KittySawrus
10-28-2008, 10:56 AM
I thought 'twould be interesting, what witht he current time of year...
So, does it have anything to do with a female horse?
Well...
In Anglo-Saxon, the word "mare", in context, means evil spirit/incubus, evil demons who sit on the chests of sleeping women, nearly suffocating them. He also appeared in the form of a demon lover, causing twitching and/or fitting during sleep, the resulting offspring being often deformed.
(We can now see this as a handy excuse for illegitimate or misshapen children in those times)
Anyhoo, the confusion of the demon "mare" with the horse "mare" most likely stems from paintings by Swiss artist Fuseli, which depicts the demon mare squatting upon the chest of a women, at night, with a rather sinister blind horse at the window. They became entitled "Nightmare". Whether this is Fuseli playing with words, or a more complicated idea behind the imagery is hard to say.
This misleading association seems to have led to the idea that people suffering from bad dreams are being haunted by horrific, nocturnal demon-horses, when in reality the equine connection is irrelevant.
Info adapted from "Illustrated Horsewatching" by Desmond Morris, Ebury Press, 1997
http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/fuseli.jpg
So, does it have anything to do with a female horse?
Well...
In Anglo-Saxon, the word "mare", in context, means evil spirit/incubus, evil demons who sit on the chests of sleeping women, nearly suffocating them. He also appeared in the form of a demon lover, causing twitching and/or fitting during sleep, the resulting offspring being often deformed.
(We can now see this as a handy excuse for illegitimate or misshapen children in those times)
Anyhoo, the confusion of the demon "mare" with the horse "mare" most likely stems from paintings by Swiss artist Fuseli, which depicts the demon mare squatting upon the chest of a women, at night, with a rather sinister blind horse at the window. They became entitled "Nightmare". Whether this is Fuseli playing with words, or a more complicated idea behind the imagery is hard to say.
This misleading association seems to have led to the idea that people suffering from bad dreams are being haunted by horrific, nocturnal demon-horses, when in reality the equine connection is irrelevant.
Info adapted from "Illustrated Horsewatching" by Desmond Morris, Ebury Press, 1997
http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/fuseli.jpg