Native Greek horses: from man- and fish-eaters B.C to DMRT3 gaiters in modern times
Theodore G. Antikas, DVM, PhD
Assoc. Prof., Aristotle U of Thessaloniki (ret.); Visiting Onassis Prof., U of Washington Dept. of History
Abstract: ‘Mythical’ or prehistoric data re man eating horses in the 3rd or 2nd millennium BC reported by Greek
writers, historians and tragedians in classical times are elucidated by a new approach reflecting the taming,
domestication, zoogeography and evolution of Equus caballus in Greece, from Thrace to Crete. Recent finds of
fish eating horses in Central Macedonia of the 7th-4th centuries BC reveal that Herodotus was reporting facts in
his Histories thus rejecting the epithet ‘father of lies’ given to him by ancient and modern writers. The ongoing
collaborative research project of the Aristotle and Texas A&M University concerning the DMRT3 gait mutation’s
presence in native Greek horses suggests that it is fixed and homozygous in over 80% of the tested horses. The
next phase of this study entails aDNA tests on horse skeletal remains dating to the 16th-4th centuries BC from
archaeological excavations, so as to confirm the presence of this mutation in ancient horses. It is noteworthy
that gaiting athletic and/or war horses were depicted on vases, coins, frescoes, reliefs and statues dating from
the Mycenaean to the Classical and Hellenistic periods.
I.
Man eating horses: Myth or Myth-history?
It is our belief that several factual events in stories written by ancient writers or painted on vases by artists
were thought to represent “unreal” or “mythical” data. Less sceptical minds however, begin to realize that many
mythical events of the past were simply historical facts to which oral tradition, poets and tragedians had added
mythical elements to render them more heroic or divine. A typical example is Homer’s Troy, Mycenae, Pylos,
Ithaca and Argos described in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer’s heroes, horses and city-states had been
considered unreal, until the pick axe of archaeologists unearthed Troy, Mycenae and Pylos. As if this weren’t
enough, literally hundreds of Linear B’ tablets describing the number of chariots stored in palaces, and tombs
containing the cremains of heroes such as Agamemnon or Nestor are now the delight of museum visitors.
Examples of fact misinterpreted as myth are also found in the tragedies of Aeschylus1 and Euripides2. They both
reported the existence of man-eating horses in what we call prehistory. In Aeschylus’ tragedy Glaucus was the
first son of Sisyphus, lived in the Boeotian city of Potnies, he owned mares, and to render them more aggressive
he fed them human flesh. Alas when he took them to Iolkos in Thessaly to take part at the funeral games
(probably chariot races) organized by Acastus to honor his father Pelias, the mares turned crazy and devoured
him. The reason? Human flesh, the ‘food’ they were accustomed to, wasn’t available in Iolkos. Instead the mares
were given local hay! Another Boeotian myth claimed that this was not the reason the mares went crazy;
instead, it was Aphrodite who turned angry with Glaucus and punished him because he would not allow his
mares to reproduce. Note that Glaucus was worshipped in Corinth as hero, the locals called him Taraxippos
(horse terrorizer) and claimed he scared the horses at the Isthmian and the Olympic equestrian events. Jockeys
and charioteers used to sacrifice and offer libations to Taraxippos before racing to appease the hero-daemon3,4.
Heracles, a worshipped Pan-Hellenic hero thanks to his twelve athla (labors), was involved in a very interesting
myth reported by Euripides, Aelian5 and Diodorus6. The eighth labor of Heracles was to steal the mares of the
Thracian king Diomedes and bring them back to Argos. A black-figured kylix c. 510 BC at the Hermitage depicts
his bravery much earlier than Euripides (Fig. 1). The hero is holding a stallion and at the same time threatens
the animal with his club. The horse is trying to escape, and out of his mouth are the remains of a man (Abderos
or Diomedes). Well, it seems that horses were meat eaters probabaly fond of human flesh in the 2nd or 3rd
millenium BC. In one version of the myth, Heracles brought along many heroes to help him. They took the
mares but were chased away by Diomedes and his men. Heracles was not aware that the horses, Podagros (the
fast), Lampon (the shining), Xanthos (the blond) and Deimos (the terrible), were tethered to a bronze manger
because they went crazy and uncontrollable due to their unnatural diet consisting of human flesh.
Aeschylus, Glaucus Potnieus, passim
Euripides, Alcestis 480 ff.
3
Pausanias, Touring Greece VI.20.19, IX.8.2
4
Plinius, Natural History 25.94
5
Aelian, On Animals 15.25
6
Diodorus, Library of History 4.15.13
1
2
Heracles left his friend Abderos in charge of the horses while he fought Diomedes but on his return to the
stables he realized Abderos had been eaten by them. In revenge, Heracles fed Diomedes to the mares and then
founded the city of Abdera next to the boy's tomb. This city--where Democritos was born--exists until today in
western Thrace. In another version, Heracles stayed awake so that he wouldn't have his throat cut by Diomedes
in his sleep, then cut the chains binding the horses and scared them onto high ground. When king Diomedes
returned, Heracles killed him and fed the body to the mares to calm them. Both versions conclude that eating
human flesh calmed the horses. Once subdued, Heracles brought them back to King Eurystheus who dedicated
the horses to goddess Hera, who allowed them to roam freely around Argos as they were permanently calm.
Eurystheus ordered the horses taken to Olympus to be sacrificed to Zeus. Diodorus Siculus7 writes that when
the crazy horses were brought to Eurystheus, he dedicated them to Hera, they roamed freely to Thessaly, and
their breed continued down to the reign of Alexander the Great producing the famous Macedonian cavalry.
It is tempting to think that if modern horse, cattle or chicken breeders had taken some time to study Greek
mythology, they might have prevented zoonoses such as BSE (mad cow), H1N1 or other ailments. The postulate
may sound exaggerated but it is logical: the crazy mares of Diomedes symbolize nothing more than the fact that
‘savage’ equids (not domesticated) had reached the Greek mainland from central Asia through Thrace, an area
joining Asia to Europe. Following the ‘heroic’ labor of Herakles, the Thracian mares were tamed (domesticated),
led by sea or land (moved) to Argos long before the Trojan War. Finally, the horses were dedicated to a female
deity and were left to roam freely on the Greek mainland. In Troy we note hundreds of war horses8,9: from
Mycenae and Sparta (Agamemnon’s Aethe, Menelaus’ Podargos, Eumelus’ and Diomedes’ chariot mares), from
Thessaly (Achilles’ Balios, Xanthos, Pedasus), from Crete (Meriones’ chariot horses), from Thrace (King Rhesus’
chariot mares) and Troy in Asia Minor (Hector’s mare Podarge). Eons later their descendants reach Macedonia
to breed cavalry horses. Ergo. The myths on man eating horses are symbolic and explanatory at the same time.
The primary lesson taught by them is that Man’s hubris of feeding meat to herbivorous animals is a grave insult
to mother Nature and will inevitably lead to tragedy and disaster. In a very subtle manner the myth-history of
Glaucus’ and Diomedes’ man-eating horses explains the zoogeography, the movement, the domestication and
last but not least, the expansion of Equus caballus on the Greek mainland during the early second-late third
millennium BC. Moreover, there is a hard lesson to learn from the Greek tragedies: people have reverted to
eating horse meat for fear of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. I call innocent horses exported or stolen to
supply the kitchens of consumers ’from stable to table.’
II.
Fish eating horses: Was Herodotus lying?
In 2004 the pick axe of archaeology unearthed five horses and two dogs dating to the 7th-4th centuries BC
buried in a human cemetery found at Sindos, near Thessaloniki. A zooarchaeological study on these important
finds which reflect the Macedonian and Mycenaean10 habit of burying heroes with their horses and dogs has
been published11. The preservation of the horses’ skeletons was so impressive (Fig. 2) that prompted the
research team to send samples for stable isotope analyses to two laboratories which came up with more or less
identical and surprising results (Fig. 3). Namely, the 13C, 15N values and C/N ratios indicate that at least 20% of
the horses’ feed consisted of protein of fish origin12. As to the fish species Herodotus called ’papraces and
tilones’, the labs have gone as far as to identify the species found until today in the Axios and Aliakmon rivers
close to Sindos (Fig. 3, bottom left). More analyses are necessary to compare the equine data to those of
herbivorous (cattle, capra/ovis) and omnivorous animals (canines, felines) from the same time period and the
same region, i.e., the Macedonian plains, but this is part of a future research project due to lack of funds.
Herodotus has been criticized for including exaggerated realities in his Histories, however recent studies by
archaeologists, geneticists, paleobotanists, archaeozoologists and physicists have found elements of truth in his
exaggerations. As surprising Herodotus’ statement on “fish-eating horses” may seem, a less skeptical approach
should lead modern scholars into considering his text from a new scientific angle.
Diodorus Siculus, Historic Library 4.15.3
Homer, Iliad, 23; see also his long list of horses owned by Greek and Trojan heroes
9
Antikas TG, Hippoi and Hippologia, To Tetarto Editions, Katerini 2012
10
Homer, Iliad, 23.171-74
11
Antikas TG, Fish Eating Horses in Macedonia, 5th c. BC: Was Herodotus Right? Veterinarija ir Zootechn. 44(66):31-37, 2008
12 I. Maniatis, EKEFE “Democritos” Archaeometry Lab Report, Athens 2004
7
8
Firstly, one has to wonder why at least four ancient writers mention man-eating or fish-eating horses. None of
them was known to be a liar. Secondly, why should the perissodaktylon (odd-fingered) Equus need four sizable
canine teeth, if it were purely herbivorous, must be answered. Last but not least, one has to consider whether
Herodotus, an invitee at the Macedonian court at Aegae, just 40 km from Sindos, should refer to “fish eating
horses and other pack animals” unless he witnessed or heard from locals that this was a custom. In conclusion,
Herodotus does not seem to have recorded myths in speaking of fish eating horses in the plains of Central
Macedonia13. Just as Homer before him was not referring to a mythical Troy but to a real citadel, Herodotus was
seemingly telling a story in his capacity as the father of history—not as a father of lies.
III.
Origins of the Greek horse breeds and the DMRT3 gait mutation
Linear B’ scripts dating to the second millennium BC and decoded by Chadwick and Ventris have brought to
light two ideograms: a-to-ro-qo (άνθρωπος) and i-qo [ίππος, hence equus]. Horse skeletal remains have been
unearthed in Archanes-Crete, Dendra-Argos, Nemea-Corinth and Marathon-Attica. Linear B’ tablets stating the
number of chariot wheels stored in the palaces of Knossos and Pylos date to the 15th-16th c. BC, long before the
Trojan War. Zooarchaeologists may debate the origins of these horses, however there is data in ancient sources
that may help in suspecting some origins: (a) King Nestor of Pylos, after his war with the Eleans brings 300
xanthes (chestnut) mares-in-foal back home14; (b) Agamemnon owns the fast chariot mare Aethe from Sikyon in
the Argolid15; and offers twelve victorious chariot horses of Argos to Achilles to apease him16; (c) Eumelos owns
mares bred in Pieria17; (d) Hector and Rhesus own chariot horses bred in Thrace and Asia Minor; (e) Meriones
owns Cretan horses. As the Trojan War was fought in the mid-13th century BC, i.e., one century after the battle
of Qadesh between Ramses and Muawatalli, I don’t see how we can ignore the origins of Greek, Egyptian or
Hittite horse breeds. In the archaic and classical eras (680 BC to 241 AD) many vase scenes depict gaiting war
horses (Figs. 4-5); and race/chariot horses at the festivals of Olympia, Pythia, Isthmia and Nemea (Figs. 6-9)18.
Interestingly, all these horses are gaiters thus forcing the postulate that the DMRT3 mutation was fixed in their
genome some 2,700 years ago. Also, that this important gait was preferred by riders and drivers for speed in
racing and charioteering, as well as in cavalries consisting of war horses.
In the classical and hellenistic eras Macedonian kings minted coins depictig gaiting horses: Alexander I the
Philhellene, 498-454 BC, who rode to Plataies in 472 (Fig. 10); Perdikas, 448-13 (Fig. 11); Archelaos, 413-399,
first Macedonian to win a wreath at the tethrippon race in Olympia in 408 (Fig. 12); Pausanias, 399 (Fig. 13);
Aeropos, 399-396 (Fig. 14); and Philip II, 359-336, who won three wreaths at Olympia’s keles, tehrippon and
synoris horse races (Fig. 15). It is also noteworthy that the Thracian Getae and the Skythians of King Ateas (Fig.
16), who were defeated by Philip in 339 BC, had been riding gaiters since the times Chersonesos was governed
by Miltiades in the 6th century BC. In fact, Thopompus and Justin inform us that after defeating the Skythian
king Ateas Philip brought back to Greece 20,000 ’well fed’ Skythian mares and 20,000 women and children to
populate Macedonia19. It is postulated that most Macedonian kings may have used gaiters in their cavalry. If one
considers that Philip II rode some 20,000 km in his campaigns and Alexander III more than 45,000 km riding
bareback from Pella to Egypt and Pakistan, it would be no surprise to this author that everyone, king or soldier,
would prefer to ride gaiters to save their gluteus muscles from turning into raw meat.
The preference to use gaiters in cavalries was followed by Alexander’s successors. Coins minted by Eukratidas
in the second (Fig. 17) and Azes (Fig. 18) in the first century BC depict gaiters. As to Alexander, after 329 BC he
replaced his exhausted cavalry forces with Persian, Parthian, Bactrian and Indian men and horses. His example
was naturally followed by several of his Epigonoi (successors) in Asia and in Egypt.
Herodotus, Histories 5.16: Their horses and other pack animals they feed on fish which are so abundant… that when they
open the trapdoor and let down an empty bucket on a rope, they have only a minute to wait before they pull it up again, full.
The fish are of two kinds… papraces and tilones.
14 Homer, Iliad 11.680 ff.
15 Homer, Iliad 23.294
16 Homer, Iliad 9.123-24, 9.265-66
17 Homer, Iliad 2.765
18 Antikas TG, Ολυμπικά Ιππικά και Γυμνικά Άθλα. To Tetarto editions, Katerini 2012
19 Theopompus frag. 162, Justin 9.2, 9.3
13
In the post-Christian era, King Gondophares (Gr: Ινδοφέρρης) minted coins depicting gaiters (Fig. 19). It was he
who took over the Kabul, the Punjab and the Sindh regions from king Azes, the Indo-Scythian successor of the
two governors Telephos and Hippostratos Alexander had left behind in the third century AD. As to Byzantine
kings as Justinian (Fig. 20), and saints as Theodoros Tyron and Stratelates (Fig. 21), we can only theorize that
their gaiters were crosses of Greek to Eurasian breeds. It is interesting that the use of gaiting horse breeds was
later followed in the east and the west: many English, French, Swiss, Italian and Μamluk manuscripts of the
14th, Chinese mabuscripts of the 15th, and Epirote empbroideries of the 17th century AD depict gaiting horses. It
is hard to find sufficient written data in the Dark Ages in Europe or the rise of the Ottoman, Arab, Mamluk and
Mongol chieftains in the east. Pictorial evidence however, may convince scientists that the gait mutation was
fixed on horses both in the East and the West. Such gaiters show up in ecclesiastical texts, in paintings, on
textile and on artifacts. As to which equine breeds gave birth to these gaiters it remains an enigma. Will aDNA
testing tell us? I wonder as there is no sufficient DNA tests done so far.
IV.
The research project of DNA and aDNA testing native Greek horses
A two-year research project (1999-2000) run by the Department of Reproductive Physiology of the College of
Agriculure at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki to define the phenotype of indigenous Greek horse breeds
established that five breeds, from Mt. Pindos in Epirus to Mt. Ida in Crete, were gaiters. Their population had
declined significantly in the late 20th century due to exports for slaughter, a sad horse reality: in 1950, Greece
had ca. 280,000 horses, 170,000 mules and 450.000 donkeys (total, 900,000). In 1980, 105,000, 115,000 and
230,000, respectively (450,000); and in 2000, 34,509, 41,319 and 88,837 (~165,000), respectively. In a hard
effort to save Greece’s native horse breeds from extinction, this project has registered in a data base 4,000
horses from Epirus to Crete (Fig. 26), defined six indigenous breeds, and published its finds in 200020.
Thankfully, the horse genome was mapped successfully a few years ago and so did the outstanding find of the
DMRT3 mutation on chromosome-23 of the horse. These two major discoveries led to an inter-university,
interdisciplinary project led by the Hellenic Association of Traditional Equitation (HASTE) in collaboration with
the Aristotle University and the Texas A&M University’s Dept. of Veterinary Intergrative Bioscience headed by
Prof. E. Gus Cothran. From 2011 to the present, blood and hair samples of 177 native horses have been tested
as to their origins (Tables I-II) and the presence of the gait mutation DMRT3 (Table II).
V.
Conclusions
The DNA tests and statistics contained in the two tables below have come as no surprise: in short, they indicate
that (a) the origins of the Greek native horses include three asiatic breeds, namely the AT-Akhal Teke, the KUKurd and the TU-Turkmen; (a) the majority of horses from five native Greek breeds are either homozygous or
heterozygous for the DMRT3 gait mutation. The next phase of this pioneer project should be running aDNA
tests in ancient horse skeletons found in many archaeological excavations from Dendra and Nemea in the
Peloponnese (16th-15th c. BC) to Sindos, Polykastro and Therme in Central Macedonia (7th-4th c.), and
analyzed by zooarchaologists21. The ambitious purpose of this future research project is to discern whether the
DMRT3 mutation has been fixed on the genome of native Greek horses during the last four millenia. It is my
hope that Poseidon Hippios and Athena Hippia will be favorable to this ambitious project that is presently
suffering from lack of necessary funds.
Acknowledgements: grateful thanks to the 100 owners from Crete, Epirus, Macedonia, Thessaly, Thrace and
the Peloponnese who were kind to help us get blood and hair samples from their native horses. Thanks are also
due to Dr. Gus Cothran for his invaluable contribution without which this project would have beeen a utopia.
T. A. Alifakiotis, transl. By T. G. Antikas, The Indigenous Horses in Greece. Ministry of Agriculture (ed), Athens 2000
T. G. Antikas, Fish Eating Horses in Central Macedonia, 5th c. BCE: Was Herodotus Right? Veter. Zootechn. 44(66):31-37,
2008; see also The Honour to be Buried with Horses: From Mycenaean Nemea to Macedonian Vergina. In: Les Equides dans le
Monde Mediterraneen Antique. Arnelle Gardeisen (ed.), CNRS 143-51, France
20
21
Table I. Match frequency to the closest native horse breed after DNA testing¹
Greek
Horses
3 matches
2 matches
1 match
0 match
♂
♀
♂
♀ ♂
♀ ♂
♀
Region
Tested
Crete
73
5
3
8
12 16
14 7
6
Macedonia
54
2
1
5
14 10
10 6
6
Peloponnese
18
0
0
1
4 7
6 0
0
Nafpaktos
11
0
1
3
1 1
4 1
0
E. Thrace
10
0
0
0
1 1
6 1
1
Thessaly
4
0
0
1
0 3
0 0
0
Epirus
3
0
1
1
0 0
0 1?
0
Cephalonia
3
0
0
1
1 0
0 0
1
Attica
1
0
0
0
0 0
1 0
0
Total-Percent %
177
13-7.345%
53-29.944%
79-44.633%
29-16.384%
¹ the Asiatic breeds AT, KU, TU were considered quasi native due to close origins since the 4th century BC
Table II. Indigenous breed frequency after DNA testing²
Greek
Horses
EM-EZ
PD-TH
AT-KU-TU
Foreign
Region
Tested
Origins
Origins
Origins
Origins
Crete
73
46
25
22
13
Macedonia
54
31
19
10
11
Peloponnese
18
10
3
4
1
Nafpaktos
11
0
8
5
1
E. Thrace
10
4
5
0
2
Epirus
3
2
2
1
0
Thessaly
3
4
1
1
0
Cephalonia
3
2
8
0
1
Attica
1
0
0
1
0
Total-Percent
177
99-55.932%
71-40.112%
44-24.858%
29-16.384%
² EM-EZ=Elis Mountain-Elis/Zakynthos; PD-TH=Pindos-Thessalian; AT-KU-TU=Akhal Teke-Kurdish-Turkmen
Table III. Frequency of DMRT3 presence after DNA testing
Greek
Region
Crete
Macedonia
Peloponnese
E. Thrace
Epirus
Cephalonia
Attica
Total-Percent %
Horses
Tested
73
49
16
10
3
3
1
155
Homozygous or
Heterozygous
67
49
14
1
2
1
1
135-87.097%
GG-Greek¹
Gaiters
56
37
2
1
2
1
1
100-64.516%
Foreign
Gaiters
11
12
0
0
0
0
0
23-14.838%
Undetermined
(test failed)²
6
0
2
0
1
1
0
10-6.452%
¹ the term GG is given to 2nd-3rd generation horses born in Greece regardless of their particular native breed
² inconclusive tests although clinical tests checking the kinetics of these ten horses showed true gaiting