The race was begun by a procession into the hippodrome, while a herald announced the names of the drivers and owners. The Charioteer of Delphi, one of the most famous statues surviving from Ancient Greece The racecourse was surrounded by natural (to the north) and artificial (to the south and east) banks for the spectators a special place was reserved for the judges on the west side of the north bank. All the horses or chariots ran on one track toward the east, then turned around the embolon and headed back west. The elongated racecourse was divided longitudinally into two tracks by a stone or wooden barrier, the embolon. Pausanias, who visited Olympia in the second century AD, describes the monument as a large, elongated, flat space, approximately 780 meters long and 320 meters wide (four stadia long and one stadefour plethra wide). In 2008, however, Annie Muller and staff of the German Archeological Institute used radar to locate a large, rectangular structure similar to Pausanias's description. Until recently, its exact location was unknown, since it is buried by several meters of sedimentary material from the Alfeios River. The hippodrome was situated at the south-east corner of the sanctuary of Olympia, on the large flat area south of the stadium and ran almost parallel to the latter. The single horse race was known as the "keles" ( keles, Greek: κέλης). The races themselves were held in the hippodrome, which held both chariot races and riding races. The chariot race was not so prestigious as the foot race of 195 meters ( stadion, Greek: στάδιον), but it was more important than other equestrian events such as racing on horseback, which were dropped from the Olympic Games very early on. The chariot racing event was first added to the Olympics in 680 BC with the games expanding from a one-day to a two-day event to accommodate the new event (but was not, in reality, the founding event). In the ancient Olympic Games, as well as the other Panhellenic Games, there were both four-horse ( tethrippon, Greek: τέθριππον) and two-horse ( synoris, Greek: συνωρὶς) chariot races, which were essentially the same aside from the number of horses. Olympic GamesĬhariot racing on a black-figure hydria from Attica, ca.
A chariot race also was said to be the event that founded the Olympic Games according to one legend, mentioned by Pindar, King Oenomaus challenged suitors for his daughter Hippodamia to a race, but was defeated by Pelops, who founded the Games in honour of his victory. The race, which was one lap around the stump of a tree, was won by Diomedes, who received a slave woman and a cauldron as his prize. The participants in this race were Diomedes, Eumelus, Antilochus, Menelaus, and Meriones. It is known from artistic evidence on pottery that the sport existed in the Mycenaean world, but the first literary reference to a chariot race is one described by Homer, at the funeral games of Patroclus. It is unknown exactly when chariot racing began, but it may have been as old as chariots themselves. Their rivalry culminated in the Nika riots, which marked the gradual decline of the sport. The sport faded in importance after the fall of Rome in the West, surviving only for a time in the Byzantine Empire, where the traditional Roman factions continued to play a prominent role for some time, gaining influence in political matters. This helps explain why Roman and later Byzantine emperors took control of the teams and appointed many officials to oversee them. The conflicts sometimes became politicized, as the sport began to transcend the races themselves and started to affect society overall. These teams became the focus of intense support among spectators, and occasional disturbances broke out between followers of different factions. In the Roman form of chariot racing, teams represented different groups of financial backers and sometimes competed for the services of particularly skilled drivers. In the ancient Olympic Games, as well as the other Panhellenic Games, the sport was one of the main events. Chariot races could be watched by women, while women were barred from watching many other sports.
Ancient chariot races driver#
Chariot racing often was dangerous to both driver and horse as they frequently suffered serious injury and even death, but generated strong spectator enthusiasm. A modern recreation of chariot racing in Puy du FouĬhariot racing ( Greek: ἁρματοδρομία harmatodromia, Latin: ludi circenses) was one of the most popular ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sports.