Dance with Death: Interpreting the symbolism of Arya and the pale horse

We see a close-up of Arya’s gloved hand as she reaches for and grasps the horse’s reins.

The Celtic goddess Rhiannon, a highly-skilled hero of the medieval Welsh Mabinogion stories, is an Otherworld figure who rides a grey horse.

Arya soothes the animal with her voice, though we don’t hear it. She has more color in her face, here. She and the animal are connecting, calming their fears, deciding to trust each other. Life finds life in the midst of death?

Closeup of the pale horse as the beast and Arya feel out one another.

Of course, the most famous western instance of a grey/ashen/pale horse comes from the Indo-European/Christian tradition. Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, rides a pale horse in Revelations:

"I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. (Revelation 6:7-8, as witness by John of Patmos, The New Testament of the Bible)"

Has the ashen horse arrived to pick up its ashen rider? Of course, that would mean Arya has become Death, and that seems like a pretty big stretch. Perhaps the scenario is hinting at other possibilities, such as the dead horse coming to take Arya into the land of the dead (Hades, or hell, is linked to these figures). Or, Arya will mount the ashen horse and become the symbol of Death (meaning that both she and the animal are still very alive), but only in relation to Daenerys Targaryen, whom Arya may not decide to kill.

Arya continues to soothe the horse, her hand soft upon its shoulder.

Arya looks up at the pale/ashen horse.

It is interesting to note that khlōros is the original Koine Greek word used to describe the color of Death’s horse: it’s believed to express a “green/greenish-yellow or pale/pallid coloration.” More modern interpretations translate the word as “pale” or “ashen” or “yellow-green.” If you look at the use of the word in ancient Greek medical texts, scholars suggest it is used to describe the “sickly pallor of a corpse.”