Lucia Afonso wrote:
>
> I am particularly interested in the presence of the sacrifice of horses on
> the religion of the Celts. Does anybody has suggestions?
Lucia,
Miranda Green discusses Celtic animal sacrifice in _Symbol & Image in
Celtic Religious Art_ london 1989. She cites a case of a horse burial
but says that J.L. Brunau, _Les Gaulois: Sanctuaries et rites_, 1986,
is of the opinion that the horses were buried with honour after dying
of natural causes. Cyril Fox _Pattern & Purpose_ Cardiff 1958,
illustrates several items including a La Tene II brooch from a chariot
burial (included the ponies) in Yorkshire, England. We might speculate
that the original homeland of those people was in the Marne region of
France from the nature of their belongings. He also reports on another
chariot burial in Cambridgeshire. Diodorus (5.32) says that the Celts
destroyed animals they captured in war, but does not specify horses.
I suppose much might depend on our definition of sacrifice. Even
though the horse might not have been regularly sacrificed, we might
find a clear case for it in the future. In times of extreme duress
sacrifices might have been of higher status subjects. There have been
some strange sacrifices: a fox; a cow's head at the bottom of a
storage pit converted to a refuse pit (one that I believe told of the
death of the person that owned the pit by illness -- the cow sacrifice
had not worked!); a raven spread winged, and more. some of these are
mentioned in a BAR publication on Celtic sacrifices, but its author
escapes me at the moment. perhaps someone else has the reference.
Somewhat related: a sacrifice of a quadriga was made by Rhodians to
Helios each year and was thrown into the sea.
I hope this serves as a start to your investigations anyway.
Cheers,
John
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