1 8 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



either of these, and next to Homer himself, the propb.et 

 Micah (b, c. 710), exclaims: 'Arise and thresh, O 

 daughter of Zion : for I will make thine horn iron, and I 

 will make tJiij hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces 

 many people.' ' 



So that really there is no foundation for supposing 

 that the words quoted bear any reference whatever to 

 shoeing. Homer is very minute in some of his descrip- 

 tions of horses, chariots, armour, and equipment, but 

 there is nothing particular in his poem to lead any one 

 to suspect that the steeds of his warriors were shod. 

 Had they been so, or had he been aware of the art, we 

 can scarcely doubt but he would have introduced some 

 notice of it ; entering as he does into so many particu- 

 lars about horses, which were, next to man, the chief 

 figures in his word-pictures. F^or instance, he speaks of 

 the method of securing horses ; Neptune's team was 

 stabled in a cave 



' 'Twixt Tenedos and Imbro's rocky isle.' 



After driving the brazen-footed steeds through the sea, 

 skimming the waves of blue, Neptune takes them to his 

 retreat, then 



' Loosed from the chariot, and before them placed 

 Ambrosial provender ; and round their feet 

 Shackles of gold, which none might break nor loose. 

 That there they might await their lord's return.'^ 



As Homer's famous epic describes the misfortunes 

 and the siege of Troy, occurring about twelve hundred 

 years before our era, it is important that the words sup- 

 posed to denote shoeing be properly understood. 



' Chap. iv. 13. ^ Iliad, xiii. 41-5. 



