Rigantona : The Horse Goddess
Rigantona (‘Great Queen’) was a British goddess associated with horses. As such she is seen as conjunctive with Epona, a goddess particularly associated with Roman cavalrymen in Gaul but with attested shrines in Roman Britain. Epona is also mentioned in the late Latin story by Apuleius The Golden Ass which contains a description of a shrine to Epona in a stable and refers to a practice of putting roses on such shrines.
Rigantona appears as Rhiannon in the medieval Welsh story in the Four branches of Y Mabinogi, usually collected in English translation with other stories under the title The Mabinogion. Rhiannon can be shown to be a development from Brythonic of the name Rigantona. The medieval Welsh stories present her riding into the Welsh landscape from the Otherworld at a place called Gorsedd Arberth, which may be an Otherworld portal similar to the Sidh of the Irish tradition. She comes to claim Pwyll for her husband and later her horse associations are stressed when she has to do a penance at a horse-block when she is wrongly accused of killing her son. There appears to be buried themes of sovereignty and the stewardship of the land here, and in our modern practice Rigantona – as she is formally addressed – or Rhiannon – as some of us more personally address her - is expressive of our relationship with the land of Brython. The Horse Goddess is both the embodiment of the spirit of the land and of our lives, both physically and spiritually, as part of the land.
Later in the Mabinogi tale cycle, Rhiannon goes back in Annwfn – or the Otherworld – for a time when the land reverts to wildness, and it is Manawydan, striving against the magic of an Otherworld sorcerer, who restores the land and enables her return. Again, there appear to be themes of sovereignty and human habitation of the land running through this tale.
Elsewhere in the medieval Welsh tales, Rhiannon’s Otherworld qualities are stressed. Her birds sing over the sea and create an atmosphere of enchantment and the suspension of time. The giant Ysbadadden says in the tale Culhwch and Olwen, that Rhiannon’s birds are "they that wake the dead and lull the living to sleep".
Rigantona is the Horse Goddess. She embodies our relationship with the land of Brython. Her connections with the Otherworld also reflect the shifts between the worlds, which we acknowledge and live by as part of our religious life.
Rigantona (‘Great Queen’) was a British goddess associated with horses. As such she is seen as conjunctive with Epona, a goddess particularly associated with Roman cavalrymen in Gaul but with attested shrines in Roman Britain. Epona is also mentioned in the late Latin story by Apuleius The Golden Ass which contains a description of a shrine to Epona in a stable and refers to a practice of putting roses on such shrines.
Rigantona appears as Rhiannon in the medieval Welsh story in the Four branches of Y Mabinogi, usually collected in English translation with other stories under the title The Mabinogion. Rhiannon can be shown to be a development from Brythonic of the name Rigantona. The medieval Welsh stories present her riding into the Welsh landscape from the Otherworld at a place called Gorsedd Arberth, which may be an Otherworld portal similar to the Sidh of the Irish tradition. She comes to claim Pwyll for her husband and later her horse associations are stressed when she has to do a penance at a horse-block when she is wrongly accused of killing her son. There appears to be buried themes of sovereignty and the stewardship of the land here, and in our modern practice Rigantona – as she is formally addressed – or Rhiannon – as some of us more personally address her - is expressive of our relationship with the land of Brython. The Horse Goddess is both the embodiment of the spirit of the land and of our lives, both physically and spiritually, as part of the land.
Later in the Mabinogi tale cycle, Rhiannon goes back in Annwfn – or the Otherworld – for a time when the land reverts to wildness, and it is Manawydan, striving against the magic of an Otherworld sorcerer, who restores the land and enables her return. Again, there appear to be themes of sovereignty and human habitation of the land running through this tale.
Elsewhere in the medieval Welsh tales, Rhiannon’s Otherworld qualities are stressed. Her birds sing over the sea and create an atmosphere of enchantment and the suspension of time. The giant Ysbadadden says in the tale Culhwch and Olwen, that Rhiannon’s birds are "they that wake the dead and lull the living to sleep".
Rigantona is the Horse Goddess. She embodies our relationship with the land of Brython. Her connections with the Otherworld also reflect the shifts between the worlds, which we acknowledge and live by as part of our religious life.
Maponos : The Divine Son
There is evidence for the worship of Maponos both in Britiain and gaul during Roman times and he was regarded by the Romans as a ‘Celtic Apollo’, although such ‘equivalents’ are often as misleading as they are helpful. At the Roman settlement of Vindolanda in northern England a silver plaque with the words ‘Deo Mapono’ was found and a lake in southern Scotland has also been identified as a centre of his worship.
The name Maponos develops from Brythonic into Welsh as Mabon, and Mabon son of Modron (< Maponos son of Matrona) appears in the medieval Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen where he is rescued from a dungeon by the River Severn by Arthur.
For a discussion of his association with poetry and links to the Irish deity Oengus mac Óc see the Perspectives page below.
