Chapter XLV: Section II: The Horse

The horse is as great a favourite as the lion, and is prominent in many a myth from the Caspian to the Frozen Ocean. His name in Sanscrit _açva_, in Zendish _esp_ or _asp_, comes forth in the Greek ἵππος or ἵkkoς, showing its identity with the Latin _equus_, the Gaelic _each_, and it may be with the Teutonic _hengst_.

Among these various races it is the Persian, the Greek, and the Gael who have chiefly used the term for this noble animal in their nomenclature.

The Persian feminine Damaspia is said exactly to answer to the Greek Hippodameia, the female of Hippodamus (horse-tamer), and Hippos forms part of far too many Greek names to be here enumerated, except where they have become popular elsewhere.

One would have imagined that Hippos and λύω (to destroy) must have suggested the name of Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, who was destroyed by his own horse, terrified by a sea monster; but, on the other hand, he appears to have been named after his mother Hippolita, the beautiful queen of the Amazons, whom Shakespeare has shown us hunting in his wondrous Attic forest. However this may be, Hippolytus has many namesakes; among them an early Christian writer, and also a priest at Rome, who in the year 252 was condemned by the persecuting judge to die the death his name suggested. The Christians buried him in a catacomb, which bears his name. Sant’Ippolito became a parish church at Rome, and of course gave a title to one of the cardinals, and Ippolito and Ippolita have always been fashionable Italian names. He was also the patron of horsemen and horses, and the latter were solemnly blessed in his name. Xanthippe’s name is feminine of Xanthippus (a yellow horse!) What a pity it was not a grey one!

The Persian Aspamitras (horse-lover) exactly corresponds to the Greek Φίλιππoς (loving horses). Thus were named many obscure kings of Macedon, before that sagacious prince who prepared the future glories of his son by disciplining his army, and crushing Greece in spite of those indignant orations of Demosthenes, which have made Philippics the generic term for vehement individual censure.

Macedon, by colonizing the East, spread Philippos over it, and thus was named the apostle of Bethsaida, and likewise one of the deacons, chosen for his ‘Grecian’ connections.

The apostle was martyred at Hierapolis; nevertheless an arm of his, according to the Bollandists, was brought to Florence from Constantinople, in 1205, and made Filippo, Filippa, Lippo, Pippo, Pippa, great favourites in Northern Italy.

Greece and her dependent churches always used the name of Philip, or Feeleep, as they call it in Russia; and it was the eldest son of the Muscovite Anne, Queen of Henri I., who was the first Philippe to wear the crown of France. He transmitted his name to five more kings, and to princes innumerable, of whom one became Duke of Burgundy. His descendant, the half Flemish, half Austrian Philippe the handsome, married Juana la Loca of Castille and Aragon, and their grandson was known as Felipe II. in Spain. During his brief and ill-omened stay in England, he was godfather to Philip Sidney, whose name commemorated the gratitude of his mother to the King Consort for having interceded for the life of his father the Duke of Northumberland.

Philip, in both genders, was, however, already common in England. Queen Philippe, as she called herself, our admirable Hainaulter, was the god-daughter of Philippe de Valois, her husband’s rival; and many a young noble and maiden bore her honoured name, which one female descendant carried to Portugal, and another to Sweden, where both alike worthily sustained the honour of Plantagenet.

The name of Philippe is particularly common in the Isle of Jersey, so that it has become a joke with sailors to torment the inhabitants by calling them Philip as they would term an Irishman Paddy.

Filippo is additionally popular in Italy at present from the favourite modern Saint Filippo Neri.[31]

┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ English. │ Scotch. │ French. │ German. │ Italian. │
│Philip │Phillipp │Philippe │Philipp │Filippo │
│Phil │ │Philipot │Lipp │Pippo │
│Phip │ │ │Lipperl │Lippo │
│Philipp │ │ │ │ │
│Lipp │ │ │ │ │
│Lipperl │ │ │ │ │
├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│Portuguese. │ Spanish. │ Russian. │ Lett. │ Hungarian │
│Felippe │Felipe │Feeleep │Wilips │Fülip │
│Felipinho │ │ │Lipsts │ │
│Felipe │ │ │ │ │
├────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┤
│ FEMININE │
├────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┤
│ English. │ French. │Portuguese. │ Dutch. │ Italian │
│Philippa │Philippine │Felipa │Pine │Filippa │
│ │Flipote │ │ │Pippa │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘

Footnote 31:

Rawlinson’s _Herodotus_; Keightley’s _Mythology_; Butler; Michaelis.