ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the depicted human-horse relationship and horse care before pondering the possible affectionate relationship between horses and humans and, to a lesser extent, between horses and gods in the Iliad. The first artwork of European literature, the Iliad, tells about a period of eight weeks in the war between the Trojans and the Achaeans at the end of the Trojan War. Besides being part of the plot, horses also occur in the animal similes of the Iliad. Descriptions of horses in the Iliad thus include references to horses' reactions and bodily involvement in human war or games. The simile is a peculiar Homeric technique, an elaborate, digressive comparison, where humans and the human world are compared to animals and the natural world. Managing horses in the middle of the battle is described as demanding great skills of the charioteers. The Homeric world also includes divine and semi-divine horses.
