The origin and influence of the thoroughbred horse . that the best horses of the day were the result of crossingthe old dun horses of Greece with the blood imported fromLibya. The literary evidence is amply corroborated by the 1 Nub. 1225; Aristotle (H. A. vm. 18) says 6 8i ^papbs iari ttoikLXos. In theNuhes we read of other horses, such as KowiraTias (branded with a 9)> ^ut it ispossible that it might refer to a blaze down a horses face ; also of a aafitpdpai(branded with the letter San), but this also might mean some kind of blaze. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 297 monuments. We naturally turn
The origin and influence of the thoroughbred horse . that the best horses of the day were the result of crossingthe old dun horses of Greece with the blood imported fromLibya. The literary evidence is amply corroborated by the 1 Nub. 1225; Aristotle (H. A. vm. 18) says 6 8i ^papbs iari ttoikLXos. In theNuhes we read of other horses, such as KowiraTias (branded with a 9)> ^ut it ispossible that it might refer to a blaze down a horses face ; also of a aafitpdpai(branded with the letter San), but this also might mean some kind of blaze. Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 297 monuments. We naturally turn to the horses sculptured byPheidias to adorn the Parthenon,—to the immortal steeds ofSelene and Helios on the east pediment, and to the mortal-ridden horses of the frieze (Fig. 83). Pheidias naturally modelledhis immortal steeds after the best living horses which he hadseen, and these, as we have just shown, must have been goodcross-bred horses. A glance at the head of Selenes horse(Fig. 84) shows that it is not the embodiment of the IBea iirirov. Fig. 83. Greek Horsemen from the Parthenon. (the Urpferd) as Goethe held, but is rather modelled after agood half-bred horse, probably such an animal as that for whichPheidippides paid twelve minae. The head is long, the cheekand jaw refined, the eye large and prominent, and the nostrilwell shaped. We shall presently find that great length of 1 There are earlier remains of horse-sculptures from the AcropoHs, andOlympia has also yielded similar remains. Strongylon (who made in bronzea representation of the Wooden Horse of Troy, the base of which has beenfound on the Acropolis of Athens, apparently dating from the last quarter of thefifth century ) was famous for his sculptures of horses and bulls. 298 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. head is a characteristic of the progeny of thoroughbred andordinary horses in modern times. If further proof is required that by 400 the Greeks hadplenty of well-bred horses, Xenophons^ descriptio
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