Automedon with the Horses of Achilles

Automedon, Achilles' charioteer, wrestles with the hero's two immortal horses, Xanthus and Balius, on a stormy shore. In Homer, these horses wept when Patroclus died; here they rear and twist like the sea behind them, barely held by the straining man between them.

Regnault painted this in Rome as a student showpiece, and it is really a picture about energy — the horses' bodies, the whipping manes, the low thundery light. It made his reputation when it was shown, and its force feels sharper for what came after: Regnault was killed in battle three years later.

Achilles' chariot horses, Balios and Xanthos, are immortal — a wedding gift from the gods to his father Peleus. Patroclus drove them into battle. When he is killed, the horses refuse to move. They stand still on the battlefield, heads bowed, and weep.

Zeus sees them and, for a moment, regrets that deathless creatures were ever given to mortals — to share in human grief. Their driver Automedon can do nothing with them until the gods put strength back into their legs. Later, one of the horses is briefly given a voice: he tells Achilles plainly that his own death is close. Achilles answers that he knows.

Henri Regnault (1843–1871) was one of the most gifted French painters of his generation, a Prix de Rome winner with a flair for color and spectacle. He volunteered in the Franco-Prussian War and was killed at the battle of Buzenval at twenty-seven, becoming a national legend.