Bucephalus – Alexander’s Horse
A short story about Bucephalus, the trusty black horse with a white patch over one of his eyes that Alexander the Great rode for thousands of miles and through many battles to create his mighty Macedonian Empire. Bucephalus scoffed in fear and did not move away from the sword. Swallowing the ground with ferocious fury during battle. Trained to charge through the sound and smell of war.
Bucephalus was originally from Thessaly, located in the central part of Greece.
We start in Thessaly around 345 BC during a battle in ancient Greece. During that battle, a black spirit steed was pierced through the eye with a pike weapon. The panic and confusion of that wound caused the horse to throw the rider from behind. The horseman was later trampled to death during that battle. For about half a year, the horse was blind in one eye. It is presumed that this was what triggered the horse’s wild and skittish nature. Eventually the horse regained its sight and legends say that this horse continued to see demons and war-ghosts in that eye. So Bucephalus remained wild and out of control.
Over time, many horse grooms tried to tame Bucephalus again, but failed. Seeing no other alternative, they had to try to sell the horse to someone. A horse trader in Thessaly named Philoneicus brought the steed along with many other horses to North Macedonia. When they entered the kingdom of Macedonia they contacted King Philip II. The king bought Bucephalus for the cost of 13 talents.
In 1994, the World Almanac stated that 1 talent was worth £60. Currently, 60 pounds is worth $95.28 US dollars. So multiply $95.28 thirteen times and you get $1,238.64
Back in the year 344 a. C., that was certainly a lot of money!
After Philoneicus sold the black horse to the king, many of his horse grooms also had a hard time trying to tame and tame it. The horse was still extremely wild and this made the king angry at Philoneicus for selling him what he thought was an evil horse. As twelve-year-old Alexander, son of King Philip II, watched as the men tried to tame Bucephalus, he noticed something no one else noticed. After seeing the failed attempts a while longer. He created a challenge to his father. The challenge that Alexander posed was that He could be the one to tame the beast. At first, his father was ashamed of his son’s request. Ashamed and then ashamed of how his immature twelve year old son could tame Bucephalus when all others had failed. His father took up the proposition and told his son that if he failed he would have to pay back the 13 talents, the cost of Bucephalus. The boy agreed to the consequences.
Before, while Alejandro watched the attempts to tame the horse. He had noticed that Bucephalus was moving away from his own shadow. He was “afraid” of something. Could these be the ghosts of war that were still in the visions of the horse? Was this what was driving the horse so scared and wild? Alexander gently guided Bucephalus as he spoke in his ear. Then he directed it towards the sun so that his shadow was behind him. These actions finally helped the horse to relax, calm down and lose forever those ghostly visions that haunted him for so long. At that time he proclaimed the horse’s name to be Bucephalus (ox-headed). Alexander chose that name because of the enormous head that the horse had. It was the size of an ox’s head. There were also two ox horn marks marked on the rear of the horse. Now Bucephalus could be ridden. Much in the face of the public humiliation that King Felipe suffered, the King recovered the composer from him and commented with tears of joy on his son and told her:
“Seek a kingdom equal to and worthy of you, because Macedonia is too small for you.“.
Legend has it that Bucephalus and Alexander were born simultaneously. Other stories tell that the horse was born in 355 BC. C., a year after Alejandro.
Bucephalus the mighty stallion died of battle wounds in June 326 BC. C. during Alexander’s last battle at Hydaspes, which is now present-day Pakistan. This was the first time that Bucephalus or Alexander saw an elephant during a battle.
In honor of his horse, Alexander named a city on the west bank of the Hydaspes River, Bucephala. It is now believed to be the modern city of Jhelum, Pakistan. And he is buried in Jalalpur Sharif on the outskirts of Jhelum, Pakistan.
A brief timeline of Alexander the Great.
356 BC – Alexander is born in Pella Macedonia.
344 BC C.-Alejandro, 12 years old, rides Bucephalus on his horse for the first time.
343 BC C.: the Greek philosopher Aristotle begins to instruct 13-year-old Alexander about humanity and the world.
338 BC C.: Alejandro, 18 years old, commands the cavalry in the battle of Chaeronea.
336 BC C.-Assassination of King Philip II, his father, Alexander, 20 years old, ascends the throne.
335 BC – Alexander, aged 21, crushes the revolt at Thebes.
334 BC C. – Alexander, 22 years old, advances towards the Hellespont Persia with 40,000 men and seizes large amounts of gold from the Persian Empire.
333 BC C. – Alejandro, 23 years old, cuts the Gordian knot.
332 BC – Alexander, age 24, liberates Egypt.
331 BC C. – The Egyptian oracle confirms the divinity of Alexander, 25 years old.
329 BC C. – Alejandro, 27 years old, advances towards Central Asia.
327 BC C. – Alejandro, 29 years old, advances towards India.
326 BC C. – Alejandro, 30 years old, loses Bucephalus due to war wounds.
324 BC C.-Alejandro, 32 years old, loses his lifelong friend, Hephaestion.
323 BC – Alexander, aged 33, dies in the city of Babylon.