112 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



it is natural to suppose that the horses used by the different 

 heroes in the chariot-race were of the ordinary dun colour, 

 unless it is otherwise stated. 



The evidence of Homer renders it certain that horses were 

 bred all over Greece in the early Iron age. We have just 

 seen that the Eleans kept mares in large numbers, and we 

 are told that the horses of Nestor, driven by Antilochus in 

 the chariot-race, were bred by the old chief himself at Pylus\ 

 whilst it is probable that horses w^ere bred in ' horse-pasturing ' 

 Argolis. Thus Aethe^ {Blazer), Agamemnon's mare, which 

 Menelaus drove in the chariot-race along with his own horse 

 Podargus^ (Sivi/t-fuot), had been given to the former by his 

 vassal, Echepolus of Sicyon, as a fee in lieu of following his 

 lord to Trov. 



Not only were horses largely bred in Homeric Greece, but 

 the ass played a familiar part in the life of the people, as is 

 clear from a famous simile in the Iliad : " And as when an 

 ass passing along by a cornfield, hath overmastered the boys 

 that be Avith him, a lazy ass, round whose ribs full man}^ a 

 cudgel hath been broken, and he maketh his way into the 

 deep coi'n and croppeth it, while the boys smite him with 

 cudgels, and feeble is their force, though with might and main 

 they drive him forth when he hath had his fill of fodder, even 

 so did the great-hearted Trojans and their allies, called from 

 many lands, smite great Ajax, son of Telamon, with darts on 

 the centre of his shield and ever followed after him^" 



No doubt the ass was of the Nubian species, which had 

 been domesticated at a very early period, and, as we shall 

 see, had been commonly used from very remote times in 

 Egypt, from whence it probably had made its way into 

 Greece. 



As both horses and asses were thus commonh* kept, it 

 was but natural that the breeding of mules should be carried 



1 //. XXIII. 303. 2 j/_ XXIII. 295. 



^ II. XXIII. 295 (cf. II. vni. 185, where it is the name of Hector's horse). 

 It probably means ' swift-foot ' not ' white-foot,' since it is used of the 

 harpy Podarge {II. xvi. 150, xix. 400). 



4 II. XI. 558. 



