Heracles capturing the Mares of Diomedes. Roman mosaic, 3rd century AD

The Mares of Diomedes were four man-eating horses in Greek mythology. Magnificent, wild, and uncontrollable, they belonged to the giant Diomedes (not to be confused with Diomedes, son of Tydeus), king of Thrace, a son of Ares and Cyrene who lived on the shores of the Black Sea. Bucephalus, Alexander the Great's horse, was said to be descended from these mares. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 534 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (870 × 977 pixel, file size: 320 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Hercules and the Mares of Diomedes. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 534 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (870 × 977 pixel, file size: 320 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Hercules and the Mares of Diomedes. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) For other uses, see Heracles (disambiguation). ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... Diomedes, king of Thrace, was a son of Ares and Cyrene. ... Diomêdês (Gk:Διομήδης - God-like cunning) is a hero in Greek mythology, mostly known for his participation in the Trojan War. ... In Greek mythology, Tydeus was the father of Diomedes and husband of Deipyle. ... Thraciae veteris typvs. ... In Greek mythology, Ares (Greek: ) is the son of Zeus (ruler of the gods) and Hera. ... In Greek mythology, as recorded in Pindars 9th Pythian ode, Cyrene (or Kyrene) (sovereign queen) was the daughter of Hypseus, King of the Lapiths. ... NASA satellite image of the Black Sea Map of the Black Sea The Black Sea is an inland sea between southeastern Europe and Anatolia that is actually a distant arm of the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Mediterranean Sea. ... Statue of Alexander the Great riding Bucephalus, Thessaloniki, Greece For the branding mark anciently used on horses, see Bucephalus (brand). ... Alexander the Great (Greek: ,[1] Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC–June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders in history. ...

The Eighth Labour of Heracles

One of the Twelve Labours of Heracles was to steal the Mares. In one version of the story, Heracles brought Abderus, one of his many male lovers (eromenos), and some other youths to help him. They took the mares and were chased by Diomedes and his men. Hercules and the hydra by Antonio Pollaiuolo The Twelve Labours (Greek: dodekathlos) of Heracles (Latin: Hercules) are a series of archaic episodes connected by a later continuous narrative, concerning a penance carried out by Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) For other uses, see Heracles (disambiguation). ... In Greek mythology, Abderus (son of battle) was a son of Hermes. ... The term pederasty or paederasty embraces a wide range of erotic practices between adult and adolescents, generally between males. ...

Heracles was not aware that the horses were kept tethered to a bronze manger because they were wild, man-eating and uncontrollable, and Heracles left Abderus in charge of them while he fought Diomedes, but Abderus was eaten. In revenge, Heracles fed Diomedes to his own horses, then founded Abdera next to the boy's tomb. Abdera, was a town on the coast of Thrace near the mouth of the Nestos, and almost opposite Thasos. ...

In another version, Heracles stayed awake so that he didn't have his throat cut by Diomedes in the night, and cut the chains binding the horses. Having scared the horses onto the high ground of a peninsula, Heracles quickly dug a trench through the peninsula, filling it with water, thus making it an island. When Diomedes arrived, Heracles killed him with an axe (the one used to dig the trench), and fed the body to the horses.

Eating made the horses calmer and Heracles took the opportunity to bind their mouths shut, and easily took them back to King Eurystheus, who dedicated the horses to Hera. In some versions, they were allowed to roam freely around Argos, having become permanently calm, but in others, Eurystheus ordered the horses taken to Olympus to be sacrificed to Zeus, but Zeus refused them, and sent wolves, lions, and bears to kill them. In Greek mythology, Eurystheus was king of Tiryns, one of three Mycenaean strongholds in the Argolid: Sthenelus was his father and the horsewoman Nykippe his mother, and he was a grandson of the hero Perseus, as was his opponent Heracles. ... In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera, (Greek , IPA pronunciation ; or Here in Ionic and in Homer) was the wife and older sister of Zeus. ... Coordinates 37°37′ N 22°43′ E Country Greece Periphery Peloponnese Prefecture Argolis Province Argos Population 29,505 Area 5. ...

Origin

When the sun is in the constellation of Aquarius, the constellation Pegasus rises. Pegasus in early Greece was considered to contain 4 very bright stars, making a square, it was only in later times that the 4th star (Alpheratz) was considered part of Andromeda. By reassigning the 4th star, Pegasus changed from being a horse with a square body, into being a horse with a wing (the square body changing into a triangular wing), giving rise to the winged horse myth.^{[citation needed]} Aquarius (IPA: , Latin: ) is the eleventh sign of the zodiac, situated between Capricornus and Pisces. ... Pegasus (IPA: ) is a northern constellation, named after the mythological winged horse Pegasus. ... Alpheratz, or α Andromedae, is the brightest star in the Andromeda constellation, which is located immediately northwest of Pegasus. ... Andromeda (IPA: ) is a constellation named for the princess Andromeda (which is Greek for Ruler over men), a character in Greek mythology. ...

Bright stars were considered to be malevolent and wild, thus leading to the earlier pegasus square being considered 4 evil horses (the animals being horses due to the overall shape assigned to the constellation). Pegasus, as a whole, appears to be feeding, in particular, it aims its head towards Aquarius, a man, suggesting a man-eating nature. Since the horses are above the ecliptic, they cannot be said to have died, and thus must have been caught, since the sun is able to pass them.^{[citation needed]}

Aquarius itself was said to represent the god who flooded the earth; the water it seems to pour, which sometimes includes the constellation of Eridanus as a river, was said to depict this by the Greeks. Some versions of the myth of the Mares of Diomedes hold that Herakles created a river around the stable of the mares. Eridanus is the sixth largest of the 88 modern constellations. ...

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Mares of Diomedes