Epona was a Celtic goddess. Her name contains an allusion to the horse: in Celtic, "epos" means “horse” and the suffix “-ona” affixed simply means “on”. Epona is the patron goddess of mares and foals. The oldest information about the Gallic goddess of horses is found in Juvenal (Satires, VIII, 155 ff). He writes: “... iurat / solam Eponam and facies olida ad praesepia pictas”. We can also find another text mentioning Epona in Minucius Felix (Octavianus, XXVII, 7): “Nisi quod vos et totos asinos in stabulis cum vestro vel [sua] Epona consecratis.”
This is a companion discussion topic for the original content at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/153/epona/.