The horse / by William Youatt. With A treatise of draught.

  • William Youatt
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The horse / by William Youatt. With A treatise of draught. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It would appear that the first colony, about the time of the birth of Moses, landed in Thessaly, in the north of Greece. Their appearance mounted on horseback, according to the old fable, terrified the native inhabitants, and they fled in all directions, imagining that their country was attacked by a set of monsters, half horse and half man, and they called them Centaurs. Such w'as the origin of the figures which are not unfrec|uent among the remauis of ancient sculpture. Another and a more natural interpretation offers itself to the mind of the horseman. The Thessalians were the pride of the Grecian cavalry. Before the other provinces of Greece were scarcely acquainted with the name of the horse their subjugation of him was so complete, that, in the language of another poet of far later days, but not inferior to any that Greece ever knew, “ These gallants Had witcheraft in’t—they grew unto their seat, And to such wondrous doing brought their horse As they had been incorpsed, and demi-natured Witli the brave beast Hence the origin of the fable and of all the expressive sculptures. Bucephalus, the favourite w^ar-horse of Alexander, was probably of this breed. He would permit no one to mount him but his master, and he always knelt down to receive him on his back. Alexander rode him at the battle of the Hydaspes, in w'hich the noble steed received his death-wound. For once he was disobe¬ dient to the commands of his master : he hastened from the heat of the fight; he brought Alexander to a place where he was secure from danger ; he knelt for him to alight, and then dropped down and diedf. Sixty years afterwards, another colony of Egyptians landed in the southern part of Greece, and they introduced the knowdedge of the liorse in the neigh¬ bourhood of Athens. Their leader was called Erichthonius, or the horse- breaker ; and after his death, like the first Centaur, he found a place in the Zodiac under the name of “ The Archer. Erichthonius likewise occupied a situation among the constellations, and w'as termed Auriga, or the charioteer. The Thessalians ahvays maintained their character as the first and the choicest of the Grecian cavalry. In point of fact, it was the only part of the country in which horses could with decided advantage be bred. It abounded in rich pastures, whereas the rest of Greece was comparatively dry and barren^;. From various of the Greek authors we can very satisfactorily trace the rapid improvement which about this time took place in the character and management of the horse. It has been stated that the soil and produce of Greece were not favourable for the breeding of horses, and that it could be a matter of profit only in Thessaly. They soon, however, became necessary in almost every part of the country, both for offence and defence; therefore, in most of the cities, and particularly in Athens and in Sparta, in order to induce the inhabitants to keep the requisite number, a new order of citkens w'as instituted, deemed the second • Sliakspearc, Hamlet, Act iv. scene 7. f riutarcb, in Alex., Arrian, v. c. 3. I Blundeville, who was an excellent classic as well as Irorseinau, says:—“ Tlie horses of Greece have good Icgges, great bodyes, comely heads, and are of a high stature, and very well made forewarde, but hot backwardc, because they arc pyn-huttocked. Notwith¬ standing, tliey arc verye swift, and of a boldo courage. But of all tlie races in Greece, botli the horses and mares of Thessaly for their bcwtic, bignessc, bountie and courage, of al authors arc most celebrated. For which cause Xerxes, on his comming into Greece, made a running of horses in chariots to bo proclaymed only in Thessalia, because lice wouldc have his owne horses to runno wytho the best horses in Greece. Julius Caesar, also, beying Dictatour of Rome, knowyngthe courage of these horses, was the fiist that ordeyned them as a spectacle before the people to fyghtc wythe wylde bull^ and to kyil them.”—The Foncer Chiefexi Offices belonging to Horsemanship, i>. 4.
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