Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Automedon.
The gallery
Automedon with the Horses of Achilles
Henri Regnault, 1868
Regnault's Boston masterpiece: Automedon masters Xanthus and Balius — Achilles' immortal horses — before the chariot that will carry Patroclus to death and Achilles to Hector. The charioteer Homer honoured most after Patroclus made flesh in Second Empire paint.
Automedon with the Horses of Achilles (alternate view)
Henri Regnault, 1868
Another photograph of the same MFA canvas: muscle, rein and horseflesh — Automedon as the human hinge between Achilles' wrath and the battlefield.
Sketch for Automedon with the Horses of Achilles
Henri Regnault, c. 1867–1868
Regnault's oil sketch for the finished Automedon — the charioteer already wrestling the immortal team into a single composition.
Esquisse pour Automédon avec les chevaux d'Achille
Henri Regnault, c. 1867–1868
French study for the same subject: Automédon named in the title — the Iliadic driver as a nineteenth-century academic trial before the Boston canvas.
In play
Iliad
Homer
Homer makes Automedon son of Diores the charioteer of Achilles' horses — the man who yokes Xanthus and Balius and fights on after Patroclus falls.
Automedon
Achilles' charioteer — not the butterfly or fire-engine namesakes that share his name in modern catalogs.