> [[merisante]]. "Women, Horses, and Predators: Female Sexuality and The Wild". Paper presented at the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM), March 29, 2014 San Antonio,Texas. [pdf](a/m-merisante2014.pdf) ## Abstract This paper presents new material on mythic links existing between horses (specifically mares), women’s sexuality, and particular predators: bears, wolves, and big cats. This paper describes the mythological path of solar mare goddesses through Indo-European cultures, clarifies that the solar mare goddess was split into maternal or erotic variants, and finally, that the erotic variants often were then shape-shifted into images of top animal predators.This particular mythic landscape is populated with some of most powerful land animals, women included. For the purposes of this paper, female sexuality is not limited to eroticism, sensuality, sexual acts or prowess, but also embraces the unique female states of menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth. Further, the mythological ties between women’s sexuality and these animals exist within the territory and condition of wildness.