The ancient Magyars sacrificed white stallions to him before a battle. The Hungarian name for God was, and remains "Isten" and they followed Steppe Tengriism. One of the titles of God in Hungarian mythology was Hadúr, who, according to an unconfirmed source, wears pure copper and is a metalsmith. In Slavic mythology, the war and fertility deity Svantovit owned an oracular white horse the historian Saxo Grammaticus, in descriptions similar to those of Tacitus centuries before, says the priests divined the future by leading the white stallion between a series of fences and watching which leg, right or left, stepped first in each row. Sleipnir is also the ancestor of another grey horse, Grani, who is owned by the hero Sigurd. In Norse mythology, Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir, "the best horse among gods and men", is described as grey. Main article: Horses in Germanic paganism The Tjängvide image stone is thought to show Odin entering Valhalla riding on Sleipnir. Poseidon was also the creator of horses, creating them out of the breaking waves when challenged to make a beautiful land animal.Ī secondary pair of twins fathered by Zeus, Amphion and Zethus, the legendary founders of Thebes, are called "Dioskouroi, riders of white horses" (λευκόπωλος) by Euripides in his play The Phoenician Women (the same epithet is used in Heracles and in the lost play Antiope). In Greek mythology, the white winged horse Pegasus was the son of Poseidon and the gorgon Medusa. In Scottish folklore, the kelpie or each uisge, a deadly supernatural water demon in the shape of a horse, is sometimes described as white, though other stories say it is black. The La Tène style hill figure in England, the Uffington White Horse dates back to the Bronze Age and is similar to some Celtic coin horse designs. One of Cúchulainn's chariot-horses was called Liath Macha or "Macha's Grey" Bellerophon riding Pegasus In Irish myth horses are said to be symbols of sovereignty and the sovereignty goddess Macha is associated with them. In Irish Myth Donn "god of the dead" portrayed as a phantom horseman riding a white horse, is considered an aspect of The Dagda "the great God" also known as "the horseman" and is the origin of the Irish "Loch nEachach" for Loch Neagh. Because of this, she has been linked to the Romano-Celtic fertility horse goddess Epona and other instances of the veneration of horses in early Indo-European culture. In Welsh mythology, Rhiannon, a mythic figure in the Mabinogion collection of legends, rides a "pale-white" horse. Mythologies and traditions European Celtic Though some mythologies are stories from earliest beliefs, other tales, though visionary or metaphorical, are found in liturgical sources as part of preserved, on-going traditions (see, for example, "Iranian tradition" below). In more than one tradition, the white horse carries patron saints or the world saviour in the end times (as in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), is associated with the sun or sun chariot ( Ossetia) or bursts into existence in a fantastic way, emerging from the sea or a lightning bolt. Herodotus reported that white horses were held as sacred animals in the Achaemenid court of Xerxes the Great (ruled 486–465 BC), while in other traditions the reverse happens when it was sacrificed to the gods. There are also white horses which are divinatory, who prophesy or warn of danger.Īs a rare or distinguished symbol, a white horse typically bears the hero- or god-figure in ceremonial roles or in triumph over negative forces. As part of its legendary dimension, the white horse in myth may be depicted with seven heads ( Uchaishravas) or eight feet ( Sleipnir), sometimes in groups or singly. Pegasus from Greek mythology), or having horns (the unicorn). 1765.įrom earliest times, white horses have been mythologised as possessing exceptional properties, transcending the normal world by having wings (e.g. Portrayal in myth The Hindu world saviour Kalki with his white Horse. Both truly white horses and the more common grey horses, with completely white hair coats, were identified as "white" by various religious and cultural traditions. They are often associated with the sun chariot, with warrior-heroes, with fertility (in both mare and stallion manifestations), or with an end-of-time saviour, but other interpretations exist as well. White horses have a special significance in the mythologies of cultures around the world. The 3,000-year-old Uffington White Horse hill figure in England. White horse in mythology and cultural traditions
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