THE HORSE AS AN EPIC CHARACTER 



spring of the water god Poseidon. According to another 

 tradition, Arion had as his father Zephyrus; the horses 

 of Achilles and Aeneas had as father Boreas. The heroic 

 horse is, then, the offspring of the winds as well as of the 

 water. 



With these epic horses in mind one thinks inune- 

 diately of the great part that the water horses (male 

 water sprites) play in Gaelic and Cymric folklore. They 

 come on shore as men and beguile women. Often their 

 real nature is betrayed by the presence of seaweed in 

 their hair, just as one recognizes the water sprite in 

 Russian stories from water dripping from a comer of his 

 shirt. They transform themselves into birds — which 

 is interesting, for, if our epic horses have much to do 

 with the water, like Pegasus they are also at home in the 

 air. Often they appear as ordinary handsome horses; 

 and when unwary men have mounted upon their backs, 

 they tear over hill and dale, then soar aloft, and 

 finally, changing into mist, let fall the unlucky rider. 

 Only a very bold horseman or priest can ride them with 

 safety. Outside of Celtic territory, the Scandinavian 

 nykr (Eng. nicker) is spoken of as a horse. He appears 

 on land as a handsome dapple-gray steed ^ — but his 

 hoofs turn the wrong way. German legends speak of a 

 big black horse rising out of the sea. Grimm says that 

 to the water sprite the whole or half of a horse^s figure 

 is attributed, and that is why horses are sacrificed to 

 rivers. This last is true also of Russian folklore. It 

 is worth noting that in the Shah Nameh the hero Yez- 



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