or confirmed the belief. In Bœotia there was a place called “The Horses of Pyræchmes”, and the local legend ran that Pyræchmes was a King of Eubœa who had fought against Bœotia long ago, and, being defeated, had been bound to horses and torn in two. A river ran by the spot, and in the rush of the river people fancied that they heard the snorting of the phantom steeds.[1] Again, the whole plain of Troy was haunted ground. The shepherds and herdsmen who pastured their flocks and herds on it used to see tall and stately phantoms, from the manner of whose appearance they presaged what was about to happen. If the phantoms were white with dust, it meant a parching summer. If beads of sweat stood on their brows, it foretold heavy rains and spates on the rivers. If they came dabbled in blood, it boded pestilence. But if there was neither dust nor sweat nor blood on them, the shepherds augured a fine season, and offered sacrifice from their flocks. The spectre of Achilles was always known from the rest by his height, his beauty, and his gleaming arms, and he rode on a whirlwind.[2] In the late Roman empire legend told how, after a great battle fought against Attila and the Huns under the walls of Rome, the ghosts of the slain appeared and fought for three days and nights. The phantom warriors could be seen charging each other, and the clang of their weapons was distinctly heard.[3] Stories of the same sort, which it would be needless to cite at length, are told about battle-fields to this day. Terrified peasants have seen the spectral armies locked in desperate conflict, have felt the ground shake beneath their tread, and have heard the music of the fifes and drums.[4]
- ↑ Plutarch, Parallela, 7.
- ↑ Philostratus, Heroica, iii, § 18, 26.
- ↑ Damascius, Vita Isidori, 63.
- ↑ K. Lynker, Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen, pp. 11-13; P. Sébillot, Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, i, 222; E. Veckenstedt, Die Mythen, Sagen, und Legenden der Zamaiten (Litauer), ii, p. 140; Indian Antiqitary, ix (1880), p. 80. Cf. F. Liebrecht, Gervasius von Tilbury, 195 seq.
