The Horse-Taming Trojans

Extract

When M. Félix Sartiaux says1 of the domain of Troy that ‘sa principale industrie est l'!èlevage de chevaux,’ he touches a point that has not been sufficiently considered in its bearing on the religion of Troy and its connexions with the tribes of Thrace, the Danube, and North Greece. In his study of the Thracian proper names Tomaschek notes2 the large number compounded with ‘Aulo-,’ which he regards as equivalent to ἴππο and remarks on the fact that it is natural to have such names in Thrace, as the chief business of the ruling Thracians was the breeding of horses, their food was flesh of horses, and horse-blood and horse-milk their drink. The same tendency is seen in the Iliad in the names with ἴππος as first or second member. They are for the most part names of Trojans or Trojan allies, the greater number belonging to Trojans. Only four Greeks have these names, and in two of these cases there seems to be an oversight on the part of the poet. Hipponoos occurs in a puzzling list of Greeks slain by Hector in II. XI. 301–304, in which the names that occur elsewhere in the poem are names of Trojans. Hippasides also constitutes a puzzle when used in the thirteenth book as a patronymic for Hypsenor, who is a Trojan in the fifth book, and has himself a characteristically Trojan3 or Dardanian name in ηνωρ Hippasos is a Trojan, father of Charops and Sokos, and, according to Hyginus, a son of Priam.