twins. A related myth is that of a hero magically twinned with a horse foaled at the time of his birth (for example Cuchulainn, 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 medieval Serbian evidence, or mythical horses with human traits (Xanthos), suggesting totemic identity of the Indo-European hero or king with the horse. Comparative ritualsVedic (Indian){{see|Ashvamedha}}The Indian Ashvamedha involves the following:
Roman{{Main|October Horse}}The Roman Equus October ceremony involved:[3]
IrishGeraldus Cambrensis recorded a ceremony among the Irish:
The major points of comparison involve:
NorseThe Norse ceremony according to the description in Hervarar saga of the Swedish inauguration of Blot-Sweyn, the last or next to last pagan Germanic king, c. 1080:
The Völsa þáttr mentions a Norse pagan ritual involving veneration of the penis of a slaughtered stallion.[5] A freshly cut horse head was also used in setting up a nithing pole for a Norse curse.[6] ArchaeologyThe primary archaeological context of horse sacrifice are burials, notably chariot burials, but graves with horse remains reach from the Eneolithic well into historical times. Herodotus describes the execution of horses at the burial of a Scythian king, and Iron Age kurgan graves known to contain horses number in the hundreds. There are also frequent deposition of horses in burials in Iron Age India. The custom is by no means restricted to Indo-European populations, but is continued by Turkic tribes. See also
Notes1. ^Mallory & Adams (2006:437). 2. ^Dearborn (1997:278, article "Horse"). 3. ^Frazer ( 553-557). 4. ^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 from Jaan Puhvel, "Aspects of Equine Functionality," in Analecta Indoeuropaea (Innsbruck, 1981), pp. 188–189. 5. ^DuBois (2006:76). 6. ^Mallet (1847:155-157). References
| title =The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |location= |pages= |url=https://books.google.com/?id=yfZZX1qjpvkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false |doi= |id= |isbn=0-19-928791-0}}
5 : Horses in culture and religion|Animal sacrifice|Indo-European religion|Proto-Indo-European religion|Nomadic groups in Eurasia |
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