Gardner, Ernest Arthur: Poet and artist in Greece (London: Duckworth, 1933)

THE LYRIC POETS

107

little later date is probably due to the influence of the
Theban hegemony.1 The more detailed description in
Theocritus XXIV. differs in no essentials from the version
in Pindar and in the vases, even to the details such as
Iphicles crying out for help and the approach of Alcmena
and Amphitryon. The main difference is that Theocritus
makes the twins ten months old. But Theocritus must
have been acquainted with Zeuxis’ picture, which was
probably at Acragas in Sicily.
Out of the other innumerable references to mythology in
Pindar, it is inevitable that there should be many which
allude to tales that also form the subjects of representa-
tion upon vases or other works of art. The chariot race
of Pelops and CEnomaus, the prototype of the Olympian
Games, has in Pindar’s description a feature which is not
usually found in the artistic tradition. When Pelops
prayed beside the sea to Poseidon for help in his perilous
adventure, the god gave him a team of winged horses
for the race; and with them he overtook and slew
CEnomaus, and won Hippodamia as his bride. On the
chest of Cypselus, an early Corinthian carving, the chariot
of Pelops in this scene was represented with winged
horses. But as a rule the horses of Pelops, as represented
on vases, are not winged. On the other hand, winged
horses, both separate or yoked to a chariot, are common
in early, especially in orientalising, art. Possibly the
addition of wings to horses and other animals was origin-
ally intended to symbolise swiftness. On vases represent-
ing Pelops and his bride ITippodamia in a chariot, though
the horses are not winged, they are represented as drawing
the chariot over the sea, indicated by fishes or dolphins.
In some versions of the story the course of the race was
over sea as well as land ; so that the horses, which clearly
1 P. Gardner, Types of Greek Coins, III., 48, VIII., 1, XVI., 6, 7, 8.