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Horses in Greece

Horses have had a significant place in the history and culture of Greece since ancient times. They appear frequently in the literature, art and mythology of the Mycenaean and later civilisations of Ancient Greece.

Horses in Greece
Grey horse in Frakto forest

As in other European countries, the number of horses in the country fell sharply in the twentieth century with the advent of motor transport. In the twenty-first century there are six recognised horse breeds and several feral populations of various sizes.

History

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The earliest archaeological remains of horses found in mainland Greece are bones dating from the Middle Bronze Age, no earlier than 1800 BC.[1]: 2 

Ancient Greece

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The first known pictorial depictions of horses in Ancient Greece are in Mycenaean shaft graves dating from about 1650–1550 BC, where artefacts also document the use of the chariot.[1]: 2 [2]: 52 

The equestrian culture of ancient Greece is documented in two treatises on horsemanship from about 350 BC by the Athenian historian and soldier Xenophon: the Hipparchicus (Ἱππαρχικός, Hipparchikós), which deals mainly with the duties of the cavalry commander; and Περὶ ἱππικῆς, Perì hippikēs – often translated as On Horsemanship – which deals with the selection, care and training of horses in general. These were considered the earliest extant works on horsemanship in any literature until the publication in 1931 of the work of Kikkuli of the Mitanni Kingdom,[3]: 457  which dates from about 1360 BC. An earlier treatise by Simon of Athens – twice mentioned by Xenophon – was believed lost, but some fragments survive and were published in 1912.[4][5]: 4 [6][7]: 2 

Horses were used for human transport, either as riding animals or harnessed to a chariot; for heavy transport, donkeys, oxen and mules were used.[8]: 89  The saddle and the stirrup were unknown in ancient Greece, but the spur and a simple bridle were used.[8]: 89  The horse was associated with the wealth, prestige and nobility of its owner, as in texts such as the Iliad, where King Nestor equates captured horses with precious booty.[2]: 52 [8]: 89 

Modern Greece

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In the twentieth century, the Greek horse population declined sharply.[9]: 131  In 2011 it stood at about 30000; most Greek horse breeds were at risk of extinction.[9]: 131 

Breeds and types

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See also: List of Greek horse breeds

Six breeds of horse are officially recognised in Greece: the Andravida, the Messara or Cretan, the Peneia Pony, the Pindos Pony, the Skyros Pony and the Thessalian Pony; the Aravani of western Macedonia is not recognised in its home country, but is reported to DAD-IS by Germany, where there is a breed society and a stud-book.[10]: 439 [11]

There are also a number of feral populations, deriving from horses abandoned or escaped for reasons such as the depopulation of the countryside, the mechanisation of agriculture or the Greek Civil War of 1946–1949. Among these are: a group of about 40 bay horses in the delta of the Achelous River in Epirus; a small number of horses of Pindos type on Mount Ainos, on the Ionian island of Cephalonia; a herd of some hundreds in the area of Amvrakikos in Epirus; about 90 head in the delta of the Axios River close to Thessaloniki, and on a nearby island; a herd of about 400 on Pagaio Mountain, near Drama in East Macedonia and Thrace, in north-eastern Greece; a group of about 30 in the delta of the Kalamas River, near Igoumenitsa in Thesprotia, Epirus; about 200 on the island of Petalas in the Echinades; approximately 1000 horses in the southern Rhodope Mountains in the north of the country; and a population of about 200 on Menoikio, in Serres.[10]: 469 

References

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  1. ^ a b John Kinloch Anderson (1961). Ancient Greek Horsemanship. Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press.
  2. ^ a b Dumont, Jacques (2001). Les animaux dans l'Antiquité grecque (in French). L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-7475-0312-9.
  3. ^ George Sarton (1993). Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece (facsimile of 1952 edition). Courier Dover Publications.
  4. ^ Franz Ruehl (1910, 1912). Xenophontis Scripta Minora. Fasciculus prior, Oeconomicum, Convivium, Hieronem, Agesilaum, Apologiam Socratis continens. Post Ludovicum Dindorf edidit Th. Thalheim; Fasciculus posterior opuscula politica, equestria, venatica continens ... Edidit F. Ruehl. Accedunt Simonis De re equestri quae supersunt (2 volumes, in Latin and Ancient Greek). Leipzig: Teubner.
  5. ^ Anne Elena McCabe (2007). A Byzantine encyclopaedia of horse medicine: the sources, compilation, and transmission of the Hippiatrica. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199277551.
  6. ^ Antonio Sestili (2006). L'equitazione nella Grecia antica: i trattati equestri di Senofonte e i frammenti di Simone (in Italian). Scandicci (Firenze): Firenze Atheneum. ISBN 9788872552933.
  7. ^ Richard Berenger (1771). The History and Art of Horsemanship. London: T. Davies and T. Cadell.
  8. ^ a b c Kitchell, Kenneth (23 June 2014). Animals in the Ancient World from A to Z. Routledge. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-317-57743-0.
  9. ^ a b Élise Rousseau, Yann Le Bris, Teresa Lavender Fagan (2017). Horses of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691167206.
  10. ^ a b Porter, Valerie; Alderson, Lawrence; Hall, Stephen; Sponenberg, Dan (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (6th ed.). CAB International. p. 1107. ISBN 978-1-84593-466-8.
  11. ^ Breed data sheet: Arravani / Germany (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed August 2024.

Further reading

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