Hippopodes

HIPPOPODES
THE HIPPOPODES were a tribe of horse-footed men who lived in the mythical islands of the far north.
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 4. 94 (trans.

Rackham) (Roman encyclopedia C1st A.D.) :
"Crossing the Ripaean Mountains [probably the Carpathians of central Europe] must coast to the left along the shore of the
northern ocean until we reach Gadis. In this direction a number of islands are reported to exist [perhaps in the Baltic Sea] . . . [and] the Hippopodes on which people are born with horses’ feet, which gives them their Greek name."






This scene probably represents the witches of some barbarous nation, as introduced upon the stage. There was a tribe of Scythians named Hippopodes, to which we may conjecture these personages belong.

One holds a small mummy in her hand, which might seem to have a reference to the Egyptian colony of Colchos ; but Colchos was a part of Sarmatia, which might easily in a vague account be confounded with Scythia by Dionysius Periegetes. The borders are from the house of the Dioscuri.