In the film, during a fierce battle, Ben-Hur saves the life of a Roman officer, played by Jack Hawkins who adopts him as a son and he returns to his life of nobility and continues his search for his mother and sister. In the time after his re-birth, Ben-Hur meets an Arab sheik (Hugh Griffith) with a magnificent stable of four Arabian white horse that will compete in the annual chariot race which Messala has won consecutively for the past four years.
All of the names are names of stars. According to Kenneth C. Fleming in "God's Voice in the Stars" every ancient culture had the same names for the stars (given by God) or at least the same meaning, so it may not have been unusual at all for them to have those names in the Roman society.
'The polygamous sheik is dismayed that Ben-Hur hopes to have only one wife some day: "One wife? One god, that I can understand - but one wife! That is not civilized. It is not generous." With a clap of his hands, the team of four Arabian horses, called "beauties," are invited into the tent like his "children," members of the family. [In Wallace's novel, the names of the white horses are specified (they are named after stars): Altair, Aldebaran (the youngest), Antares, and Rigel.]'
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