The Horse of Sardis

Abstract

THIS invocation by the singer of the Orphic hymns, addressed to Hippa, the mare, as the nurse of the infant Dionysus on Mt. Tmolus, reflects an early tradition of the importance of the horse in Lydia. This inference is confirmed by the chroniclers who relate the acts of the ancient semi-mythical kings of the Lydian people, for we are told that Ardys, predecessor of Gyges by two generations, when he returned from exile to be king at Sardis, held a review of the army and found among his troops thirty thousand cavalry.²