290 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



though it was then extremely rare and therefore very much 

 coveted by horse-fanciers. Like Pegasus and Arion, and, indeed, 

 like most things strange and rare, brought from distant lands, 

 this strain was held by the Homeric Greeks to be of divine 

 origin. 



The Trojans are regularly spoken of as "tamers of horses" 

 {linroSafjioi) and we are told that King Erichthonius, "who 

 became richest of mortal men," had "three thousand mares that 

 pastured along the marsh meadow, rejoicing in their tender 

 foals. Of them was Boreas enamoured as they grazed, and 

 in semblance of a black-maned horse he covered them. Then 

 they, having conceived, bare twelve fillies. These, when they 

 bounded over Earth, the grain-giver, would run upon the 

 topmost ripened ears of corn and break them not; and when 

 they bounded over the broad backs of the sea, they would run 

 upon the crests of the breakers of the hoary brine. Erichthonius 

 begat Tros, the father of Ganymede, who was caught up by the 

 gods to become the cup-bearer of Zeus\" 



There can be little doubt that these horses were of the 

 European- Asiatic stock. Since horses from the Ocean and from 

 Libya are described as the offspring of Zephyrus, the West 

 Wind, and of Poseidon respectively, so the Boreas-sprung horses 

 of the rich plains of the Troad, peopled by Dardanians and 

 Mysians, who had crossed over from Thrace — the home^ of 

 Boreas, the North Wind — were plainly regarded as of Thracian 

 origin. 



Though Tros had inherited so excellent a breed of horses 

 from his father Erichthonius, he was able to introduce a far 

 better strain into his stud. In his combat with Aeneas Diomede 

 especially wished to capture the horses of the Trojan hero, for, said 

 he to his charioteer, "they are of that breed whereof far-seeing 

 Zeus gave to Tros as recompense for Ganymede, his child, because 

 they were the best of all horses beneath the daylight and the 

 sun. That blood Anchises king of men stole of Laomedon, 

 privily putting mares to them, whereof a stock was born to him 

 in his palace, even six; four kept he himself and reared them at 

 the stall, and the other twain gave he to Aeneas, deviser of 



1 Iliad, XX. 219 sqq. '^ Iliad, xiv. 395, xxii. 692. 



