Ever heard of Aphrodisias’ “Blue Horse”? If not, you’ve been missing out!
It’s an insane sculpture (sculptural group, really) in every way, originally erected in the city’s Civil Basilica, where the lower course of the L-shaped base remains, inscribed “The people set up the Troilos, and the horse, and the Achilles” – terrifically helpful because not so very much of the group remains.
The horse (carved from one huge piece of gorgeous blueish grey marble from the nearby Göktepe quarries) is captured in a flat out gallop (damaged and repaired several times already in antiquity) and while he is slightly just under life-sized, the thigh and buttock on his back (an uneasy seat, to say the least, recreated thanks to a remaining ancient clamp on one cheek) is, at least for a teenage boy.
And, boy, did the Aphrodisians choose a heartbreaking vignette from the Trojan War. It had been prophesied that Troy would not fall if the young prince reached adulthood, and with this in mind Achilles managed to ambush Troilos as he ventured outside the city walls to a fountain house. Sensing danger too late, Troilos urged his steed back to safety but even at maximum equine acceleration, the bloodthirsty Greek gained ground, eventually seizing the prince by the hair, dashing him to the ground. The first son of Priam to fall.
The composition (horse, hero, and falling boy) is known from contemporary engraved gems and the odd relief (as on the cuirass pictured above) but as a monumental group it’s wild and difficult (for the likes of me) to imagine inside a fancy municipal building. All presumably to glorify Aphrodisias’ Achillean ancestry? Whatever their motivations were for including the group in the sculptural fabric of the city, it stood and was treasured for centuries – shored up and maintained before its final burial and eventual rediscovery in 1970.
Photo of Blue Horse and line drawing of the Civil Basilica ©Aphrodisias Project
