Bucephalus
As one of his chargers, Bucephalus
served Alexander in numerous battlesThe value which Alexander placed on
Bucephalus emulated his hero and supposed ancestor Achilles, who claimed that
his horses wereknown to excel all others for they are immortal. Poseidon gave
them to my father Peleus, who in his turn gave them to myselfThe taming of
BucephalusA 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 or blue eye, and his breeding
was that of the best Thessalian strain. Plutarch tells the story of how, in 344
BC, a thirteen-year-old Alexander won the horse. A horse dealer named Philonicus the
Thessalian offered Bucephalus to King Philip II for the sum of talents, but
because no one could tame the animal, Philip was not interested. However,
Philip's son Alexander was. He promised to pay for the horse himself should he
fail to tame it.In art and
literatureBucephalus is referenced in art and
literature. The horse himself and Alexander is interpreted by some to be the
subject of the ancient statue group The Horse Tamers in the Piazza Del
Quirinale in Rome.The horse was referenced in the movie
The Black Stallion in which the main character is named Alec, and he tames and
rides a wild black Arabian horse.Paintings of Charles Le Brun's 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.Bucephalus was the name
of the horse of Baron Münchhausen in several of his tall tales.The French
cellist and composer Paul Tortelier based his Sonata Breve Bucéphale on the
story of Bucephalus. In Franz Kafka's story The New Lawyer 1916 Bucephalus is a
barapproved lawyer who immerses himself in law books far from the tumult of Alexander's battles.In
the 2004 film Alexander, Bucephalus is portrayed by a Friesian, though unlikely
to have been precisely of that type, as the northern European light draught
breed did not develop until the 13th century AD.In the 2006 novel by Katharine
Roberts I am the Great Horse the life of Alexander and his horse are told from
the viewpoint of Bucephalus.
