Bucephalus Biography

Bucephalus was the favorite horse of world-beating Macedonian Alexander the Great. According to the historian Plutarch, as a boy Alexander tamed the wild Bucephalus by turning his head towards the sun, thereby preventing the horse from being frightened of his own shadow. (Plutarch says the incident so impressed Alexander’s father, King Philip, that he told the boy “Look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee.”) Alexander named the horse Bucephalus (“ox-head”) because the horse’s head seemed as broad as a bull’s. Bucephalus carried Alexander on many military campaigns and finally died in battle; Alexander reportedly wept at the horse’s burial and founded the city of Bucephala to commemorate his horse’s deeds.