Ancient Greek Horses

Most of us are familiar with ancient Greek sculptures of the human body, but here's another example of how brilliantly they observed the equine form. This is a relief funerary sculpture, photographed in the Archaeological Museum of Athens, of a caparisoned horse and his handler.

Now if he were my horse I should not be keen on the handler raising his whip-hand in this way, but it is of course possible that we are looking at a chariot horse being trained for battle. He is not saddled and the caparison bears some sort of emblem at the front.

Notice the detail extends to individual muscles and small blood vessels. There is even a small crack in the right fore hoof!

Unless the handler is very diminutive we are looking at a stallion of impressive size for the period too.

Next is a life size bronze of a horse and juvenile jockey. The statue was recovered in pieces from a shipwreck off Cape Artemision in Euboea.

The jockey would have held the reins in his left hand and a whip in the right. These were probably of less durable material and have not survived immersion.

Notice the boy has no stirrups. There is some evidence to suggest that these were not invented until the early Middle Ages. Of course he has no saddle either and they were used by cavalrymen in antiquity. The lack of a saddle would have been a device to save weight,as would the youth of the jockey.

The piece dates from about 140 BC. Oh yes it does.

Recovered here are the metal parts of a real brute of a bit. Notice the shaped bars to prevent it pulling through the mouth and the particularly fierce wheels and serrations of the mouthpiece itself.

If the horse in the first picture had one of these in its mouth I can imagine why he's throwing up his head. Again, I suspect this can only have been battle harness, when instant obedience would be required from the mount and you might actually want him to rear. It's hard to imagine why you would need something like this in normal circumstances.

Greek Statuary

It should be astonishing to think that depiction of the human form in marble or bronze was perfected two and a half thousand years ago. For some strange reason it isn't. We just accept that the Ancient Greeks were really good at this and then move on. This is to extent a measure of how much the foundations of our civilisation are taken for granted today.


This more than life-size statue of Athena (left) is a 3rd century BC, one twelfth scale copy of the original, sculpted for the Parthenon by Phidias in 438 BC. The naked parts of the original statue were of ivory and the rest filigreed with gold. Sadly of course the original is now lost and this Pentelic marble in the Greek National Archaeological Museum is the best preserved copy.

I've selected it as an example because, although the Greek notion of bodily perfection is associated with representations of the nude, the skill in portraying drapery is not far behind and this is able to give us a very clear idea of how well-to-do people dressed.






The Museum exhibition traces the development of human statuary from the  stylised figures of the early Bronze age through to the idealised forms of the Classical period. For male figures, the athlete came to be seen as the nearest to perfection of development and figures of Apollo, Mars and so on would often be depicted in the same way. Athletes trained and competed in the nude and warriors are often depicted as fighting in the nude, wearing little more armour than a helmet, with perhaps a himation wrapped around the free arm if they weren't carrying a shield.

The athlete on the right is probably preparing to throw a discus, though we might think his arm muscles less finely-developed than his torso and legs. This could be to achieve a better balance of form.

As the goddess of love, nudity or semi-nudity was also the unofficial uniform of Aphrodite, whilst the Amazons, whose invasion looms large in the early history of Athens, also fought in the nude.

It is worth noting that the Greek idealisation of the female figure did not, as modern airbrushed images are all too wont to do, represent an impossible or unhealthy shape. No goddesses are depicted as stick-waisted or possessed of boyish hips.

For me, the remarkable fluidity of movement as well as form is what distinguishes classical sculpture and nowhere is this better illustrated than in a composition involving several figures.

Sadly the temple marbles showing the battle between the Athenians and the Amazons, though full of activity, are also badly damaged.

The group on the right however, showing Aphrodite, Eros and a satyr, is a perfectly preserved small masterpiece.

It will be obvious that I could go on and on about the Greek National Archaological Museum. My three short pieces have only scratched the surface of the wonders to be found within it.

Most people seeking a taste of historical Greece will look outdoors, but it may be worth mentioning I took three times as many photographs inside the museum as I did around and about in Athens on the previous day.