ON BREEDING. 
191 
The Greek tragedian, iEschylus, describes Prometheus as the 
first man who taught mankind how to render horses obedient 
to the yoke, either to cultivate the ground or for purposes of 
luxury : — 
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Z $QV\£V0VT<Zy CBVp.CtClV Q'o7TCOS 
©VflTOK (Atyi(7TUV ^G^Yl^XTUV 
r^votvO’, vty cc^ctT riyccyov (p^-nviovt; 
l7r7rov$ 9 ocyottoix t vi virtgirhovTov 
The civilizing, oneirocritick, and medicinal arts, which Prome¬ 
theus also boasts to have taught mankind, have reference to none 
but Osiris*, whom the Egyptians considered as the father of 
mankind. The great artist by whom men were formed anew, 
and were instructed in all that was good, is no other than Noah , 
whom the Egyptians worshipped as the god Osiris in symbolical 
representation^. 
Noah was unquestionably acquainted with all the arts of the 
antediluvians; these he naturally communicated to his children, 
and they again transmitted them down to their posterity. 
Egypt was founded, as histoiy informs us, either by Ham, the 
son of Noah, or, as some authors state, by Mizraim, or Menes, 
the son of Ham. This fairly accounts for the Egyptians being 
so early acquainted with the valuable properties of the horse; for 
had the descendants of Noah been left to their own ingenuity, 
without any acquaintance with the knowledge of the antediluvian 
world, it is probable that they would not have subdued this ani¬ 
mal at so early a period. 
It has been a subject of controversy, whether the primitive in¬ 
habitants first used the horse in harness, or rode on its back. 
Palaphatus informs us, that chariots were first in use; and 
that the Lapithae, who flourished about Hercules’s time, were the 
first that attempted to ride upon horses. Whilst Lucretius asserts 
that the first heroes were mounted upon horses, and that chariots 
were a modern invention ; 
“ Et priiis est reppeitum in equi conscendere costas, 
Et moderarier hunc fraenis dextra que vigerc 
Quam bijugo curru belli tentare pericla.” 
Homer, in his Iliad, describes all his heroes as fighting in 
chariots, which were drawn by two, and sometimes four horses. 
Hector’s chariot appears to be drawn by four horses: 
€i xavQi te, <rv rioJa^E, jcJ A iSojv, Aa/XTTE te 
* Potter’s uEscbylus. 
t Eryant’s Mythology. 
