Who was Mares of Diomedes?

Q: Who was Mares of Diomedes?

The Mares of Diomedes were man-eating horses in Greek mythology. They belonged to Diomedes, king of the Bistones, a warlike people of Thrace, who fed them on the flesh of strangers.

Mares of Diomedes

The Mares of Diomedes were man-eating horses in Greek mythology. They belonged to Diomedes, king of the Bistones, a warlike people of Thrace, who fed them on the flesh of strangers. According to Apollodorus, Diomedes was the son of Ares and Cyrene; in Euripides he too is a son of Ares (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8; Euripides, Alcestis 498). Hyginus counts four horses and names them Podargos (swift-footed), Lampon (shining), Xanthos (yellow) and Deinos (terrible) (Hyginus, Fabulae 30).

The Eighth Labour

Stealing the Mares of Diomedes was the eighth task that King Eurystheus gave to the hero Heracles in the Labours of Heracles. He was told to bring the mares of Diomedes the Thracian to Mycenae (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8). In Euripides’ Alcestis, Heracles stops at the house of Admetus on his way to the land of the Bistones and says that he is going to Thrace for the four-horse chariot of Diomedes; he is warned that the horses tear men apart with their jaws and that their mangers are drenched in blood (Alcestis 476–498).

Diodorus says that the feeding-troughs of the horses were made of bronze because the animals were so savage, and that they were fastened with iron chains because of their strength. They lived not on the produce of the earth but on the limbs of strangers (Diodorus Siculus 4.15.3). Euripides describes them in the same way as horses that devoured bloody food in their mangers and had to be tamed with bridles (Euripides, Heracles 380–388).

How Heracles took the mares

The ancient sources tell the story in several ways. In Apollodorus, Heracles sailed with a band of volunteers, overpowered the grooms in charge of the mangers and drove the mares down to the sea. When the Bistones came out in arms, he left the mares in the care of Abderus, a son of Hermes from Opus in Locris and a favourite of Heracles; the mares killed him by dragging him along behind them. Heracles fought the Bistones, killed Diomedes and made the rest flee, and he founded a city, Abdera, beside the grave of Abderus (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8).

In Diodorus, Heracles controlled the horses by throwing their master Diomedes to them. When the animals had satisfied their hunger with the flesh of the man who had taught them to break the law in this way, he had them under his control (Diodorus Siculus 4.15.3). Euripides also speaks of Heracles crossing the silver streams of the river Hebrus as he carried out the labour for the Mycenaean lord (Heracles 385–388).

Strabo preserves a local story from the Bistones’ own coast. The plain by Lake Bistonis, he says, lay lower than the sea, and Heracles, who was outmatched in cavalry when he came for the mares of Diomedes, dug a canal through the shore and let the sea in upon the plain, and so mastered his adversaries (Strabo 7, fragment 43). The same author says that the city of Abdera was named after Abderus, whom the horses of Diomedes devoured (Strabo 7, fragment 46).

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What Became of the Mares

In Apollodorus, Heracles gave the mares to Eurystheus, but Eurystheus let them go. They came to Mount Olympus, where they were destroyed by wild beasts (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8). In Diodorus, Eurystheus consecrated the horses to Hera, and their breed continued down to the time of Alexander of Macedon (Diodorus Siculus 4.15.4). Hyginus, in his short list of the labours, says instead that Heracles killed Diomedes and his four horses, together with the servant Abderus (Hyginus, Fabulae 30).

Mares of Diomedes Sources

Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8; Diodorus Siculus 4.15.3–4; Euripides, Alcestis 476–506, and Heracles 380–388; Strabo, Geography 7 (fragments 43 and 46); Hyginus, Fabulae 30.