Achilles with his Immortal Horses - Balius and Xanthus - Homer,Iliad - Meander - Classic Period, 600 BC - Ceramic plate - Handmade in Greece

Item Specifics

Condition: New, Handmade in Greece
Diameter: 29 cm - 11,4 inches
Weight: 800 g
Material: clay, paint, ceramic, terracotta

Balius and Xanthus were, according to Greek mythology, two immortal horses, the offspring of the harpy, Podarge and the West wind, Zephyrus. In other traditions, Poseidon is the father of Xanthus along with another horse named Cyllarus to an unnamed mother. It is possible that Xanthus's ability to speak prophetically may be related to Arion, another mythical horse reported to have saved Adrastus from the war of the Seven against Thebes with his prophetic abilities in Statius's Thebaid
Poseidon gave the two horses to King Peleus of Phthia, as a wedding gift when Peleus married the Ocean goddess, Thetis. Peleus later gave the horses to his son Achilles who took them to draw his chariot during the Trojan War.
Achilles' comrade-in-arms Patroclus used to feed and groom these horses. In the Iliad, it is told how, when Patroclus was killed in battle, Xanthus and Balius stood motionless on the field of battle and wept.
At Iliad 17.474-8, Automedon, Achilles' charioteer, states that only Patroclus was able to fully control these horses. When Xanthus was rebuked by the grieving Achilles for allowing Patroclus to be slain, Hera granted Xanthus human speech allowing the horse to say that a god had killed Patroclus and that a god would soon kill Achilles too. After this, the Erinyes struck the horse dumb.
Meander was the most important symbol in Ancient Greece, symbolizing infinity or the eternal flow of things. It is considered that there is a connection with the Cretan labyrinth – the meander is the figure of a labyrinth in linear form