XENOPHON AND SIMO 39 



though Simo wrote with some knowledge of 

 horses, yet that he entertained an exalted opinion 

 of himself that was unpardonable. 



The truth of that statement is borne out by 

 the evidence we have that when, on a famous 

 occasion, Simo presented the brazen horse to the 

 temple of the Eleusinian Ceres, at Athens, he 

 had the effrontery to engrave upon the pedestal 

 his own works ! 



Though when expressing opinions upon the 

 points of a horse the ancient Greeks differed 

 rather widely in their views, yet most of the 

 rules laid down by Xenophon are as applicable 

 to-day as they were some three and twenty 

 centuries ago. 



We read, for instance, that "the neck of the 

 horse, as it proceeds from the chest, should not 

 fall forward, like that of a boar, but should grow 

 upward, like that of a cock, and should have an 

 easy motion at the parts about the arch." That 

 the advice was not overlooked, even by early 

 artists, can be accurately conjectured if the 

 Parthenon frieze be inspected, for there almost 

 every horse shown has a neck "like that of a 

 cock." Xenophon then proceeds : 



" If a horse has the thighs under the tail broad 

 and not distorted, he will set his hind legs well 

 apart, and will by that means have a firmer and 

 quicker step, a better seat for a rider, and be 

 better in every respect. We may see," he con- 



