its application to horses has left an echo in the name of Menelaus’ horse
Podargos ‘Swiftfoot’ (Il. 23. 295). Achilles’ horses Xanthos and Balios were
born of the Harpy Podarge (not Podagre ‘Gout’, as printed in a recent book).
In the Maha ̄bha ̄rata the process of lexical substitution produces such
variants as s ́ ̄ghrair ası ́vaih
̇
‘with fast horses’ (3. 6. 6), s ́ı ̄ghrair hayaih
̇(3. 224.
17), javanair as ́vaih
̇
(3. 17. 16), javanair hayaih
̇(3. 233. 4), haya ̄n maha ̄java ̄n
(3. 70. 4), much as in the Iliad we already findταχ , ππω (5. 356), ταχε
... πποι (22. 464). Cú Chulainn’s chariot was drawn by ‘two swift horses’
(for dá n-echaib díana, with the old Indo-European word for ‘horse’,Táin (I)
2287). In Senyllt’s hall there used to be ‘swift horses’ (mythfeirch, Y Gododdin
567, cf. 3 meirch mwth, 1051 meirch rhagfuan). In a poem in the Book of
Taliesin it is meirch canholic (Cad Goddeu 28).
The father of Achilles’ horses was the West Wind, and they ‘flew with the
winds’, that is, ran as fast as the wind (Il. 16. 149, cf. 19. 415). We meet ‘wind-
swift’ horses also in the Rigveda (va ̄ ́taram
̇
has-, 1. 181. 2; 8. 34. 17; cf. 1. 118. 1)
and in the Indian epics.^63 Rostam’s horse in the Sha ̄h-na ̄ma is ‘wind-footed’,
like those which Tros rode.^64 The same token of speed is cited in Irish
literature. Manannan’s horse was as swift as the wind, while Cú Chulainn’s
chariot-team outstripped the wind and birds in flight.^65
The Homeric gods’ horses are ‘swift-flying’,Gκυπται (Il. 8. 42, 13. 24),
and Achilles’ horses that ‘flew with the winds’ were of divine birth. But
ordinary horses too are said to ‘fly’ in the formula
μα ́ στιξεν δ, $λα ́ αν,τd δ, ο1κ Eκοντε πετσθην.
He goaded them to drive, and they flew with a will. (Il. 10. 530, etc.)Similarly in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata, with the same word for ‘fly’:
And as soon as the two of them had mounted
that chariot the whole world adored, Da ̄s ́a ̄rha
whipped up his thoroughbreds, effortlessly swift,
and immediately they flew forward (utpetur), dragging
the wondrous vehicle behind them, ridden
by the Yadu bull and the two Pa ̄n
̇d
̇avas. (10. 13. 7 f., trs. W. J. Johnson)Cf. 3. 69. 21, ‘Ba ̄huka prodded those excellent steeds in the right way, and they
assumed their highest speed and seemed to fly in the air’, and 3. 18. 2, 20. 9,
- In Venetic there is an adjective ekvopetar(i)s (ekup-), which some
(^63) MBh. 2. 48. 22; 3. 69. 22; 5. 183. 17; hayair va ̄tasamair jave, 2. 45. 56; hayair va ̄tajavaih
̇
,
- 9; va ̄tavega ̄h
̇
, 5. 55. 12; va ̄yostulyavega ̄h
̇
, ibid. 13; Rm. 2. 35. 14.
- 9; va ̄tavega ̄h
(^64) Hymn. Aphr. 217 πποισιν qελλοπο ́ δεσσιν %χε4το, cf. Simon. PMG 515, etc.; Levy
(1967), 199.
(^65) Aided chlainne Tuirenn (ed. E. O’Curry, Atlantis 4 (1863), 163); Táin (I) 764, cf. 2285.
466 12. Arms and the Man