Reflections of Greek Horse Breeding Ideals in the Horses of the Parthenon

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Christy Dicks.
Dr. Charlie Apter and Dr. Kathleen Lynch (Art History), Faculty Mentors.

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Horses were an integral part of ancient Greek culture, and the Greeks were among the first to design a model for the "ideal" horse. This ideal was based on proportional relationships of body dimensions, resembling those used to define ideal human form in Greek art, and similar to those used by horse breeders today. The importance of the horse to early Greek society is mirrored in the portrayal of horses on the frieze of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. This frieze is an important source of information about the Greek horse breeding philosophy, for two reasons: 1) horse representations in the frieze are based on the Greek model for the ideal horse, and 2) the representation of a horse inspection (dokimasia) in one of the panels of the frieze. This research examines the representation of the ideal Greek horse in the Parthenon frieze by considering proportional similarities between the horses in the frieze.