在《伊利亞特》中,戰場上的馬敏感善變,需要御者的理性與機敏才能很好地駕馭,史詩對"車馬—御者"組合的描寫,形成了英雄的自我控制主題,這一主題啟發了柏拉圖的靈魂馬車說,促成了西方文化中馬與人類矛盾的雙重本能的象征關系。作為一部有著悠久的口傳傳統的作品,《伊利亞特》對馬和戰車競技的描寫反映了荷馬時代正在形成的競技文化,馬是財富的象征,車賽冠軍更是英雄追求的榮譽的王冠,史詩的描寫對古風時期以后希臘競技文化的發展起到了推動作用。此外,史詩中的馬神話蘊含了豐富的古希臘宗教形成的信息,呈現了以宙斯為代表的、外來的天空神和以波塞冬為代表的本土神的斗爭與融合的過程,表現了希臘新宗教的人本主義思想。

In Iliad, the horse on the battlefield seemed to be extremely sensitive and fickle, and the charioteer who wanted to control the chariot well should be rational and smart. The description of the "chariot-charioteer" in Iliad formed a theme about the hero’s self-control, which inspired Platon’s the Chariot of the soul, and contributed to the symbolic relation of the horse and the dual instincts of human nature in western culture. As a work having a long tradition of oral literature, the description of horse and chariot racing in Iliad reflected the Homeric athletic culture being formed, horse was a symbol of wealth, the champion of chariot racing was the crown of honor which heroes sought for, which promoted the development of the Olympic culture during the Archaic and Classical Period. In addition, the horse myth in Iliad contained abundant information about the ancient religionary formation in Greece, presented the process of the struggle and integration between Zeus, the foreign sky god, and Poseidon, the local god, and expressed the humanistic thoughts in the new religion of early Greece.