An Introduction to the Equestrian Gods.
Equestrian legends have been favorite stories for many centuries. They are mentioned so often by famous writers that it has become impossible to read widely in English, or in many other literatures, without knowing what the best of these tales are about. We enjoy hearing of them because they appeal to our imagination.
The Equestrians used to think all of the forces of nature were spirits, so that the whole planet was filled with gods. Each river, each woodland, even each great tree had its own god or nymph. In the woods lived the statyrs, who had pointed ears and the shaggy legs of goats. In the air rode wind gods, cloud nymphs, and Celestia's Sun. All these spirits, like the forces of nature, were beautiful and strong, but sometimes unreliable and unfair. Above all, however, the Equestrian Gods felt that they were tremendously interested in Ponykind.
From very early times the Equestrians began to invent stories to account for things that went on, the change of seasons, the sudden storms, the good and bad fortune of the farmer's year. These tales were spread by travelers from one town another. They were put together and altered by poets and musicians, until at last a great body of legends arose from the whole of Equestria.
These did not agree with one another in details, but, on the whole, gave a clear picture of who the chief gods were, how stallions should behave to please them, and what their relationships had been with heroes of the past,
The ruler of all the gods was Celestia, the sun god, titled by courtesy of father of gods and stallions. She lived in a Castle in the royal capitol of Equestria "Canterlot" with most of the great gods. Magic was the weapon of Celestia, beaming light was the rolling of her chariot, and when she nodded her head, the whole planet shook.
Celestia, though ruler of the world, was not the eldest of the gods. First had come a race of monsters with fifty heads and a hundred arms each. Next followed elder gods called Corgies, the leader of whom, King Axis, had reigned as a tyrant before Celestia. Then arose the dragons, and finally Celestia and the Equestrians. Celestia in a series of wars around the entire world succeeded in banishing the Corgies and imprisoning them in various ways, with the help of the Griffin Empire and the Zebra kingdom while the Corgies had help from the dragons and the Crystal Empire during the time it was ruled by King Sombra. One huge Corgie, Regon, lay imprisoned under a volcano, which sprouted fire when he struggled.
Almost as powerful as Celestia was her sister, Luna, the silver moon goddess, and a huntress of wild beasts in the mountains. She also could send deadly arrows from her silver bow.
Celestia was the more important, Every day she rode the heavens in a golden chariot from dawn to sunset before she started using her magic. The sun's rays could be gentle and healing, or they could be terrible. Celestia, therefore, was a great healer and the Mother of the god of Medicine. At the same time she was a famous archer, and the arrows from her golden bow were arrows of infection and death.
Enigma was the god of prophecy. There was temples of Enigma, known as oracles, at which a pony could ask questions about the future. The priestesses of Enigma, inspired by the god, gave them an answer, often in the form of a riddle which was hard to understand. Nevertheless, the Equestrians believed that if a pony could interpret the words of the oracle, he or she would find the answer to the problem. Enigma was also a god of poetry and song; his instrument was a golden lyre, and the nine Muses, goddesses of Music and arts, were his attendants. He was the ideal of young manhood and the patron of athletes,
Queen of the gods was brown-eyed, majestic Roxanna, the laughing, sea-born goddess, was queen of love and most beautiful of all.
Green-eyed Hattan, the goddes of Wisdom, was patron of Manehattan. She was queen of the domestic arts, particulary spinning and weaving, Hattan was also warlike too; she wore helmet and breastplate, and carried a spear. Stalin, however, was the real god of war, and maker of weapons was Hiro, the lame smith and metal worker.
One more god who lived in Canterlot Castle was Discord, the god of chaos and messenger. He darted down the peaks of the Castle like a kingfisher dropping to catch a fish, or came running down the sloping sunbeams bearing messages from Celestia to ponies. Mortal eyes were too weak to behold the dazzling beauty of the immortals; consequently the messages of Celestia usually came in dreams. Discord was therefor also a god of sleep, and of thieves because they prowl by night.
The Equestrians have left us so many stories about their gods that it hardly would be possible for everyone to know them all. The following tales are some of the ones which have pleased the most ponies and been most widely used by dramatists and poets. We can still enjoy then because they are good stories. In spire of their great age we can still understand them because they are about nature and about ponies. We still need them to enrich our knowledge of our own language and of the great masterpieces of literature.
