Bucephalus
Also called Bucephalas, Bukephalos.
Bucephalus is the great warhorse of Alexander, unridable by anyone else and mastered by the young prince when he saw the animal was frightened of its own shadow and turned its head into the sun.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Greek mythologyPersian mythology
- Region
- Persia (place of origin)
- Trait family
- The Swift-Footed
- Symbols
- Horse
Near this figure
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Horse is image-domain The horse denotes harnessed striving power, mount of gods, sun and sea alike, carrying the dead as psychopomp and the living into their conquests.
why
Bucephalus enters the tradition as a horse nobody could mount.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Behaviour
- Loyal only to worthy rider
why
Across all of these the horse keeps the same two qualities: he will accept one person and no other, and he is formidable in war.
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Death meets
3 citations
- Firdausi, translated by Arthur George Warner and Edmond Warner, The Sháhnáma.
- Maria Leach, editor, Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, s.v. "Bucephalus."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Bucephalus."
- Hero meets
3 citations
- Firdausi, translated by Arthur George Warner and Edmond Warner, The Sháhnáma.
- Maria Leach, editor, Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, s.v. "Bucephalus."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Bucephalus."