| 翻訳と辞書 |
Taraxippus
In Greek mythology, the Taraxippus (plural: ''taraxippoi'', "horse disturber", Latin ''equorum conturbator''〔Translated into Latin as ''equorum conturbator'' by Gerolamo Cardano, ''De subtilitate'' (Basil, 1664), Book 7 ''de lapidibus'', p. 282.〕) was a presence, variously identified as a ghost or dangerous site, blamed for frightening horses at hippodromes throughout Greece.〔John H. Humphrey, ''Roman Circuses: Arenas for Chariot Racing'' (University of California Press, 1986), p. 9.〕 Some ''taraxippoi'' were associated with hero cult or with Poseidon in his aspect as a god of horses (Poseidon Hippios) who brought about the death of Hippolytus.〔Humphrey, ''Roman Circuses,'' p. 9.〕 Pausanias, the ancient source offering the greatest number of explanations, regards it as an epithet rather than a single entity.〔Robert Parker, ''On Greek Religion'' (Cornell University Press, 2011), pp. 105–106; Robert Kugelmann, ''The Windows of Soul: Psychological Physiology of the Human Eye and Primary Glaucoma'' (Associated University Presses, 1983), pp. 90–91.〕
==Origin==
The most notorious〔Robin Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology Based on H.J. Rose's Handbook of Greek Mythology'' (Routledge, 2004), p. 432; Pausanias (6.20.19) says the Olympian Taraxippos was the most terrifying.〕 of the ''taraxippoi'' was the ''Taraxippos Olympios'' at Olympia. Pausanias describes the site:
The race-course (Olympia ) has one side longer than the other, and on the longer side, which is a bank, there stands, at the passage through the bank, Taraxippos, the terror of the horses. It is in the shape of a round altar and there the horses are seized by a strong and sudden fear for no apparent reason, and from the fear comes a disturbance. The chariots generally crash and the charioteers are injured. Therefore the drivers offer sacrifices and pray to Taraxippos to be propitious to them.''〔Pausanias, ''Guide to Greece'' 6.20.15.〕
Horse- and chariot-races were a part of funeral games from Homeric times. The use of a hero's tomb or an altar as the turning-post of a racetrack originates in rituals for the dead.〔Humphrey, ''Roman Circuses'', p. 258.〕 In the ''Iliad,'' Achilles kills Hector in retribution for the death of his friend Patroclus, then drives his chariot around the funeral pyre three times, dragging the Trojan prince's body. This magical encircling may originally have been a binding propitiation of the dead, to assure their successful passage into the afterlife and keep them from returning.〔Gregory Nagy, ''Greek Mythology and Poetics'' (Cornell University Press, 1990), pp. 219–220.〕
The horse had been established as a funerary animal among the Greeks by the Archaic period. Commemorative art of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans often depicts a chariot scene or the deceased riding a horse into the afterlife.〔Humphrey, ''Roman Circuses,'' p. 62.〕 The design of the turning posts ''(metae)'' on a Roman race course was derived from Etruscan funeral monuments, and the far turn of the Circus Maximus skirted an underground altar used for the Consualia festival at which "Equestrian Neptune" (the Roman equivalent of Poseidon Hippios) was honored.〔Humphrey, ''Roman Circuses'', pp. 15, 62.〕 The turn of a racetrack is the most likely spot for a crash, and so the natural dangers of a sharp curve combined with the sacral aura of a tomb or other religious site led to a belief in a supernatural presence.〔Humphrey, ''Roman Circuses'', p. 258; Paul Plass, ''The Game of Death in Ancient Rome: Arena Sport and Political Suicide'' (University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), p. 40.〕 Race horses were often adorned with good-luck charms or amulets to ward off malevolence.〔Eva D'Ambra, "Racing with Death: Circus Sarcophagi and the Commemoration of Children in Roman Italy" in ''Constructions of Childhood in Ancient Greece and Italy'' (American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2007), p. 351.〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
■ウィキペディアで「Taraxippus」の詳細全文を読む
スポンサード リンク
| 翻訳と辞書 : 翻訳のためのインターネットリソース |
Copyright(C) kotoba.ne.jp 1997-2016. All Rights Reserved.
|
|