Postures of Horses in Classical Artworks Reflect Stallion Sexual Behavior

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Lauren E. Strange.
Dr. Charlie Apter, Dr. David Christiansen (Language and Literature), and
Dr. Sara Orel (Art History), Faculty Mentors.

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Horses are an important part of human history. Horse use for war began with the Assyrians and later the Egyptians and other Near Eastern cultures. In Greek and Roman culture, horses were used to pull chariots for transport and occasionally for battlefield engagements. Because only the horse-owning upper classes in ancient Athens (the hippeis) and ancient Rome (the equites) were able to handle the financial burden of maintaining horses and chariots, horses came to be associated with power and prestige. Artworks and artifacts in various media from Greek and Roman cultures depict equestrians atop stallions in one of three similar positions. These three positions are reflective of postures assumed by stallions in agonistic circumstances of power such as courting of females or in defense of his herd. One can infer that artists used these positions to heighten the conveyance of power for the human subject depicted with the horse.