“HORSES AND CIVILIZATION”
By Judith A. Ray, Historian
According to Ancient Greek myth, it was Poseidon who gave the horse to mankind. The god of
the sea was in a contest with the goddess Athena to name a new city in Attica. Zeus ruled that whoever
bestowed the greatest gift to the people would win. Poseidon went first. He struck a large rock with his
trident and a horse sprang forth. Everyone gasped in amazement since they had never seen a horse
before. Athena went next. She struck the earth with her spear and an olive tree full of fruit suddenly
appeared. Zeus declared her the winner, and the city was named Athens. Even in 2nd place, the Greeks
had emphasized the importance of horses.
Anthropologists have found horses to be a popular dinner entrée for prehistoric man. Then in
the dim years around 8,000 BC, someone looked at a horse and saw transportation for the first time.
We’ll never know who that person was, but we do know it was one of those pivotal events that changed
the world. Like taming fire, taming horses enabled primitive man to make huge strides in all things
necessary for progress toward Civilization. Suddenly, travel, trade, and communication between groups
became easier and more efficient. The horse began its very long career of serving mankind. Populations
soared as formerly small villages grew into large trading centers. This cultural transformation would
come a few thousand years later for the American Indian. In fact, in ancient times, it was difficult for
culture to advance without horses.
The earliest horse remains showing signs of domestication have been found on the vast steppes
of the former Soviet Union. Winter moisture across a vast area creates the most productive grasslands
in the world. The many burial mounds found there show clearly the regard these early Steppe
horsemen and horsewomen, had for their horses. We know because they took them along to the
afterlife, often a dozen or more. Excavations reveal the wear of bits on equine teeth, as well as
beautifully crafted horse trappings with decorations of gold and precious jewels.
Horses are mentioned several times in the Old Testament of the Bible. A partial quote from Job
39:19-25 states, “Hast thou given the horse strength? Hast though clothed his neck in thunder?” The
writings of the ancient world tell us much about the history of horses and humans. Homer gave us the
sage of the Iliad, the immortal Trojan War that archaeologists date at =/- 1000 years BC. Troy was
renowned for breeding fine horses, which was no surprise since their patron god was Poseidon. It was
for this very reason that the invading Greeks were able to win the war by building the famous “Trojan
Horse” as a tribute the unsuspecting Trojans brought into their city. By 776 BC Greeks were racing
horse-drawn chariots as an Olympic Event.
Around 500 BC Homer also wrote about the legendary “Amazons”, who were greatly feared
female warriors. Archaeologists have proved they existed by excavating their skeletons buried with
weapons and horses. Some had bowed legs from a lifetime on horseback and arrowheads still lodged in
their bones. Their descendants may have been a fierce people called the Scythians who lived on the
edge of the Steppes. They were so skilled as equestrian fighters, that Ancient Rome subdued them with
much difficulty. Hundreds of captives were sent to Britannia to defend Hadrian’s Wall, exiled as far from
Rome as possible.
However, long before the Roman Empire, horses had already spread across the Ancient World.
Human nature being what it is, the use of these shy animals soon changed from helpmates to weapons
of war. Groups of armed horsemen became the ‘tank force’ of their age, swift and terrible. China used
horses in warfare very early due to proximity to the Steppes where horses were easily available. Long
before Genghis Kahn ravaged Europe, various warlords fought for control of China mounted on Mongol
ponies. Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor of China, included horses in the life-sized terracotta army
that even today guards his unopened tomb.
Through active trade routed, horses soon appeared in early Mesopotamia where they were bred
and refined. They came to Egypt with the Hyksos invasion from Asia Minor in 1786 BC. It didn’t take the
clever Egyptian engineers long to redesign the heavy Babylonian-style chariot into a lightweight, easily
maneuvered war machine. We know this from the disassembled chariot found in 1923 in King Tut’s
tomb. The Egyptians also trained horses to charge fearlessly into the enemy, as carvings on their
monuments clearly show.
Cyrus the Great defeated Babylon in 539 BC and began forging the mighty Persian Empire. He
built a 1600-mile-long road to link the two capital cities of Susa and Sardis. It included more than 100
rest stations from travelers. A system of horsemen carried mail across Cyrus’ road in nine days, creating
the first ever “pony express”. The Romans greatly admired this road, and their engineers copied it. The
Greek historian, Herodotus, also admired Cyrus’ road and mail carriers. His praises actually became the
motto of the United States Postal Service, courtesy of Benjamin Franklin.
In 334 BC Alexander the Great began his conquest of Persia. His brilliance as a cavalry
commander was known throughout the ancient world by the time he was a teenager. The story of
taming the horse Bucephalus has been often told. Alexander’s route across Persia to India became part
of the fabled “Silk Road”, linking East and West by land for the first time. Trade increased as a result,
and so did mounted combat. Horses continued to participate in the art of warfare, not only in the
Ancient World, but in every war fought right up to the 21st Century. Throughout human history it was
innovations in warfare that have moved technology forward and ironically advanced civilization. Horses
are often overlooked as one of the earliest and most important of these influences.