REIMAGINING MYTHOLOGY

TARAXIPPOS OLYMPIOS

In Greek mythology, the Taraxippos (Ancient Greek: Ταράξιππος; plural: taraxippoi, "horse disturber", latinized as Taraxippus; was a presence, variously identified as a ghost or dangerous site, blamed for frightening horses at hippodromes throughout Greece. Some taraxippoi were associated with the Greek hero cults or with Poseidon in his aspect as a god of horses who brought about the death of Hippolytus. Pausanias, the ancient source offering the greatest number of explanations, regards it as an epithet rather than a single entity.

The most notorious of the taraxippoi was the Taraxippos Olympios at Olympia. Pausanias describes the site:

“The race-course [of 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.”