Bucephalus
From Plastic Tub
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Thessalonian, born: ?; died: June, 326 BCE. Through the dusty veil, red-eyes flare and he stampedes a-snorting. A garaged hippo, he receives a shiv in the six-pack, all systems go. Bucephalus1 was the famous warhorse who carried Alexander the Great about through the duration of his adventures in the Orient. A fierce beast said to have wounded many a would-be rider, he was finally won over by a then 11-year old and not-yet great Alexander.2 He is pertinent to our AA tale because William Flintrock has written extensively about his theory that it was the horse, and not Alexander, who spurred the adventures for which both are so legendary. Flintrock posits a near supernatural creature of high intelligence, indomitable will and steadfast ambition. Alexander is usually portrayed as a willing participant in the game, but paradoxically at times as a follower under some kind of mysterious magnetic pull, perhaps telepathic, which compelled him to ruin himself.3 Tim Wilson's groundbreaking poetic tract, dispersed by leaflet cannon over Manhattan in 1994, pays homage to Flintrock's work in its title: Vapid Bucephalus. |
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Notes
Note 1: From the Greek Βουκέφαλος, from βοὸς and κεφαλή, meaning "ox-head."
Note 2: According to legend, the horse and the boy were the same age. The horse is said to have eaten men, while the boy is said to have eaten horse. The two formed an almost instant bond, which the boy credited to his understanding that the horse feared his own shadow, and, therefore, must face the sun. When the boy grew to be a man, he claimed that the horse was once the loyal steed of Neptune -- a tale which seems to hearken back to the tales of Zeus, disguised as a white bull, swimming with a young lass to Greece so as to ravage her in private. Her off-spring founded the Greek empire, and Greek women sport mustaches. Likewise, Bucephalus and Alexander founded an empire.
Note 3: See also, Moby Dick.
