Random Wikipedia Page of the Day: Taraxippus
The Taraxippus (plural: taraxippoi, "horse disturber", Latin equorum conturbator) was a presence, either a ghost or a site, that frightened the horses during races at the Panhellenic Games.
At Olympia, the Taraxippos Olympios was identified variously. Some said it was the ghost of Oenomaus, harming chariot racers as he had harmed suitors of Hippodamia. Others say it was a tomb of Myrtilus, who caused the death of Oenomaus. Others said was the tomb of an Earth-born giant Ischenus. Pausanias lists several other persons whose ghosts might be responsible.
The race-course [of Olympia] has one side longer than the other, and on the longer side, which is a bank, there stands, at the passage through the bank, Taraxippos, the terror of the horses. It is in the shape of a round altar and there the horses are seized by a strong and sudden fear for no apparent reason, and from the fear comes a disturbance. The chariots generally crash and the charioteers are injured. Therefore the drivers offer sacrifices and pray to Taraxippos to be propitious to them.
At the Isthmian Games, the Taraxippos Isthmios was the ghost of Glaucus of Pontiae, who was torn apart by his own horses.
The Taraxippos Nemeios caused horses to panic during the Nemean Games:
At Nemea of the Argives there was no hero who harmed the horses, but above the turning-point of the chariots rose a rock, red in color, and the flash from it terrified the horses, just as though it had been fire. But the Taraxippos at Olympia is much worse for terrifying the horses.
