It goes without saying that the horse rears his majestic head at the very heart of Trojan mythology, but as we seek to sharpen our understanding of the complex semiotic communication encoded into the hippological component of this culturally essential narrative network, it behooves us to expand the parameters of our scholarly pasture so that we begin to snuffle at and eventually graze on conceptually overlapping archaeological evidence, as well as genealogically related mythico-religious evidence from North India and Ireland. As a contribution to the ongoing examination of the equine lore in question, this presentation will scrutinize the persistent interrelationship between socially prominent women and horses in the mythical and ritual traditions of Greece, North India, and Ireland. Topics investigated during the presentation include the roles of Helen and of other hippophilic princesses and queens belonging to Helen’s extended family tree, North Indian stallion sacrifice, Irish mare sacrifice, and the cooperative significance of the animal and human burials inside the so-called heroon at Lefkandi.
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