Horseland Bucephalus

One of the most famous stories about Alexander the Great is the anecdote of his taming of Bucephalus. There may be some truth in the account we read in section 6 of the Life of Alexander by the Greek author Plutarch of Chaeronea - except for the concluding remark, of course.

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Welcome to the Horseland Wiki Horseland is an American animated series produced by DIC Entertainment. It is a comic mischief program following events in the lives of a group of children riding at Horseland, an equestrian school and stable. Their adventures include riding, and raising and entering their horses in competitions. Concurrent with the series, the online virtual pet game that it was. Mesa is a young mustang colt that Aztec encounters in the episode 'Wild Horses'. He is kind to Aztec when he first meets him, although this does not agree with the other mustangs. After Aztec leaves, Mesa follows him to help him find some good food. Suddenly, a bear charges out of the woods, and Aztec tells Mesa to run and save himself. Luckily, Mesa brings his herd to rescue Aztec.

The translation was made by Mr. Evelyn and belongs to the Dryden series.

A very distressed horse statue on a black stand, crafted from resin that looks like stone. Our Bucephalus Horse has certainly been through the wars (in fact, we named him after Alexander The Great's war horse) and is missing three of his legs and tail, giving this objet d'art the appearance of an ancient artefact.
May 16, 2018 Bucephalus was the famous and well-loved horse of Alexander the Great. Plutarch tells the story of how a 12-year old Alexander won the horse: A horse dealer offered the horse to Alexander's father, Philip II of Macedonia, for the enormous sum of 13 talents.

Alexander and Bucephalus

[6.1] Philonicus the Thessalian brought the horse Bucephalus to Philip, offering to sell him for thirteen talents. But when they went into the field to try him, they found him so very vicious and unmanageable, that he reared up when they endeavored to mount him, and would not so much as endure the voice of any of Philip's attendants.

[6.2] Upon which, as they were leading him away as wholly useless and untractable, Alexander, who stood by, said, 'What an excellent horse do they lose for want of address and boldness to manage him!'

[6.3] Philip at first took no notice of what he said; but when he heard him repeat the same thing several times, and saw he was much vexed to see the horse sent away, 'Do you reproach,' said he to him, 'those who are older than yourself, as if you knew more, and were better able to manage him than they?'

[6.4] 'I could manage this horse,' replied he, 'better than others do.'

'And if you do not,' said Philip, 'what will you forfeit for your rashness?'

'I will pay,' answered Alexander, 'the whole price of the horse.'

[6.5] At this the whole company fell a-laughing; and as soon as the wager was settled amongst them, he immediately ran to the horse, and taking hold of the bridle, turned him directly towards the sun, having, it seems, observed that he was disturbed at and afraid of the motion of his own shadow;

[6.6] then letting him go forward a little, still keeping the reins in his hands, and stroking him gently when he found him begin to grow eager and fiery, he let fall his upper garment softly, and with one nimble leap securely mounted him,

[6.7] and when he was seated, by little and little drew in the bridle, and curbed him without either striking or spurring him.

[6.8] Presently, when he found him free from all rebelliousness, and only impatient for the course, he let him go at full speed, inciting him now with a commanding voice, and urging him also with his heel. Philip and his friends looked on at first in silence and anxiety for the result, till seeing him turn at the end of his career, and come back rejoicing and triumphing for what he had performed, they all burst out into acclamations of applause; and his father shedding tears, it is said, for joy, kissed him as he came down from his horse, and in his transport said, 'O my son, look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee.'

Alexander and Bucephalus by Domenico Maria Canuti, 17th century

Bucephalus or Bucephalas (/bjuːˈsɛfələs/; Ancient Greek: Βουκεφάλας, from βοῦςbous, 'ox' and κεφαλήkephalē, 'head' meaning 'ox-head') (c. 355 BC – June 326 BC) was the horse of Alexander the Great, and one of the most famous horses of antiquity.^[1]

Ancient accounts^[2] state that Bucephalus died after the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC, in what is now modern Punjab Province of Pakistan, and is buried in Jalalpur Sharif outside Jhelum, Punjab, Pakistan. Another account states that Bucephalus is buried in Phalia, a town in Pakistan's Mandi Bahauddin District in Punjab Province, which is named after him (Alexandria Bucephalous).

Bucephalus was named after a branding mark depicting an ox's head on his haunch.^[3]

Taming of Bucephalus[edit]

A statue by John Steell showing Alexander taming Bucephalus

A massive creature with a massive head, Bucephalus is described as having a black coat with a large white star on his brow. He is also supposed to have had a 'wall eye' (blue eye), and his breeding was that of the 'best Thessalian strain.'

Plutarch says in 344 BC, at twelve or thirteen years of age, Alexander of Macedonia won the horse by making a wager with his father:^[4] A horse dealer named Philonicus the Thessalian offered Bucephalus to King Philip II for the remarkably high sum of 13 talents. Because no one could tame the animal, Philip was not interested. However, Alexander was, and he offered to pay himself should he fail.

Alexander was given a chance and surprised all by subduing it. He spoke soothingly to the horse and turned it toward the sun so that it could no longer see its own shadow, which had been the cause of its distress. Dropping his fluttering cloak as well, Alexander successfully tamed the horse. Plutarch says that the incident so impressed Philip that he told the boy, 'O my son, look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee.'^[4] Philip's speech strikes the only false note in the anecdote, according to A. R. Anderson,^[5] who noted his words as the embryo of the legend fully developed in the History of Alexander the Great I.15, 17.

The Alexander Romance presents a mythic variant of Bucephalus's origin. In this tale, the colt, whose heroic attributes surpassed even those of Pegasus, is bred and presented to Philip on his own estates. The mythic attributes of the animal are further reinforced in the romance by the Delphic Oracle who tells Philip that the destined king of the world will be the one who rides Bucephalus, a horse with the mark of the ox's head on his haunch.

Alexander and Bucephalus[edit]

Alexander and Bucephalus in combat at the battle of Issus portrayed in the Alexander Mosaic

As one of his chargers, Bucephalus served Alexander in numerous battles.

The value which Alexander placed on Bucephalus emulated his hero and supposed ancestor Achilles, who claimed that his horses were 'known to excel all others—for they are immortal. Poseidon gave them to my father Peleus, who in his turn gave them to me.'^[6]

Arrian states, with Onesicritus as his source, that Bucephalus died at the age of thirty. Other sources, however, give as the cause of death not old age or weariness, but fatal injuries at the Battle of the Hydaspes (June 326 BC), in which Alexander's army defeated King Porus. Alexander promptly founded a city, Bucephala, in honour of his horse. It lay on the west bank of the Hydaspes river (modern-day Jhelum in Pakistan).^[7] The modern-day town of Jalalpur Sharif, outside Jhelum, is said to be where Bucephalus is buried.^[8]

The legend of Bucephalus grew in association with that of Alexander, beginning with the fiction that they were born simultaneously: some of the later versions of the Alexander Romance also synchronized the hour of their death.^[9] The pair forged a sort of cult in that, after them, it was all but expected of a conqueror that he have a favourite horse. Julius Caesar had one; so too did the eccentric Roman Emperor Caligula, who made a great fuss of his horse Incitatus, holding birthday parties for him, riding him while adorned with Alexander's breastplate, and planning to make him a consul.

In art and literature[edit]

He ran toward the horse and seized the bridle, c.191-

Bucephalus is referenced in art and literature.

Charles Le Brun, Le Passage du Granique, 1665.

The ancient statue group The Horse Tamers in the Piazza del Quirinale in Rome is often misinterpreted as 'Alexander and Bucephalus'. An interpretation of their subject as Alexander and Bucephalus was proposed in 1558 by Onofrio Panvinio,^[10] who suggested that Constantine had removed them from Alexandria, where they would have referred to the familiar legend of the city's founder. This became a popular alternative to their identification as the Dioscuri. The popular guides still referred to their creation by Phidias and Praxiteles competing for fame, long after even the modestly learned realized that the two sculptors preceded Alexander by a century.

Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) paintings of Alexandrine subjects, including Bucephalus, survive today in the Louvre. One in particular, The Passage of the Granicus, depicts the warhorse battling the difficulties of the steep muddy river banks, biting and kicking his foes.

In the 1959 French film The 400 Blows, there is a toy horse named Bucephalus.

The 1979 film The Black Stallion includes a story about Alexander taming Bucephalus that mirrors the events in the film.^[11]

In the 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Baron Munchausen's horse is named Bucephalus.

The Crystal Bucephalus is an original 1994 Doctor Who novel written by Craig Hinton.

The 1997 album Come to Daddy by Aphex Twin includes a track named 'Bucephalus Bouncing Ball'.

In the animated series Reign: The Conqueror, a sci-fi inspired rendition of the myth Bucephalus is a tall man-eating horse with a metallic jaw, prowling in Macedonia and killing everyone unfortunate enough to meet him. Alexander tames him, and like in the myth he becomes his faithful steed.

In the StarCraft II video game, Bucephalus is the name of the Terran Dominion flagship.

In the TV series Father Brown (premiered in 2013), the titular character's oft used bicycle is named Bucephalus.

The 2018 role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance features a horse named Bucephalus that the player character can purchase.

In the 2006-2018 Horus Heresy series of novels, Bucephalus is the name of the Emperor of Mankind's flagship.

The season 6 episode 3 of the television detective series Endeavour, features a fox hunt, where a murdered aristocrat named Creswell has an injured horse named Bucephalus.

Bucephalus also appears in the TV series Porus as the faithful horse of Alexander.

In the HBO series Watchmen, the now aged Adrian Veidt's prized horse is a grey horse named Bucephalus, which he rides about on his hidden estate. Veidt's alter ego in the original Watchmen graphic novel was Ozymandias (named after the Greek name for King Ramesses II). Veidt referenced Alexander the Great as someone he idolized as a boy.

In the AMC series Turn: Washington's Spies, Bucephalus is the name for the horse of Major Edmund Hewlett which has to be put down after eating a poisonous apple intended for the Major.