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the removal of this category was in error, since the category page clearly states that "This category is for landmarks, religious activities, and events located in the Campus Martius in ancient Rome," and even more deeply erroneous is not to understand the inextricable connection between topography, procession, and festival locations in the city of Rome, which is key to the October Horse and its accretions of meaning |
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Ancient references to the ''Equus October'' are scattered over more than six centuries: the earliest is that of [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]] (3rd century BC), who linked the sacrifice to the [[Trojan Horse]] and the Romans' claim to [[Troy|Trojan]] descent, with the latest in the [[Calendar of Philocalus]] (354 AD), where it is noted as still occurring, even as Christianity was becoming the dominant religion of the [[Roman Empire|Empire]]. Most scholars see an [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] influence on the early formation of the ceremonies.
The October Horse is the only instance of horse sacrifice in Roman religion;<ref>C. Bennett Pascal, "October Horse," ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 85 (1981), p. 263. Two vague references in [[Ovid]] and [[Propertius]] are usually taken to refer to the October Horse, unless they preserve otherwise unknown rites.</ref> the Romans typically sacrificed animals that were a normal part of their diet. The unusual ritual of the October Horse has thus been analyzed at times in light of other [[Indo-European religion|Indo-European]] forms of [[horse sacrifice]], such as the [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic]] ''[[ashvamedha]]'' and the [[Horse sacrifice#Irish|Irish ritual described by Giraldus Cambrensis]], both of which have to do with kingship. Although the ritual battle for possession of the head may preserve an element from the early period when [[Kingdom of Rome|Rome was ruled by kings]],<ref>[[Martin Litchfield West|M.L. West]], ''Indo-European Poetry and Myth'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 428 [https://books.google.com/books?id=CdFf8c3V2DAC&pg=PA418 online.]</ref> the October Horse's collocation of agriculture and war is characteristic of the [[Roman Republic|Republic]]. The sacred topography of the rite and the role of Mars in other equestrian festivals also suggest aspects of youth [[initiation ritual|initiation]] and rebirth ritual. The complex or even contradictory aspects of the October Horse probably result from overlays of traditions accumulated over time.<ref>Pascal, "October Horse," p. 287ff.</ref>
==Description==
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==War and agriculture==
[[File:Cosa Mars horse 590003.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Coin with Mars and a bridled horse ([[Cosa]], Etruria, 273-250 BC)]]
Verrius Flaccus notes<ref>Preserved by [[Paul the Deacon|Paulus]] in the epitome of [[Sextus Pompeius Festus|Festus]] 246 L, as cited by Hendrik Wagenvoort, "On the Magical Significance of the Tail," in ''Pietas: Selected Studies in Roman Religion'' (Brill, 1980), p. 147.</ref> that the horse ritual was carried out ''ob frugum eventum'', usually taken to mean "in thanks for the completed harvest" or "for the sake of the next harvest",<ref>Wagenvoort, "On the Magical Significance of the Tail," pp. 147–148.</ref> since [[winter wheat]] was sown in the fall.<ref>Pascal, "October Horse," p. 267, as noted in Roman farmers' almanacs ''([[menologia rustica]])''.</ref> The phrase has been connected to the divine personification [[Bonus Eventus]], "Good Outcome,"<ref name="Pascal-p285">Pascal, "October Horse," p. 285.</ref> who had a temple of unknown date in the Campus Martius<ref>Lawrence Richardson, ''A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), p. 60.</ref> and whom [[Varro]] lists as one of the [[List of Roman deities#Varro, De re rustica|twelve agricultural deities]]{{Broken anchor|date=2024-06-23|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=List of Roman deities#Varro, De re rustica|reason= The anchor (Varro, De re rustica) [[Special:Diff/498098087|has been deleted]].}}.<ref>Varro, ''De re rustica'' 1.1.4–6. Later Eventus came to represent success in general.</ref> But like other ceremonies in October, the sacrifice occurred during the time of the army's return and reintegration into society, for which Verrius also accounted by explaining that a horse is suited for war, an ox for tilling.<ref>"A horse was sacrificed rather than an ox, because it is suited for war as the ox is for tending crops" ''(et equus potius quam bos immolabatur, quod hic bello, bos frugibus pariendis est aptus)'', as quoted by Wagenvoort, "On the Magical Significance of the Tail," p. 148.</ref> The Romans did not use horses as [[draft horse|draft animals]] for farm work,<ref>[[Robert Drews]], ''The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East'' (Princeton University Press, 1988, 1989), p. 152, notes that "Roman farm horses, alas, are as imaginary as unicorns."</ref> nor [[Chariot tactics|chariots in warfare]], but [[Polybius]] specifies that the victim is a [[war horse]].<ref>Polybius 12.4.</ref>
The ritual was held outside the ''[[pomerium]]'', Rome's sacred boundary, presumably because of its martial character
<blockquote>
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==The victim==
[[File:
[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#victima|Sacrificial victims]] were most often domestic animals normally part of the Roman diet, and the meat was eaten at a banquet shared by those celebrating the rite.<ref>Nicole Belayche, "Religious Actors in Daily Life: Practices and Related Beliefs," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 283; Pascal, "October Horse," pp. 268, 277.</ref> [[Horse meat]] was distasteful to the Romans, and [[Tacitus]] classes horses among "[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#profanum|profane]]" animals.<ref>Tacitus, ''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Histories]]'' 4.60 and ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annals]]'' 2.24; Pascal, "October Horse," p. 268.</ref> Inedible victims such as the October Horse and dogs were typically offered to [[chthonic]] deities in the form of a [[holocaust (sacrifice)|holocaust]], resulting in no shared meal.<ref>Pascal, "October Horse," p. 277; [[John Scheid]], "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', pp. 267–268.</ref> In Greece, dog sacrifices were made to Mars' [[interpretatio graeca|counterpart]] [[Ares]] and the related war god [[Enyalios]]. At Rome, dogs were sacrificed at the [[Robigalia]], a festival for protecting the crops at which chariot races were held for Mars along with the namesake deity,<ref>Robigus (masculine) or Robigo (feminine), who may be an "indigitation" of Mars, or originally an epithet or divine name to "fix" the desired action of warding off crop disease; [[William Warde Fowler]], ''The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic'' (London, 1908), p. 89.</ref> and at a very few other public rites.<ref>A dog was sacrificed at the [[Lupercalia]], an exceedingly complex festival. On the collocation of wolves (''lupus'' in Latin, one of Mars' primary sacred animals) and bands of male youth enacting violent fertility rituals, see [[T.P. Wiseman]], ''Remus: A Roman Myth'' (Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 80ff., particularly p. 85 on the interpretation of the ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#Luperci|luperci]]'' as "an initiatory rite in which adolescents had to live wild, like wolves, before returning and being accepted as fully adult members of the community"; the goat, however, had become the most important animal of the festival in historical times.</ref> Birth deities, however, also received offerings of puppies or bitches, and infant cemeteries show a high concentration of puppies, sometimes ritually dismembered.<ref>David and Noelle Soren, "Hecate and the Infant Cemetery at Poggio Gramignano," in ''A Roman Villa and a Late Roman Infant Cemetery'' («L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 1999), p. 619–632, on the archaeology in relation to magical practices. Dog sacrifice was offered to the obscure Roman birth deity [[Mana Genita]], whose name suggests a link to the spirits of the dead called the [[Manes]]. Mana Genita is perhaps to be identified with the Genitalis invoked by [[Horace]] in his [[Carmen Saeculare|choral ode composed for the Saecular Games]] in 17 BC, and the Greek counterpart may be ''Genetyllis'', Σ [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] 1.1.5. See also Socrates of Argos, ''[[FGrH]]'' 310 F 4 ''apud'' Plutarch, ''Roman Questions'' 52.277B, on an [[Argive]] deity Eilioneia (= [[Eileithyia]]?). Discussed by [[Robert Parker (historian)|Robert Parker]], ''On Greek Religion'' (Cornell University Press, 2011), pp. 158–159. Puppies were regular offerings in rites characterized as "[[Magic in the Greco-Roman world|magic]]," that is, rituals undertaken on the initiative of an individual, sometimes secretly, that were not a part of public cult nor the private cult of one's ''[[gens]]'' (the ''[[sacra gentilicia]])'', household, or self celebrated regularly by all Romans.</ref> Inedible victims were offered to a restricted group of deities mainly involved with the cycle of birth and death, but the reasoning is obscure.<ref>[[Hecate]], for instance, was a regular recipient of dog sacrifice, as a chthonic and a birth goddess, or invoked for magic; Parker, ''On Greek Religion'', pp. 158–159, citing also R. Gordon, ''Revista de historiographia'' 5.3 [2/2006], pp. 4–14.</ref>
The importance of the horse to the war god is likewise not self-evident, since the Roman military was based on infantry. Mars' youthful armed priests the [[Salii]], attired as "typical representatives of the archaic infantry," performed their rituals emphatically on foot, with dance steps.<ref>[[Arnaldo Momigliano]], "''Procum Patricium''," ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 56 (1966), p. 24.</ref> The [[equestrian order]] was of [[Social class in ancient Rome|lesser social standing]] than the senatorial ''patres'', "fathers", who were originally the [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]] only.<ref>Momigliano, "''Procum Patricium''," pp. 16–24, points out that the ''equestres'', or "knights," were of lesser rank than the [[Roman senate|senators]], and that the [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]] cannot have originated as a mounted aristocracy: "Of course we are all used to visualizing our aristocrats as superior beings on horseback. This is the heritage from our Middle Ages. But the question is whether this mediaeval picture can be transferred to the Rome of the kings" (p. 16). The earliest Roman cavalry were supported by the state; their horses and the food for them were state-subsidized, and therefore horse-ownership and maintenance cannot be considered a sign of wealth in Rome to the extent that it was in Greece (p. 20). Momigliano argues that the cavalry were originally the bodyguard of the king: "When these landowners ('patres') got rid of the kings, they transformed themselves into the hereditary exclusive holders of the key positions of the State. As such they had to deal with the old equestrian bodyguard of the kings. By proper infusion of new blood, of new religious ideas and ceremonies, they subjected the cavalry to their control and made it a preserve of the rich. Their main preoccupation remained, however, the control of the infantry. … This of course does not exclude the employment of young members of the aristocracy in a cavalry paid by the state" (p. 23).</ref> The ''[[Magister equitum]]'', "Master of the Horse," was subordinate to the ''[[Roman dictator|Dictator]]'', who was forbidden the use of the horse except through special legislation.<ref>Pascal, "October Horse," citing Livy 23.14.2 and Plutarch, ''Fabius'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Fabius_Maximus*.html#4 4.]</ref> By the late Republic, the Roman cavalry was formed primarily from allies ''([[auxilia]])'', and [[Arrian]] emphasizes the foreign origin of cavalry training techniques, particularly among the [[Continental Celts|Celts]] of [[Gaul]] and [[Roman Spain|Spain]]. Roman technical terms pertaining to horsemanship and horse-drawn vehicles are mostly not Latin in origin, and often from [[Gaulish]].<ref>Pascal, "October Horse," p. 275; Joshua Whatmough, ''The Foundations of Roman Italy'' (London: Methuen, 1937), p. 156.</ref>
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===The tail===
[[File:Altar Mars Venus Massimo n4.jpg|thumb|Cupids and a ''biga'', relief panel from a [[Trajan]]ic Altar of Venus and Mars, later rededicated to [[Silvanus (mythology)|Silvanus]]]]
==== Tail or Penis ====
[[George Devereux]] and others have argued that ''cauda'', or οὐρά ''(oura)'' in Greek sources, is a euphemism for the [[horse penis|penis]] of the October Horse, which could be expected to contain more blood for the ''suffimen''.<ref>George Devereux, "The ''Equus October'' Ritual Reconsidered," ''Mnemosyne'' 23 (1970) 297–201, and James H. Dee, "Propertius IV. 1. 20: ''Curtus equus'' and the ''Equus October''," ''Mnemosyne'' 26 (1973) 289, as summarized but rejected by Daniel P. Harmon, "Religion in the Latin Elegists," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16.3 (1986) p. 1958. See also [[Walter Burkert]], ''[[Homo Necans]]'' (Berlin and New York, 1972), p. 69. J.N. Adams, ''The Latin Sexual Vocabulary'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), pp. 36–37, cautions that the only secure usage of ''cauda'' as slang for the penis is by [[Horace]], ''Sermones'' 1.2.45 and 2.7.49, and may be the poet's "''ad hoc'' [[metaphor]]." ''Cauda'' can also be spelled ''coda''.</ref> The tail itself, however, was a magico-religious symbol of fertility or power. The practice of attaching a horse's tail to a helmet may originate in a desire to appropriate the animal's power in battle; in the ''Iliad'', [[Hector]]'s horse-crested helmet is a terrifying sight.<ref>Wagenvoort, "On the Magical Significance of the Tail," p. 157.</ref> In the iconography of the [[Mithraic mysteries]], the tail of the sacrificial bull is often grasped, as is the horse's tail in depictions of the [[Thracian horseman|Thracian Rider god]], as if to possess its power.<ref>Wagenvoort, "On the Magical Significance of the Tail," ''passim''.</ref> A [[pinax]] from [[ancient Corinth|Corinth]] depicts a dwarf holding his [[phallus]] with both hands while standing on the tail of a stallion carrying a rider; although the dwarf has sometimes been interpreted as the horse-threatening [[Taraxippus]], the phallus is more typically an [[apotropaic]] talisman ''([[fascinum]]'') to ward off malevolence.<ref>Wagenvoort, "On the Magical Significance of the Tail," p. 156, with [https://books.google.com/books?id=xWaOxU28Nn4C&pg=PA152-IA5 image] p. 152.</ref>▼
The ritual requires collecting a little blood from the horse's tail, after cutting it and bringing it to the Regia. Some modern authors consider this unachievable, stating that the removed organ is not sufficiently vascularized. In addition, the delay in arriving at the Regia would have caused the blood to clot. As such, [[George Devereux]] and others have argued that ''cauda'', or οὐρά ''(oura)'' in Greek sources, is a euphemism for the [[horse penis|penis]] of the October Horse, which could be expected to contain more blood for the ''suffimen''.<ref>George Devereux, "The ''Equus October'' Ritual Reconsidered," ''Mnemosyne'' 23 (1970) 297–201, and James H. Dee, "Propertius IV. 1. 20: ''Curtus equus'' and the ''Equus October''," ''Mnemosyne'' 26 (1973) 289, as summarized but rejected by Daniel P. Harmon, "Religion in the Latin Elegists," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16.3 (1986) p. 1958. See also [[Walter Burkert]], ''[[Homo Necans]]'' (Berlin and New York, 1972), p. 69. J.N. Adams, ''The Latin Sexual Vocabulary'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), pp. 36–37, cautions that the only secure usage of ''cauda'' as slang for the penis is by [[Horace]], ''Sermones'' 1.2.45 and 2.7.49, and may be the poet's "''ad hoc'' [[metaphor]]." ''cauda'' can also be spelled ''coda''.</ref> Georges Dumézil, on the other side, doubts the slang assimilation of the Latin ''cauda'' (« tail ») to « penis », which this interpretation implies. This translation of ''cauda'' is found in only two occurrences in all Latin literature, in [[Horace]], and is absent in [[Plautus]], [[Juvenal]] and [[Martial]]{{sfn|Dumézil|1975|p=182}}.
Michel Rousseau, from the Paris veterinary services{{sfn|Rousseau|1976|p=125}}, carried out an experiment in 1974, consisting of taking the tail and penis during horse slaughter. While the penis proves difficult to remove, the tail is easily severed and it lets blood drip or ooze between three and ten minutes depending on the case, a duration compatible with delivery by a runner, which demonstrates the possibility of the rite, and the potential for failure with an unlucky and poorly performing runner.{{sfn|Dumézil|1975|p=186-187}}
====Tail symbolism====
The tail itself was a [[magico-religious]] symbol of fertility or power.
▲
[[Satyr]]s and [[silenus|sileni]], though later characterized as goat-like, in the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] period were regularly depicted with equine features, including a prominent horsetail; they were known for uncontrolled sexuality, and are often ithyphallic in art.<ref>Wagenvoort, "On the Magical Significance of the Tail," p. 155.</ref> Satyrs are first recorded in Roman culture as part of ''ludi'', appearing in the preliminary parade ''([[pompa circensis]])'' of the first [[Ludi Romani|Roman Games]].<ref>T.P. Wiseman, "Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica," Journal of Roman Studies 78 (1988), p. 7.</ref> The tail of the [[Mars (mythology)#Sacred animals|wolf, an animal regularly associated with Mars]], was said by [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] to contain ''amatorium virus,'' aphrodisiac power.<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'' 8.22.83; Onians, ''The Origins of European Thought'', p. 472.</ref> Therefore, a [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Phallic sexuality|phallic-like potency]] may be attributed to the October Horse's tail without requiring ''cauda'' to mean "penis," since the ubiquity of phallic symbols in Roman culture would make euphemism or substitution unnecessary.<ref>Dumézil rejected any phallic significance, as noted by Pascal, "October Horse," p. 283.</ref>
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"The public prisoners were collected together, the fairest and tallest trees along the river bank were hung with the captured suits of armour, and then the victors crowned themselves with wreaths, adorned their own horses splendidly while they sheared and cropped the horses of their conquered foes."<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Nicias'' 27.6 (Loeb Classical Library); Andrew G. Miller, "'Tails' of Masculinity: Knights, Clerics, and the Mutilation of Horses in Medieval England," ''Speculum'' 88:4 (2013),p. 970, n. 58 on Plutarch.</ref>
</blockquote>
The October Horse sacrifice is part of a complex of meanings surrounding equine mutilation in Europe.<ref>Miller, "'Tails' of Masculinity," p. 970–971.</ref>
In the medieval period, the actual docking of the tail of a knight's horse carried a message of emasculation, defamation, and domination.<ref>Miller, "'Tails' of Masculinity," pp. 958–959 ''et passim''.</ref> Dozens of such mutilations are recorded in [[medieval England]] after the practice was brought in by the [[Normans]].<ref>Miller, "'Tails' of Masculinity," p. 959.</ref> Tail mutilation was carried out frequently enough that it was criminalized and penalties were set in early medieval Germanic, Scandinavian, and Welsh law.<ref>Miller, "'Tails' of Masculinity," p. 971.</ref> As an indication that the horse tail represented or was associated with the penis, a 13th-century English law condemned a rapist not only to lose his life and limbs but also to have both the genitals and the tail of his horse cut off.<ref>Jones, "Saints and Other Horse Mutilators," n.p., citing the ''Laws and Customs of England'' as codified by Henry de Bracton.</ref>
In one of the most striking incidents, on [[Christmas Eve]] 1170, four days before [[Thomas Becket]] was martyred, an enemy cut off the tail of one of his horses and taunted him with it as a threat.<ref>Miller, "'Tails' of Masculinity," p. 958.</ref> On the Becket altarpiece of Hamburg, one of two known medieval depictions of the scene, the mutilator makes a phallic gesture with the horse's tail.<ref>Miller, "'Tails' of Masculinity," pp. 994–995.</ref> A legend then arose that the descendants of the perpetrator grew tails and earned the insulting nickname ''caudati'', the "tailed ones," which spread to attach itself to all [[Kent|Kentishmen]]; Greek-speaking Sicilians hurled the insult at the English generally in an incident during [[Third Crusade|Richard the First's crusade]] (1198–92).<ref>Miller, "'Tails' of Masculinity," p. 960.</ref>
Equine mutilation as a form of insult survived into the early modern era. At [[Somerset]] in 1611, a horse was paraded in a [[skimmington ride]], a form of public mockery usually aimed at a sexual offense or adultery. On this occasion, horns were attached to the animal's head, indicating cuckolding, and its ears and the hair of its mane and tail were cut off. The horse, in an instance of [[transferred epithet]], is said to be thus disgraced.<ref name="ReferenceA">Jones, "Saints and Other Horse Mutilators," n.p.</ref>
===The Trojan Horse===
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===''Ad Nixas''===
[[File:Sarcofago con eroti aurighi,
The sacrifice itself took place within the Tarentum precinct "at the ''Nixae''" (''ad Nixas''), probably an altar to the deities of birth ''([[di nixi]])'', who were invoked as ''[[Eileithyia|Ilithyis]]''.
[[List of Roman birth and childhood deities|Roman rituals of birth and death]] were closely related, given the high rate of [[infant mortality]] and [[death in childbirth]].<ref>Anthony Corbeill, "Blood, Milk, and Tears: The Gestures of Mourning Women," in ''Nature Embodied: Gesture in Ancient Rome'' (Princeton University Press, 2004), pp. 67–105; M. Golden, "Did the Ancients Care When Their Children Died?" ''Greece & Rome'' 35 (1988) 152–163.</ref> Chariot races are the most common scene depicted on the [[sarcophagi]] of Roman children, and typically show [[Cupid]]s driving ''bigae''.<ref>D'Ambra, "Racing with Death," p. 341.</ref> The [[Taurian Games]], horse races held in the Campus Martius to propitiate gods of the underworld ''([[di inferi]])'', were instituted in response to an epidemic of infant mortality.<ref>Festus, excerpts of Paulus, p. 479 in the edition of Lindsay; John Briscoe, ''A Commentary on Livy, Books 38–40'' (Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 294; Auguste Bouché-Leclercq, ''Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité'' (Jérôme Millon, 2003 reprint, originally published 1883), p. 1024.</ref> Some scholars think Roman conceptions of Mars were influenced by the Etruscan child-god [[Maris (mythology)|Maris and the centaur Mares]], ancestor of the [[Ausones]].<ref>[[Massimo Pallottino]], "Religion in Pre-Roman Italy," in ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 29; H.S. Versnel, "Apollo and Mars One Hundred Years after Roscher," in ''Visible Religion: Annual for Religious Iconography. Approaches to Iconology'' (Brill, 1985–86), pp. 147–148; Wagenvoort, "The Origin of the ''Ludi Saeculares''," p. 219 ''et passim''; [[John F. Hall|John F. Hall III]], "The Saeculum Novum of Augustus and its Etruscan Antecedents," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16.3 (1986), p. 2574.</ref> Maris is depicted with a cauldron symbolizing rebirth, and the half-man, half-horse Mares three times underwent death and rebirth.<ref>Versnel, "Apollo and Mars," pp. 147–148.</ref> In association with Etruscan-influenced horse-racing festivals, [[John F. Hall]] saw Mars as a god having "power over death."<ref>Hall, "The Saeculum Novum of Augustus," p. 2574.</ref>
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The head became the object of contention between two factions, residents of the [[Via Sacra]] and of the [[Subura]]. The battle decided where the head would be displayed for the coming year. If the Suburan faction won, it would be mounted in their neighborhood on the Tower of the Mamilii ''([[Turris Mamilia]])''. If the residents of the Via Sacra won, the head would go to the Regia, formerly the residence of the king, as well as the destination of the tail.
The claim of the [[Mamilia gens|Mamilii]] to the head may be based on their family history, which connected them by marriage to the ruling dynasty of the Tarquins. A Mamilius who was the son-in-law of [[Tarquinius Superbus]]
The Subura had equine associations in the [[Roman Empire|Imperial era]]. [[Martial]] mentions mule teams on its steep slope, though normally traffic from draft animals was not permitted within Rome during daylight hours.<ref>[[Robert E.A. Palmer]], "Silvanus, Sylvester, and the Chair of St. Peter," ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 122.4 (1978), p. 229.</ref> An inscription found there indicates that the muleteers sought the divine protection of [[Hercules in ancient Rome|Hercules]], [[Silvanus (mythology)|Silvanus]], and [[Epona]]. Silvanus had an association with Mars dating back to the archaic agricultural prayer preserved by [[Cato the Elder|Cato]]'s farming treatise, in which the [[Mars (mythology)#Mars Silvanus|two are invoked]] either as one or jointly to protect the health of livestock. Epona was the Celtic horse goddess,<ref>Palmer, "Silvanus," p. 229.</ref> the sole deity with a [[Gaulish]] name whose cult can be documented in Rome.
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During the era of [[Wilhelm Mannhardt]], [[J.G. Frazer]] and the [[Cambridge Ritualists]], the October Horse was regarded as the embodiment of the "[[corn spirit]]", "conceived in human or animal form" in Frazer's view, so that "the last standing corn is part of its body—its neck, its head, or its tail." ("[[wikt:corn|Corn]]" here means "grain" in general, not "[[wikt:maize|maize]]".)<ref>J.G. Frazer, ''The Golden Bough'' (Cambridge University Press, 2012 edition of the original 1890 publication), pp. 65.</ref> In ''The Golden Bough'' (1890), Frazer regarded the horse's tail and blood as "the chief parts of the corn-spirit's representative," the transporting of which to the Regia brought the corn-spirit's blessing "to the king's house and hearth" and the community.<ref>Frazer, ''The Golden Bough'', p. 66.</ref> He conjectured that horses were also sacrificed at the grove of [[Diana Nemorensis]] at [[Ariccia|Aricia]], as a mythic retaliation because the resurrected [[Virbius]], the first divine "King of the Wood" (the priest called ''[[rex nemorensis]]''), had been killed by horses—an explanation also of why horses were banned from the grove. As early as 1908, [[William Warde Fowler]] expressed his doubts that the corn-spirit concept sufficiently accounted for all the ritual aspects of the ''Equus October''.<ref>Fowler, ''Roman Festivals'', p. 245. See also critical discussion by Pascal, "October Horse," pp. 272–273.</ref>
===
[[Dumézil]] argued that the October Horse preserved vestiges of a [[Proto-Indo-European religion|common Indo-European rite]] of kingship, evidenced also by the [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic]] ''[[ashvamedha]]'' and the [[Horse sacrifice#Irish|Irish inaugural sacrifice]] described by [[Giraldus Cambrensis]] as taking place in [[Ulster]] in the early medieval period.<ref>[[Georges Dumézil]], ''Archaic Roman Religion'' (1970), pp. 224–228; in connection to the Regia, ''The Destiny of a King'' (University of Chicago Press, 1973, 1988; originally published 1971 in French), p. 120.</ref> Perhaps the most striking similarity between the Vedic ritual and the Roman is that the sacrificial victim was the right-hand horse of a chariot team,<ref>[[Robert Drews]], ''The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East'' (Princeton University Press, 1988), p. 151; West, ''Indo-European Poetry and Myth'', p. 418.</ref> though not the winner of a race in the Vedic rite.<ref name="Pascal-p268">Pascal, "October Horse," p. 268.</ref> The head in the ''ashvamedha'', signifying spiritual energy, was reserved as a talisman for the king afterwards; the middle of the horse embodied physical force; and the tail was grasped by the officiant and represented the fertility of livestock.<ref name="Pascal-p268" />
A Some fundamental differences between the Roman rite and the Vedic and Celtic forms pose obstacles to situating the ''Equus October'' within the [[Trifunctional hypothesis|trifunctional schema]].<ref>Udo Strutynski, introduction to Georges Dumézil, ''Camillus: A Study of Indo-European Religion as Roman History'' (University of California Press, 1980), p. 12.</ref> The ''equus'' is sacrificed to the Roman god of war, not kingship. Dumézil's follower [[Jaan Puhvel]] deals with the Roman rite only glancingly in his essay "Aspects of Equine Functionality," exploring mainly the Vedic and Celtic evidence for an "Indo-European equine myth" that "involves the mating of a kingship-class representative with the hippomorphous transfunctional goddess, and the creation of twin offspring belonging to the level of the third estate."<ref>[[Jaan Puhvel]], "Aspects of Equine Functionality," in ''Analecta Indoeuropaea'' (Innsbruck, 1981), pp. 193 and 197. Puhvel finds the "transfunctional goddess" in Roman religion as ''[[Juno (mythology)|Juno]] Seispes Mater Regina'' ("Juno the Unblemished, Mother and Queen) whose [[Cult (religion)|cult]] was at [[Lanuvium]]. See also Miriam Robbins Dexter, "Consort Goddess," ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture'' (Taylor & Francis, 1997), p. 124.</ref>
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Two others were slain as a sort of ritual observance (''hierourgia,'' ἱερουργία). The true cause I am unable to state, inasmuch as the Sibyl made no utterance and there was no other similar oracle, but at any rate they were sacrificed in the Campus Martius by the ''[[College of Pontiffs|pontifices]]'' and the [[Flamen Martialis|priest of Mars]], and their heads were set up near the Regia.<ref>{{cite book |author=Cassius Dio |title=Roman History |author-link=Cassius Dio |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/43*.html#24 |at=43.24}}</ref>
</blockquote>
Both Wissowa<ref>Georg Wissowa, ''Religion und Kultus der Römer'', 2nd edition, p. 144f (as cited by Pascal, "October Horse," p. 262.</ref> and Dumézil<ref>Georges Dumezil, "Quaestiunculae indo-italicae 17: Le 'sacrifice humain' de 46 avant J.-C.," ''REL'' 41 (1963) 87-89, and ''La religion romaine archaique'' (Paris, 1966), p. 160.</ref> read Dio's sardonic take on these events to mean that an actual sacrifice occurred with human victims replacing the October Horse. The two killings have no common elements other than the site and the display of the heads at the Regia, but the passage has been used as evidence that the flamen of Mars<ref>Dio's standard translation of Latin ''flamen'' is ἱερεύς ''(hiereus)''; Pascal, "October Horse," p. 262.</ref> presided over the October Horse as well, even though the officiant is never mentioned in sources that deal explicitly with the ''Equus''. [[Religion in ancient Rome#Human sacrifice|Human sacrifice had always been rare at Rome]], and had been formally abolished as a part of public religion about fifty years earlier. [[Marcus Marius Gratidianus#Political victim|Some executions took on a sacral aura]], but Dio seems to regard the soldiers' deaths as a grotesque parody of a sacrifice, whatever Caesar's intent may have been.<ref name="Pascal-p262-263" /> [[Jörg Rüpke]] thought that Dio's account, while "muddled", might indicate that Caesar as ''[[pontifex maximus]]'' took up the Trojan interpretation of the October Horse, in light of the [[Julia gens|Julian family]]'s claim to have descended directly from [[Ascanius|Iulus]], the son of the Trojan refugee [[Aeneas]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Jörg |last=Rüpke |author-link=Jörg Rüpke |title=Religion of the Romans |language=en |publisher=Polity Press |year=2007 |orig-year=2001 |page=109}} originally published in German, 2001</ref>
==Notes==
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==Further reading==
* [[Georges Dumézil]], ''Fêtes romaines d’été et d’automne'', suivi de Dix Questions romaines, Paris, Gallimard, 1975, 298 p.
* Michel Rousseau, ''« Le cheval d’octobre (October equus) éclairé par M. Georges Dumézil »'', Bulletin de l'Académie vétérinaire de France, t. 129, no 1, 1976, p. 125-127 [https://www.persee.fr/doc/bavf_0001-4192_1976_num_129_1_6713 Online]
* Jens Henrik Vanggaard, "The October Horse," ''Temenos'' 15 (1979) 81–95.
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[[Category:Animal festival or ritual]]
[[Category:Roman animal sacrifice]]]
[[Category:Campus Martius]]▼
[[Category:Horses in religion]]
[[Category:Ancient chariot racing]]
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[[Category:Equestrian festivals]]
[[Category:Festivals of Mars]]
▲[[Category:Campus Martius]]
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