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{{Short description|Herd of horses in Greek mythology}} {{more citations needed|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox mythical creature |image = Mosaico Trabajos Hércules (M.A.N. Madrid) 08.jpg |caption = [[Heracles]] before capturing the Mares of Diomedes. Roman mosaic, 3rd century AD |Folklore = Greek mythology |Grouping = [[Legendary creature]] |Sub_Grouping = Man-eating horses |Country = Greece |Region = Thrace }} The '''Mares of Diomedes''' ({{langx|grc|Διομήδους ἵπποι|Diomēdous hippoi}}), also called the '''Mares of Thrace''', were a herd of man-eating [[horses]] in [[Greek mythology]]. Magnificent, wild, and uncontrollable, they belonged to [[Diomedes of Thrace]] (not to be confused with [[Diomedes]], son of [[Tydeus]]), king of [[Thrace]], son of [[Ares]] and [[Cyrene (mythology)|Cyrene]] who lived on the shores of the [[Black Sea]]. [[Bucephalus]], [[Alexander the Great]]'s horse, was said to be descended from these mares.<ref>{{cite book| last=Moncrieff| first=Ascott Robert Hope| author-link=Robert Hope Moncrieff| year=1992| title=A Treasury of Classical Mythology| page=41| publisher=Barnes & Noble| place=New York| isbn=9781566191197}}</ref> == Mythology == As the eighth of his [[Labours of Hercules|Twelve Labours]], also categorised as the second of the Non-[[Peloponnese|Peloponnesian]] labours,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Morford, Mark P. O., 1929-|title=Classical mythology|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Lenardon, Robert J., 1928-|isbn=0-19-515344-8|edition=7th|location=New York|oclc=49421755}}</ref> [[Heracles]] was sent by [[Eurystheus|King Eurystheus]] to steal the Mares from [[Diomedes of Thrace|Diomedes]]. The mares’ madness was attributed to their unnatural diet which consisted of the flesh<ref>Horse madness (hippomania) and hippophobia, Yiannis G. Papakostas, Michael D. Daras, Ioannis A. Liappas and Manolis Markianos, History of Psychiatry 2005; 16; 467</ref> of unsuspecting guests or strangers to the island.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22381/22381-h/22381-h.htm#page234|title=Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome.|website=www.gutenberg.org|access-date=2020-03-24}}</ref> Some versions of the myth say that the mares also [[fire-breathing monster|expelled fire when they breathed]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Monsters/Mares_of_Diomedes/mares_of_diomedes.html|title=Mares of Diomedes|website=www.greekmythology.com|language=en|access-date=2020-03-24}}</ref> The Mares, which were the terror of Thrace, were kept tethered by iron chains to a bronze manger in the now vanished city of [[Tirida]]<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Graves, Robert, 1895-1985|title=The Greek myths : the complete and definitive edition|date=28 September 2017|isbn=978-0-241-98235-8|edition=Complete and definitive|location=[London], UK|oclc=1011647388}}</ref> and were named Podargos (the swift), Lampon (the shining), Xanthos (the yellow) and Deinos (or Deinus, the terrible).<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]]. ''Fabulae 30:'' Latinized [http://www.theoi.com/Heros/DiomedesThrakios.html here] as "Podargus, Lampon, Xanthus, and Dinus".</ref> Although very similar, there are slight variances in the exact details regarding the mares’ capture. In one version, Heracles brought a number of volunteers to help him capture the giant horses.<ref name=":1" /> After overpowering Diomedes’ men, Heracles broke the chains that tethered the horses and drove the mares down to sea. Unaware that the mares were man-eating and uncontrollable, Heracles left them in the charge of his favored companion, [[Abderus]], while he left to fight Diomedes. Upon his return, Heracles found that the boy was eaten. As revenge, Heracles fed Diomedes to his own horses and then founded [[Abdera, Thrace|Abdera]] next to the boy's tomb.<ref name=":0" /> In another version, Heracles, who was visiting the island, stayed awake so that he didn't have his throat cut by Diomedes in the night, and cut the chains binding the horses once everyone was asleep. Having scared the horses onto the high ground of a knoll, Heracles quickly dug a trench through the peninsula, filling it with water and thus flooding the low-lying plain. When Diomedes and his men turned to flee, Heracles killed them with an axe (or a club<ref name=":1" />), and fed Diomedes’ body to the horses to calm them. In yet another version, Heracles first captured Diomedes and fed him to the mares ''before'' releasing them. Only after realizing that their King was dead did his men, the [[Bistones|Bistonians]],<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> attack Heracles. Upon seeing the mares charging at them, led in a chariot by Abderus, the Bistonians turned and fled. All versions have eating human flesh make the horses calmer, giving Heracles the opportunity to bind their mouths shut, and easily take them back to King Eurystheus, who dedicated the horses to [[Hera]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rose, H. J. (Herbert Jennings), 1883-1961.|title=A handbook of Greek mythology : including its extension to Rome|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|year=1958|isbn=1-4286-4307-9|location=[Whitefish, Montana]|oclc=176053883}}</ref> In some versions, they were allowed to roam freely around [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]], having become permanently calm, but in others, Eurystheus ordered the horses taken to Olympus to be sacrificed to Zeus, but Zeus refused them, and sent wolves, lions, and bears to kill them.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Leeming, David Adams, 1937-|title=Mythology : the voyage of the hero|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-802810-9|edition=3rd|location=New York|oclc=252599545}}</ref> [[Roger Lancelyn Green]] states in his ''Tales of the Greek Heroes'' that the mares’ descendants were used in the [[Trojan War]], and survived even to the time of Alexander the Great.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Godfrey, Linda S.|title=Mythical creatures|date=2009|publisher=Chelsea House Publishers|others=Guiley, Rosemary.|isbn=978-0-7910-9394-8|location=New York|oclc=299280635}}</ref> After the incident, Eurystheus sent Heracles to bring back [[Hippolyta|Hippolyta's Girdle]]. == In classical literature == [[File:Gustave Moreau - Diomède dévoré par ses chevaux.jpg|thumb|''Diomedes Devoured by his Horses'', by [[Gustave Moreau]] (1865), oil on canvas, 140 x 95.5 cm., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen]] [[File:Diomedes Devoured by his Horses - Gustave Moreau (1866).jpg|thumb|''Diomedes Devoured by his Horses'', by Gustave Moreau (1866), watercolor, 19.1 x 17.1 cm., private collection]] Chronological listing of classical literature sources for the Mares of Diomedes: * Pindar, fr. 169a M. (Greek lyric poem C5th BC) * Euripides, ''The Madness of Hercules'', 379 ff (trans. Way) (Greek tragedy C5th BC) * Euripides, ''Alcestis'' 479 ff (trans. Coleridge) (Greek tragedy C5th BC) * Diodorus Siculus, ''Library of History'' 4. 15. 3 - 4 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek history C1st BC) * Lucretius, ''Of the Nature of Things'' 5 Proem 1 (trans. Leonard) (Roman philosophy C1st BC) * Ovid, ''Heroides'' 9. 69 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st BC to C1st AD) * Ovid, ''Heroide''s 9. 87 ff * Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 9. 194 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman poetry C1st BC to C1st AD) * Strabo, ''Geography'' 7 Fragment 43 (44) (trans. Jones) (Greek geography C1st BC to C1st AD) * Strabo, ''Geography'' 7 Fragment 46 (47) * Philippus of Thessalonica, ''The Twelve Labors of Hercules'' (''The Greek Classics'' ed. Miller Vol 3 1909 p. 397) (Greek epigrams C1st AD) * Lucan, ''The Pharsalia of Lucan'' 2. 149 ff (trans. Riley) (Roman poetry C1st AD) * Seneca, ''Agamemnon'' 850 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st AD) * Seneca, ''Agamemnon'' 842 ff * Seneca, ''Hercules Furens'' 226 ff (trans. Miller) * Seneca, ''Hercules Oetaeus'' 20 ff (trans. Miller) * Seneca, ''Hercules Oetaeus'' 1538 ff * Seneca, ''Hercules Oetaeus'' 1814 ff * Seneca, ''Hercules Oetaeus'' 1894 ff * Seneca, ''Troades'' 1105 ff (trans. Miller) * Statius, ''Thebaid'' 12. 154 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic poetry C1st AD) * Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''The Library'' 2. 5. 8 (trans. Frazer) (Greek mythography C2nd AD) * Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 3. 18. 12 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd AD) * Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 5. 10. 9 * Pseudo-Hyginus, ''Fabula''e 30 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythography C2nd AD). * Pseudo-Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' 159 * Ptolemaei Hephaestionis, ''Novarum historiarum'' Lib. 2 (trans. Roulez 1834 p. 70) (Alexandrine history C2 AD) * Gellius, ''The Attic Nights'' 3. 9 (trans Beloe) (Greek history C2AD) * Philostratus the Elder, ''Imagines'' 1. 17 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetoric C3rd AD) * Philostratus the Elder, ''Imagine''s 2. 25 The Burial of Abderos * Philostratus, ''Life of Apollonius'' of Tyana 5. 5 (trans. Conyreare) (Greek sophistry C3rd AD) * Quintus Smyrnaeus, ''Fall of Troy'' 6. 245 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic poetry C4th AD) * Stephanus Byzantium, ''Ethnicorum Quae Supersunt'', s.v. Abdêra (ed. Meinekii) (Greco-Byzantine mythography C6AD) * Boethius, ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' 4. 7. 13 ff (trans. Rand & Stewart) (Roman philosophy C6th AD) * Tzetzes, ''Chiliades'' or ''Book of Histories'' 2. 299 ff (trans. Untila et al.) (Greco-Byzantine history C12 AD) * Tzetzes, ''Chiliades'' or ''Book of Histories'' 2. 499 ff * Tzetzes, ''Chiliades'' or ''Book of Histories'' 2. 799 ff ==See also== * [[Glaucus (son of Sisyphus)|Glaucus]] * [[List of fictional horses]] ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Sources== * [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Pseudo-Apollodorus]], ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' ii.5.8 * [[Diodorus Siculus]]. ''[[Bibliotheca historica]], Book 4.15'' * [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]]. ''Fall of Troy, Book 6.270 ff'' * [[Philostratus of Lemnos|Philostratus the Elder]]. ''[[Imagines (work by Philostratus)|Imagines]] 2.25'' ==External links== *[http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Heracles/12Labours 12 Labours] *[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/horses.html Hercules' Eighth Labor: the Horses of Diomedes]; Perseus Project, Tufts University {{Labours of Heracles}} [[Category:Greek mythology of Thrace]] [[Category:Labours of Hercules]] [[Category:Monsters in Greek mythology]] [[Category:Mythological horses]] [[Category:Fire-breathing monsters]] [[Category:Female legendary creatures]]
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