A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 47. (Nyíregyháza, 2005)

Régészet - János Makkay: The Miracle Stag in Ancient Greek mythical stories and their Indo-Iranian counterparts

The Miracle Stag son. But it was not easy to catch and hold the beast as he drank, for the bridle had not then been invented. So the hero endured much in his desire, until the virgin Pallas brought him the bridle of gold, in a dream that straightway was waking truth. And she said: 'Sleepest thou, prince of the house of Aiolos? Come, take this charm for the steed and show it to the Tamer thy father as thou makest sacrifice to him of a white bull.

... Bellerophontes, having made sacrifice to Poseidon, raised an altar to Athene Hippia. Thus Pegasus became his property, sent him by Poseidon, but led to him and bridled by Athene. The hero mounted the divine steed and danced with it the war-dance in full armour, to the goddess' honour (KERÉNYI 1959/1974. 80-81., Pindar. 01. 13.68., WEST 2003. 29, with a further reference to Pausanias II.iv. 1.). After attaching the bridle to Pegasus and mounting him, Bellerophon became a formidable airborne warrior. He overcame the Amazon archers by picking them off 'from the empty air's cool bosom' (WEST 1997. 539.). We know the story of the birth of Pegasus: when Perseus cut off Medusa's head, she was with child by Poseidon of a hero and a winged stallion, Chrysaor (the 'golden-sworded'; also a son of elder Glaukos) and Pegasus. They leapt out through the neck from the body of their beheaded mother. Pegasus, the stallion drank from the spring Peirene, a double fontain in Corinth, and in the name Pegasus itself the connection with a spring, pege, is expressed. Hippukrene, the 'fountain of the horse' on Helikon, was supposed to have sprung up from under his hooves. He was the immortal horse by his mortal brother Bellerophontes (who too was a son of Poseidon) (KERÉNYI 1959/1974. 80.). Bellerophontes, 'the slayer of Belleros' or the 'Belleros-killer' is said to have had some other name. For instance Hipponoos, a name which connects him with the noble steed, hippos. Or in his young manhood was still called Chrysaor: the 'golden-sworded' (KERÉNYI 1959/1974. 78-79.). After the slaying of Belleros he had to do penance and must have himself purified. Proitos of Argos, the great king of Tiryns and sovran of the whole land of Argos, cleansed Bellerophon from homicide. After his adventurous journey to Lykia, the hero came flying on his winged horse back to Tiryns, to take vengeance on Proitos' wife. The hero took her on Pegasus' back, and let her fall into the sea by the island of Melos. A fall from Pegasus, whether or not he was guilty ofthat loving woman's fall, was soon to be his lot also. According to the story (Pindar: Isthmian 7.45.), he wished to mount up to heaven on his steed and intrude upon the counsel of the gods. He was seen on the back of Pegasus on his flight to heaven above the stage in one of the tragedies of Euripides, the Bellerophon, but the divine stallion threw his rider, who fell on the plain of Aleion, far off in Asia Minor. The undying Pegasus, however, carries the thunderbolt for the King of the Gods, or serves the Goddess Eos. He was taken up to Olympos, to the ancient mangers of the divine steeds (KERÉNYI 1959/1974. 80-84.). The invention of the bridle by the Virgin Pallas can be related to the invention of a new type of bridle in the Volga-Don area around the end of the Early Bronze Age. The occurrence of this steppe type of horse gear (i.e. disc-shaped cheek-pieces) for instance at Mycenae in the Shaft Grave period is a well known fact (MAKKAY 2000. 38-40., with further literature). 77ze horses of the Thracian kingDiomedes. Diomedes was the king of the Bistones in Thrace, owner of man-eating mares. One of the labours of Heracles was to bring these mares from Thrace to Mycenae. Eurystheus from the seventh Labour onwards sent Heracles for longer and longer journeys to distant lands. The object of the journey to Thrace was to bring the dangerous horses of king Diomedes to Mycenae. These four horses ate human flesh, and they were winged. It was later alleged (Vergilius: Georgica 3.267.) that they were the same which had torn Glaucus, son of Sisyphus, to pieces at the funeral games of Pelias. They were at home in Thrace, the land of Boreas the north wind, who mated with mares (KERÉNYI 1959/1974. 154-155.). It was said of the cruel Diomedes, son