Figurative uses of animal names in Latin and their ... - mura di tutti

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It is quite possible that it is the hoofs of the ass and mule,
as well as those of the horse, whose imprint we see in the
Latin recalcitro, and the English descendant, recalcitrant.
EQUULEUS (ECULEUS), A Little Horse; transf..
An Instrument of Torture.
While the equuleus is not properly included under the
Machinae Bellicae, it was sometimes used in camp life as;
Curtius shows : Tot conscii, nee in eculeum quidem inpositi,
verum fatebuntur?^^^
Prudentius refers to the equuleus as a noxialis stipes, evi-
dently a piece of timber of stout body, which assisted per-
haps by converging supports, somewhat similar to stocky
legs, roughly resembled a horse. ^**
Isidore, however, assigns another reason for the transfer,
attributing it to the method of inflicting torture : Equuleus
autem dictus quod extendat.-'^*
The transfer in meaning is made easy by the fact that the
horse is an animal traditionally associated with torture.
Among the early Achaeans, says Murray, " if a woman
attempted to bear a child to any man but her special master,
she was apt to be burned alive, or torn asunder by horses."^*^
In speaking of the mutilation of the corpse of Hector,
" A far worse story was really handed
the same author says :
down by the tradition. There are fragments of the rude
unexpurgated saga still extant, according to which Hector
was still alive when his enemy tied him to the chariot rail
and proceeded to drag him to death. Sophocles, always
archaic in such matters, explicitly follows this legend
{Ajax, 1031). So does Euripides {Androm. 399). Evea
so late a writer as Vergil seems to adopt it."^*®
The Vergil passage runs as follows:
"^ Curt, vi, 10, 10. Cf. also Amm. xiv, 5, 9.
"°Cf. Vaulting-horse, wood-horse.
"* Isid. Orig. v, 27, 21.
"" Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 75.
' Murray, id. p. 118.