Horse symbolism is the study of the representation of the horse in mythology, religion, folklore, art, literature and psychoanalysis as a symbol, in its capacity to designate, to signify an abstract concept, beyond the physical reality of the quadruped animal. The horse has been associated with numerous roles and magical gifts throughout the ages and in all regions of the world where human populations have come into contact with it, making it the most symbolically charged animal, along with the snake. Mythical and legendary horses often possess marvellous powers, such as the ability to speak, cross waters, travel to the Other World, the underworld and heaven, or carry an infinite number of people on their backs. They can be as good and Uranian as they are evil and Chthonian. Through the "centaur myth", expressed in most stories featuring a horse, the rider seeks to become one with his mount, combining animal instinct with human intelligence. The horse's main function is as a vehicle, which is why it has become a shamanic and psychopomp animal, responsible for accompanying mankind on all its journeys. A loyal ally to the hero in epic tales, a tireless companion in cowboy adventures, the horse has become a symbol of war and political domination throughout history, a symbol of evil through its association with nightmares and demons, and a symbol of eroticism through the ambiguity of riding. The horse is familiar with the elements, especially water, from which the aquatic horse known in Celtic countries is derived. Air gave rise to the winged horse, known in Greece, China and Africa. Literature, role-playing games and cinema have taken up these symbolic perceptions of the horse.
Origins and development of symbolic perception The horse may have occupied a key symbolic position from the very beginning, since it is the most represented animal in prehistoric art, favoured since the XXXV millennium BC, well before its domestication. Representing the horse more than other equally (if not more) abundant animals was already a choice for prehistoric man. In the absence of concrete evidence to explain this choice, all interpretations remain possible, from the symbol of power (according to the exhibition Le cheval, symbole de pouvoirs dans l'Europe préhistorique) to the shamanic animal (according to Jean Clottes' theory taken up by Marc-André Wagner). The horse also became a totemic ancestor, more or less deified. The symbolism of the horse is complex and multiple. It is not clearly defined, since authors attribute a wide variety of meanings to the animal, with no one meaning standing out above the others. In the stories associated with it, it has all kinds of roles and symbolisms, both beneficial and malefic: a dynamic, impulsive mount, it is associated with all the points of the compass, with each of the four elements, with maternal figures (Carl Gustav Jung sees the horse as one of the archetypes of the mother, because it carries its rider just as the mother carries her child, "In contrast, Sigmund Freud notes a case in which the horse is the image of the castrating father), to the sun as well as the moon, to life as well as death, to the Chtonian as well as the Uranian world. In its earliest symbolic perception, the horse was disquieting and chtonian, but later became associated with the sun as a result of its domestication. It is most often a lunar animal linked to mother earth, water, sexuality, dreams, divination and the renewal of vegetation. Gilbert Durand notes, in his Structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire, that the horse "is linked to the great natural clocks", and that all stories, whether of solar horses or chtonian steeds, have in common "the fear of the passage of time".
Its powers are beyond comprehension; it is therefore a marvel, and it's no wonder that man has so often made it sacred, from prehistoric times to the present day. Perhaps only one animal surpasses it in subtlety in the symbolic bestiary of all peoples: the serpent. Ancient studies suggest that the origin of the marvellous "magical powers" attributed to the horse is Indian. Henri Gougaud notes that "since time immemorial, strong, deep, unalterable bonds have attached man to his mount". The horse is both the animal most dear to man and the only one that man can respect as his equal, so much so that it is seen as a gift from the gods capable of lifting man out of his primate condition and into the celestial spheres.
Domestication
The domestication of the horse, the feeling of freedom and the warlike power gained by cavaliers, means that this animal, a factor in major progress over the centuries, finds itself at the center of so many stories and is charged with multiple meanings. In myths, this domestication is often presented as an immediate and tacit understanding between rider and mount, sometimes with the help of the gods, as illustrated by Pegasus, Bucephalus and Grani. The historical reality, however, is one of a very long process. In the cinema, this domestication is "an initiatory stage, a rite of passage between the wild state of childhood and the civilized state of adulthood".
The centaur myth and the unconscious
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