Cyber Day; Post Five

Today we were told to research the relationship between Alexander the Great (A new figure in our studies) and his horse (Bucephalus). According to several sources, as far as I can tell, Alexander the Great, even from a young age, was a man of great skill. This great skill enabled him to do incredible things such as tame this horse which was thought to be untameable. While I am not a big horse person, It is my understanding that plenty of my Western Civilization classmates are amazed by horses, including our very own teacher, Mr. Schick. But I'm not, that recently changed when we began studying older cultures and how they were forced to utilize there materials and resources to live a good life, that includes the horses which were used in civilizations as transportation. Back to Bucephalus and Alexander the Great, the way in which Alexander the Great stopped this horse from being dragged away leads me to believe that the youngling saw great potential in this horse. And boy was there potential, so much that shortly after his death, Alexander the Great showed remembrance for his horse which had helped him battle so many times by naming a civilization after him. A once thought untameable (and over-priced might I add) horse turns out to be one of the most famous in our history books. The source of the horse's aggravation and unease likely stemmed from its very own shadow according to records, and shortly after Alexander the Great positioned the horse away from its own shadow, the crowd was in awe as the horse was "tamed". This crowd that was laughing uncontrollably from the idea that the horse was to be tamed by the young boy, though this quickly changed to applause as they watched him ride off with the now named horse, Bucephalus.  From scared of his own shadow to conquering a huge part of the world, this truly exhibits the power in which Alexander the Great possessed. Now, this is when I became very confused, why would this expensive horse be presented to Alexander the Great's father, King Phillip II? The further I thought, the more lost I found myself, the only thing that makes sense about the presentation is the fact that King Phillip II turned the Horse away almost immediately, much to the disappointment of Alexander the Great. As I continue to read, I learn more and more about this bond between man and horse, I'd like to create an analogy between man and dogs now and men and horses then. It seems quite fitting as they seemed to care for each other through thick and thin during the extreme conquering which took place during his life. Now, some closing remarks, I had briefly discussed Alexander the Great with Mr. Schick after class one day, I recall him saying something along the lines of Alexander the Great was able to conquer so many lands but his untimely death didn't allow for any of his rule over his land. This leads me to believe that all of his lands were quickly taken over by Aristocrats which had very little opposition wherever they were. But for now, that's all pure speculation based on what we currently know about his relationship with his horse.