BUCEPHALUS

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.