Anthropophagic horses have been described in classical mythology. From a
current perspective, two such instances are worth mentioning and
describing: Glaucus of Potniae, King of Efyra, and Diomedes, King of
Thrace, who were both devoured by their horses. In both cases, the
horses’ extreme aggression and their subsequent anthropophagic behaviour
were attributed to their madness (hippomania) induced by the custom of
feeding them with flesh. The current problem of ‘mad cow’ disease
(bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is apparently related to a similar
feeding pattern. Aggressive behaviour in horses can be triggered by both
biological and psychological factors. In the cases cited here, it is
rather unlikely that the former were the cause. On the other hand, the
multiple abuses imposed on the horses, coupled with peoples’ fantasies
and largely unconscious fears (hippophobia), may possibly explain these
mythological descriptions of the ‘horse-monsters’
