The Horse as Mediator and Psychopomp: from Mythological Tradition to Russian Folklore
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/BYSU.B/2026.17.3.019Keywords:
Russian folklore, horse image, fairy tale, bylina, mythopoetics, mediation, psychopomp, liminalityAbstract
Despite the enduring presence of the horse in the mythological, religious, and folkloric traditions of diverse cultures, its significance has most often been interpreted through discrete symbolic frameworks, including solar, martial, chthonic, or economic associations. Such an approach makes it difficult to explain both the remarkable persistence of this image and its recurrence across culturally distant traditions. The present study addresses this problem from a different perspective by attributing the longevity of the motif not to the stability of its symbolism, but to the preservation of a particular structural function. A comparison of mythological material with the Russian fairy-tale and bylina traditions demonstrates that the horse functions as one of the principal figures of transition, facilitating interaction between different levels of existence and accompanying changes in the hero’s status. At the same time, Russian folklore substantially reinterprets this archaic model. Whereas in cosmological systems the horse is primarily associated with mediation and the crossing of boundaries between worlds, in fairy tales and epic narratives its role concentrates around the very subject of transition. The magical horse is involved less in the hero’s physical movement than in the processes of personal formation, ordeal, and the acquisition of a new identity. This shift makes it possible to view Russian folklore not as a late reflection of ancient mythological conceptions, but as a space of active artistic transformation in which the mediating function of the horse receives its most consistent and anthropologically significant realization. From this perspective, the image of the horse emerges as a distinctive mythopoetic model of mediation and psychopompy, uniting diverse cultural traditions through a shared logic of transition and transformation.
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