Indo-European Poetry and Myth

HORSES

The partnership of man and horse goes far back into Indo-European prehis-
tory.^60 The two are often coupled, especially in battle contexts: Il. 21. 16
πλHτο mο ́ ο κελα ́ δων $πιμ?ξ ππων τε κα? qνδρ;ν, ‘the noisy stream
was filled pell-mell with both horses and men’, 16. 167 ππου τε κα?
qνρα, 17. 400 qνδρ;ν τε κα? ππων, cf. 8. 214, 10. 338, 17. 740, 19. 157; 9.
708 λαο ́ ν τε κα? ππου, 11. 525 πποι τε κα? α1το, etc.; in Old Persian,
AmH 6 huaspa ̄ humartiya ̄, (Persia is a land) ‘of good horses, of good men’,
cf. DPd 8, DSf 11, DSp 3, DZc 4; Yt. 10. 101 aspae ̄ca paiti vı ̄rae ̄ca...
aspa.vı ̄raja, (Mithra who is first to strike his club) ‘at both horses and men

... smiter of horse (and) man’; 19. 40 = Y. 9. 11 aspo ̄.garəm nərə.garəm, the
‘horse-swallowing, man-swallowing’ monster; Armenian ayrewji, ayrowji
‘cavalry’, literally ‘man and horse’ (ayr=qνρ); Cic. De officiis 3. 116 uiris
equisque ut dicitur decertandum est; Livy 3. 70. 6 conficerent equos uirosque,
cf. 4. 33. 8, Mela 2. 86, Tac. Ann. 13. 57, etc.; Y Gododdin 745 lledrudd llewyr
a meirch a gwˆr, ‘blood-stained throngs, both horses and men’, cf. 1027;
Marwnad Cunedda 24 ‘a swarm like an encircling hedge of men and horses’
(trs. Koch); Táin (I) 2315 cú 7 ech 7 dune, ‘hound and horse and man’
(suffered alike in the slaughter), cf. (L) 3586 formna bó, fer 7 ech roda slaidius
ar cech leth, ‘thefinest cattle, men and horses I slaughtered on every side’;
Hervarar saga 14 oc hió þá bæði menn oc hesta... enn dalir vóro fullir af
hestom oc dauðom mo ̨nnom oc blóði, ‘and he hewed down both men and
horses... and the dales were full of horses and dead men and blood’.
A poetic vocabulary for referring to horses developed at an early date. It is
evidenced especially by parallel epithets and other predicates applied to
horses in the Greek and Indo-Iranian texts.^61
In the first place horses are typically swift.^62 The Vedic formula ás ́va ̄(so) ...
a ̄s ́ávah
̇

‘swift horses’ (RV 10. 78. 5, 119. 3; elsewhere in the instrumental
plural and the accusative singular) shows exact etymological correspondence
with Avestan a ̄susca aspo ̄, aspåŋho ̄ ... a ̄savo ̄ (Yt. 13. 52 nom. sg., 17. 12 nom.
pl.) and with Homeric Gκε πποι,Gκα ππου, ππων Gκεια ́ ων. An
alternative Vedic expression of similar meaning is r
̇

jra ̄ ́ ... ás ́va ̄ (dual, RV 1.

117. 14, 174. 5; 10. 22. 5), to which correspond the proper names R
     ̇

jra ̄s ́va- ́
‘Swifthorse’, Avestan Erəzra ̄spa-; the cognate adjective in Greek is qργο ́ , and

(^60) On the Indo-Europeans and the horse see EIEC 273–9 with bibliography. On the formula
‘horses and men’ (mostly in this order) cf. É. Benveniste, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies
8 (1936), 406; J. Wackernagel, Kl. Schr. 435 f.; Schmitt (1967), 216.
(^61) Cf. Schmitt (1967), 238–44; Durante (1976), 93 f.
(^62) Schmitt (1967), 238–40; Schlerath (1968), ii. 162.

12. Arms and the Man 465