The horse had also been worshipped, but a goddess Epona (Gaul. _epo-s_,
"horse"), protectress of horses and asses, took its place, and had a
far-spread cult. She rides a horse or mare with its foal, or is seated
among horses, or feeds horses. A representation of a mare suckling a
foal--a design analogous to those in which Epona feeds foals--shows that
her primitive equine nature had not been forgotten.[721] The Gauls were
horse-rearers, and Epona was the goddess of the craft; but, as in other
cases, a cult of the horse must have preceded its domestication, and its
flesh may not have been eaten, or, if so, only sacramentally.[722]
Finally, the divine horse became the anthropomorphic horse-goddess. Her
images were placed in stables, and several inscriptions and statuettes
have been found in such buildings or in cavalry barracks.[723] The
remains of the cult have been found in the Danube and Rhine valleys, in
Eastern Gaul, and in Northern Italy, all Celtic regions, but it was
carried everywhere by Roman cavalry recruited from the Celtic
tribes.[724] Epona is associated with, and often has, the symbols of the
_Matres_, and one inscription reads _Eponabus_, as if there were a group
of goddesses called Epona.[725] A goddess who promoted the fertility of
mares would easily be associated with goddesses of fertility. Epona may
also have been confused with a river-goddess conceived of as a spirited
steed. Water-spirits took that shape, and the _Matres_ were also
river-goddesses.

A statuette of a horse, with a dedication to a god Rudiobus, otherwise
unknown, may have been carried processionally, while a mule has a
dedication to Segomo, equated elsewhere with Mars. A mule god Mullo,
also equated with Mars, is mentioned on several inscriptions.[726] The
connection with Mars may have been found in the fact that the October
horse was sacrificed to him for fertility, while the horse was probably
associated with fertility among the Celts. The horse was sacrificed both
by Celts and Teutons at the Midsummer festival, undoubtedly as a divine
animal. Traces of the Celtic custom survive in local legends, and may be
interpreted in the fuller light of the Teutonic accounts. In Ireland a
man wearing a horse's head rushed through the fire, and was supposed to
represent all cattle; in other words, he was a surrogate for them. The
legend of Each Labra, a horse which lived in a mound and issued from it
every Midsummer eve to give oracles for the co