THE GREEK RIDING-HORSE. 89 



a common source now lost to us.* There can 

 be little doubt, therefore, that even before 

 Xenophon's time an ideal or normal type 

 had been established which was to find 

 acceptance throughout the whole period of 

 Greek and Roman antiquity. 



Now, when we compare Xenophon's de- 

 scription of a good horse with the best 

 horses on the frieze of the Parthenon, we find 

 a remarkable similarity. In fact, as " Stone- 

 henge " -f remarks, " here we have described 

 a cobby but spirited and corky horse, with a 

 light and somewhat peculiar carriage of the 

 head and neck, just as we see represented on 

 the Elgin marbles." It has been thought by 

 some that Xenophon based his description 

 upon these very reliefs, and it is of course 

 possible that they may have served as a sort 

 of guide to his words. But from earlier 

 works still, in vase-paintings of extremely 



* A lost work by the elder Pliny contained a de- 

 scription of the normal horse, generally accepted by 

 his contemporaries. See his Natural History, viii, 

 162. 



t In his book on the Horse, near the beginning of 

 which he gives the most exact translation of Xeno- 

 phon's description which I have ever seen. 



