Coin depicting Bucephalas, issued bySeleucus I Nicator. Note the horns on his head, from a literal interpretation of his name, which means "ox-head(ed)".
A statue byJohn Steell showing Alexander taming Bucephalus
A massive creature with a massive head, Bucephalus is described as having a black coat with a large white star on his brow.[citation needed] He is also supposed to have had a "wall eye" (blue eye),[citation needed] and his breeding was that of the "bestThessalian strain".
Plutarch says[4] that in 344 BC, at twelve or thirteen years of age, Alexander ofMacedonia won the horse by making a wager with his father: a horse dealer named Philonicus the Thessalian offered Bucephalus toKing Philip II for the remarkably high sum of 13talents.[a] Because no one could tame the animal, Philip was not interested. However, Alexander was, and he offered to pay himself should he fail.
Alexander was given a chance and surprised all by subduing the horse. He spoke soothingly to the horse and turned its head toward the sun so that it could no longer see its own shadow, which had been the cause of its distress. Dropping his flutteringcloak as well, Alexander successfully tamed the horse. Plutarch says that the incident so impressed Philip that he told the boy, "O my son, look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee."[4] Philip's speech strikes the only false note in the anecdote, according to A. R. Anderson,[5] who noted his words as the embryo of the legend fully developed in theHistory of Alexander the Great I.15, 17.
TheAlexander Romance presents a mythic variant of Bucephalus's origin. In this tale, the colt, whose heroic attributes surpassed even those ofPegasus, is bred and presented to Philip on his ownestates. The mythic attributes of the animal are further reinforced in the romance by theDelphic Oracle who tells Philip that the destined king of the world will be the one who rides Bucephalus, a horse with the mark of the ox's head on his haunch.
As one of his chargers, Bucephalus served Alexander in numerous battles.
The value which Alexander placed on Bucephalus emulated his hero and supposed ancestorAchilles, who claimed that his horses were "known to excel all others—for they are immortal.Poseidon gave them to my fatherPeleus, who in his turn gave them to me."[6]
Arrian states, withOnesicritus as his source, that Bucephalus died at the age of thirty. Other sources, however, give as the cause of death not old age or weariness, but fatal injuries at theBattle of the Hydaspes (June 326 BC), in which Alexander's army defeatedKing Porus. Alexander promptly founded a city,Bucephala, in honour of his horse. It was on the west bank of theHydaspes river (modern-dayJhelum inPakistan).[7] The modern-day town ofJalalpur Sharif, outside Jhelum, is said to be where Bucephalus is buried.[8]
The legend of Bucephalus grew in association with that of Alexander, beginning with the fiction that they were born simultaneously: some of the later versions of theAlexander Romance also synchronized the hour of their death.[9] The Bucephalus appears in almost all versions of theArmenian Alexander Romance, and visual illustrations in the surviving manuscripts of this text sometimes represent scenes with the Bucephalus.[2]
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