ABSTRACT
Alexander’s Bucephalus is arguably the most famous horse from antiquity. Beautiful, and at the same time costly, no one was able to tame the horse presented to Philip except the young Alexander. This story has been vividly recounted by Plutarch. Alexander was a youth of about 15 when he first set eyes on Bucephalus. The horse was brought to Philip by the Thessalian Philonicus of Pharsalus, who wished to sell it for 13 talents. 1 Like Bucephalus, Alexander also needed taming; both were spirited and impetuous in nature. Plutarch writes:
Once upon a time Philoneicus the Thessalian brought Bucephalas, offering to sell him to Philip for thirteen talents, and they went down into the plain to try the horse, who appeared to be savage and altogether intractable, neither allowing any one to mount him, nor heeding the voice of any of Philip’s attendants, but rearing up against all of them. Then Philip was vexed and ordered the horse to be led away, believing him to be altogether wild and unbroken; but Alexander, who was near by, said: “What a horse they are losing, because, for lack of skill and courage, they cannot manage him!” At first, then, Philip held his peace; but as Alexander many times let fall such words and showed great distress, he said: “Dost thou find fault with thine elders in the belief that thou knowest more than they do or art better able to manage a horse?” “This horse, at any rate,” said Alexander, “I could manage better than others have.” “And if thou shouldst not, what penalty wilt thou undergo for thy rashness?” “Indeed,” said Alexander, “I will forfeit the price of the horse.” There was laughter at this, and then an agreement between father and son as to the forfeiture, and at once Alexander ran to the horse, took hold of his bridle-rein, and turned him towards the sun; for he had noticed, as it would seem, that the horse was greatly disturbed by the sight of his own shadow falling in front of him and dancing about. And after he had calmed the horse a little in this way, and had stroked him with his hand, when he saw that he was full of spirit and courage, he quietly cast aside his mantle and with a little spring safely bestrode him, Then, with a little pressure of the reins on the bit, and without striking him or tearing his mouth, he held him in hand; but when he saw that the horse was rid of the fear that had beset him, and was impatient for the course, he gave him his head, and at last urged him on with sterner tone and thrust of foot. Philip and his company were speechless with anxiety at first; but when Alexander made the turn in proper fashion and came back towards them proud and exultant, all the rest broke into loud cries, but his father, as we are told, actually shed tears of joy, and when Alexander had dismounted, kissed him, saying: “My son, seek thee out a kingdom equal to thyself; Macedonia has not room for thee.”
And since Philip saw that his son’s nature was unyielding and that he resisted compulsion, but was easily led by reasoning into the path of duty, he himself tried to persuade rather than to command him; and because he would not wholly entrust the direction and training of the boy to the ordinary teachers of poetry and the formal studies, feeling that it was a matter of too great importance, and, in the words of Sophocles, “A task for many bits and rudder-sweeps as well,” he sent for the most famous and learned of philosophers, Aristotle, and paid him a noble and appropriate tuition-fee. 2
What we notice in Plutarch’s text is that the taming of Bucephalus led Philip immediately to thoughts of Aristotle, and Alexander’s education. Earlier, Plutarch mentions two other tutors, Leonidas, a relative of Olympias with a stern character, and Lysimachus, who according to Plutarch was a somewhat uncultivated person who referred to his pupil, Alexander, as Achilles. 3 Education of his young heir, therefore, is foremost in Philip’s mind, and there are parallels to be drawn between educating the impetuous and stubborn Alexander and the taming of the horse. As Tim Whitmarsh has shown, paideia—the Greek and Hellenistic cultural system of education—can tame the passions. 4 Whitmarsh continues: By quoting Sophocles as a “job for many bits and rudder-sweeps,” Plutarch metaphorically links the breaking of horses with the power of education. 5 Paideia, in its practical form, also included the humanities along with subjects such as rhetoric, music, mathematics, grammar, natural history, and philosophy, a cultural system that would appeal to Renaissance patrons and their humanist advisors intent on reviving interest in antiquity. The taming of Bucephalus might also be viewed in metaphorical terms with a focus on Alexander’s future ambition; it, as Sulochana Asirvatham argues, “anticipates his ‘taming’ of Asia.” 6 Furthermore, when Philip says to his son that he should seek a kingdom greater than himself, and that Macedonia is too small for Alexander, it is an encouragement to the young prince to conquer more land.