2021-12-30 05:04:14
The coronation ritual described by Gerald of Wales discussed earlier is one of our sources. The Vedic Aśvamedha is another, described in detail in many texts. In rough outline, it involved the dedication of a stallion, which roamed for a year accompanied by warriors. At the end of that year, it was sacrificed in a ritual involving the clubbing sacrifice of a dog, the decoration of the stallion,
feeding the horse rice balls, and mimed sex between the king’s primary wife and the stallion to the accompaniment of obscene banter.The main recipient of the sacrifice was Indra, similar to Perkwū́nos. (Campbell, 1962:190-197, is the most accessible detailed description of this ritual.)
The dog/horse connection is found in Wales (the horsy Rhiannon is accused by her maids, who had smeared her mouth with puppies’ blood, of eating her son), Germany (horse and dog bones were found together in burials), and Anatolia (puppies sacrificed in a purification ritual similar to one in which horses are used; the army — the object of purification — marched between the two halves of a puppy. A similar ritual was held in Rome).
In Rome, the reflex is the October Equus. Held at the end of the campaigning season, it purified the people from the pollution of the summer’s military activity. A chariot race was held, and the right hand horse of the winning team was sacrificed with a spear to Mars (i.e. Perkwū́nos) after bread had been tied to its head. Its head and tail were cut off, and its tail carried to the Regia (the ritual house of the king). There the blood from the tail was dripped on the hearth. The inhabitants of the Via Sacra and Subura fought and whoever won got the horse’s head.
(The classical material on this ritual is collected in Vangaard, 1979).
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Deep ancestors - Ceisiwir Serith - Chapter thirteen
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