Uploaded January 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The most important sacrificial animal in the original Indo-European religion was the horse - The very power of their kings depended on an elaborate ritual horse sacrifice. In this video we will look at the rite of horse sacrifice in various Indo-European traditions in order to get an idea of why the Proto-Indo-Europeans considered it such an important royal ritual and what it looked like. There is horse sacrifice in the Vedas so we begin with the enormous Ashvamedha in India, and move on to Rome's October Horse rite and end on old Norse written sources combined with archaeological evidence from the Nordic Bronze age through to the Viking age - we get a pretty clear picture of the gruesome and often sexual rituals associated with the inauguration of kings and the necessary solar horse sacrifice. This video is mainly based on the recent study on the same subject by Kaliff & Oestigaard.
This channel depends on your support:
Patreon: patreon.com/survivethejive
SubscribeStar: subscribestar.com/survive-the-jive
Telegram: https://t.me/survivethejive
Art:
Alex Cristi
Andrew Whyte
Christian Sloan Hall
Christopher Steininger
Map animation by Meta-sight
Sources:
Dumézil, G. 1970. ‘Archaic Roman Religion. Volume One.’ The John Hopkins University Press. Baltimore and London. amzn.to/3jiHV0D
Eliade, M. 1993. ‘Patterns in Comparative Religion.’ Sheed and Ward. New York. amzn.to/3hd2yIX
Eliade, M., ed., ‘Encyclopedia of Religion’ (NY: Collier Macmillan, 1987), VI:463;
Kaliff, A., & Oestigaard, T., ‘The Great Indo-European Horse Sacrifice: 4000 Years of Cosmological Continuity from Sintashta and the Steppe to Scandinavian Skeid’ (2020)
uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1435564/FULLTEXT02.pdf
Outram, A., et al. ‘Horses for the dead: funerary foodways in Bronze Age Kazakhstan’ - (March 2011)
Puhvel, J., ‘Comparative Mythology’ 1987
Rowsell, T., Riding To The Afterlife: The Role Of Horses In Early Medieval North-Western Europe. (2012) https://www.academia.edu/35172183/Riding_To_The_Afterlife_The_Role_Of_Horses_In_Early_Medieval_North_Western_Europe
Sikora, M., ‘Diversity in Viking Age horse burial’ in The Journal of Irish Archaeology(Belfast: 2003-4). P.87.
Solheim, S. 1956. Horse-fight and horse-race in Norse tradition. Studia Norvegica No. 8. H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nyaard). Oslo.
Veil, Stephan & Breest, Klaus & Grootes, P. & Nadeau, Marie-Josée & Huels, Matthias. (2012). A 14 000-year-old amber elk and the origins of northern European art. Antiquity. 86. 660-673.
Music in order:
theme song: Wolcensmen - Sunne
Xurious - Steppe expansion
Bark Sound Productions - Vlv
Ormgård - Den Vilda Jakten
Bark Sound Productions - Ensam gar du
Doug Maxwell - Bansure raga
Kevin McLeod - Big mojo vadodara
Kevin McLeod - Dhaka
Torulf - Rite of the heart
Borg - The May queen enters the circle
Halindir - The Weave
Altyn Tuu - Altai throat singing
Sean O Rourke - contentment is wealth
Elegiac - Odinn
Amelec - sun in time
Ormgård - Sjálfsforn
Khan Kurra - Little Dragon
Sjhof - path to the temple
Bark Sound Productions - Eld
Borg - Valborgs Vals
Chris Zabriskie - I am running
Borg - wood anemones
Torulf - rite of the heart
Sir Cubworth - The throne room
Doug Maxwell - Bansure Raga
00:00 Introduction
00:56 Early Indo-European evidence
04:20 Indian Ashvamedha
11:41 Rome’s October Horse
13:45 Ancient Greece
14:37 Scythians
16:10 Ireland
17:35 Norse/Germanic
29:28 Skeid - horse fight
32:43 Early Nordic archaeological evidence
35:35 Anglo-Saxon archaeological evidence
36:02 Viking funeral archaeological evidence
37:28 Nordic Bronze age rock art
38:41 Conclusion
40:24 Hittite evidence
41:21 Credits
Copyrighted film clips used in this educational video are covered under the Fair Use policy since I comment on and review the clips in the context of an educational video.
The most important sacrificial animal in the original Indo-European religion was the horse - The very power of their kings depended on an elaborate ritual horse sacrifice. In this video we will look at the rite of horse sacrifice in various Indo-European traditions in order to get an idea of why the Proto-Indo-Europeans considered it such an important royal ritual and what it looked like. There is horse sacrifice in the Vedas so we begin with the enormous Ashvamedha in India, and move on to Rome's October Horse rite and end on old Norse written sources combined with archaeological evidence from the Nordic Bronze age through to the Viking age - we get a pretty clear picture of the gruesome and often sexual rituals associated with the inauguration of kings and the necessary solar horse sacrifice. This video is mainly based on the recent study on the same subject by Kaliff & Oestigaard.
This channel depends on your support:
Patreon: patreon.com/survivethejive
SubscribeStar: subscribestar.com/survive-the-jive
Telegram: https://t.me/survivethejive
Art:
Alex Cristi
Andrew Whyte
Christian Sloan Hall
Christopher Steininger
Map animation by Meta-sight
Sources:
Dumézil, G. 1970. ‘Archaic Roman Religion. Volume One.’ The John Hopkins University Press. Baltimore and London. amzn.to/3jiHV0D
Eliade, M. 1993. ‘Patterns in Comparative Religion.’ Sheed and Ward. New York. amzn.to/3hd2yIX
Eliade, M., ed., ‘Encyclopedia of Religion’ (NY: Collier Macmillan, 1987), VI:463;
Kaliff, A., & Oestigaard, T., ‘The Great Indo-European Horse Sacrifice: 4000 Years of Cosmological Continuity from Sintashta and the Steppe to Scandinavian Skeid’ (2020)
uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1435564/FULLTEXT02.pdf
Outram, A., et al. ‘Horses for the dead: funerary foodways in Bronze Age Kazakhstan’ - (March 2011)
Puhvel, J., ‘Comparative Mythology’ 1987
Rowsell, T., Riding To The Afterlife: The Role Of Horses In Early Medieval North-Western Europe. (2012) https://www.academia.edu/35172183/Riding_To_The_Afterlife_The_Role_Of_Horses_In_Early_Medieval_North_Western_Europe
Sikora, M., ‘Diversity in Viking Age horse burial’ in The Journal of Irish Archaeology(Belfast: 2003-4). P.87.
Solheim, S. 1956. Horse-fight and horse-race in Norse tradition. Studia Norvegica No. 8. H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nyaard). Oslo.
Veil, Stephan & Breest, Klaus & Grootes, P. & Nadeau, Marie-Josée & Huels, Matthias. (2012). A 14 000-year-old amber elk and the origins of northern European art. Antiquity. 86. 660-673.
Music in order:
theme song: Wolcensmen - Sunne
Xurious - Steppe expansion
Bark Sound Productions - Vlv
Ormgård - Den Vilda Jakten
Bark Sound Productions - Ensam gar du
Doug Maxwell - Bansure raga
Kevin McLeod - Big mojo vadodara
Kevin McLeod - Dhaka
Torulf - Rite of the heart
Borg - The May queen enters the circle
Halindir - The Weave
Altyn Tuu - Altai throat singing
Sean O Rourke - contentment is wealth
Elegiac - Odinn
Amelec - sun in time
Ormgård - Sjálfsforn
Khan Kurra - Little Dragon
Sjhof - path to the temple
Bark Sound Productions - Eld
Borg - Valborgs Vals
Chris Zabriskie - I am running
Borg - wood anemones
Torulf - rite of the heart
Sir Cubworth - The throne room
Doug Maxwell - Bansure Raga
00:00 Introduction
00:56 Early Indo-European evidence
04:20 Indian Ashvamedha
11:41 Rome’s October Horse
13:45 Ancient Greece
14:37 Scythians
16:10 Ireland
17:35 Norse/Germanic
29:28 Skeid - horse fight
32:43 Early Nordic archaeological evidence
35:35 Anglo-Saxon archaeological evidence
36:02 Viking funeral archaeological evidence
37:28 Nordic Bronze age rock art
38:41 Conclusion
40:24 Hittite evidence
41:21 Credits
Copyrighted film clips used in this educational video are covered under the Fair Use policy since I comment on and review the clips in the context of an educational video.
