HIPPO´DROMUS
HIPPO´DROMUS (
ἱππόδρομος) was the name by which the Greeks designated the place
appropriated to the horse-races, both of chariots and of single horses,
which formed a part of their games. The word was also applied to the races
themselves.
The mode of fighting from chariots, as described by Homer, involves the
necessity of much previous practice; and the funeral games in honour of
Patroclus present us with an example of the chariot-race, occupying the
first and most important place in those games (
Il.
23.262-
650). In this vivid
description the nature of the contest and the arrangements for it are very
clearly indicated. There is no artificially constructed hippodrome; but an
existing land-mark or monument (
σῆμα, 331)
is chosen as the goal (
πέρμα), round which
the chariots had to pass, leaving it on the left hand (336), and so
returning to the Greek ships on the seashore, from which they had started
(365). The course thus marked out was so long that the goal, which was the
stump of a tree, could only be clearly seen by its having two white stones
leaning against it (327-329), and that, as the chariots return, the
spectators are uncertain which is first (450 ff.: the passage furnishes a
precedent for betting at a horse-race, 485). The ground is a level plain
(330), but with its natural inequalities, which are sufficient to make the
light chariots leap from the ground (369, 370), and to threaten an overthrow
where the earth was broken by a winter torrent, or a collision in the narrow
hollow way thus formed (419-447). The chariots were five in number, each
with two horses and a single driver (288 ff.), who stood upright in his
chariot (370). The obscure passage 638-642 cannot be relied upon to prove
that there ever were two drivers: see Leaf's note.
In a race of this nature, success would obviously depend quite as much on the
courage and skill of the driver as on the speed of the horses; a fact which
Homer represents Nestor as impressing upon his son Antilochus in a speech
which fully explains the chief stratagems and dangers of the contest, and is
nearly as applicable to the chariot-races of later times as to the one
described by Homer (305-348). At starting, it was necessary so to direct the
horses as, on the one hand, to avoid the loss of time by driving wide of the
straightest course, and on the other not to incur the risk of a collision in
the crowd of chariots, nor to make so straight for the goal as to leave
insufficient room to turn it. Here was the critical point of the race, to
turn the goal as sharply as possible, with the nave of the near wheel almost
grazing it, and to do this safely: very often the driver was here thrown
out, and the chariot broken in pieces (334-343, 465-468). There was another
danger at this point, which deserves particular notice as connected with the
arrangements of the hippodrome of later times. As the horse is easily
scared, it can readily be understood that the noise and crush of many
chariots turning the goal together, with the additional confusion created by
the overthrow of some of them, would so frighten some of the horses as to
make them unmanageable; and this is expressly referred to by Homer (468):
αἱ δ᾽ἐξηρώησαν, ἐπεὶ μένος ἔλλαβε
θυμόν.
Among the other disasters to which the competitors were liable were--the loss
of the whip
[p. 1.963](384); the reins escaping from the
hands (465); the breaking of the pole (392); the light chariot being
overturned, or the driver thrown out of it, through the roughness of the
ground, or by neglecting to balance the body properly in turning the goal
(368, 369, 417-425, 335); and the being compelled to give way to a bolder
driver, for fear of a collision (426-437); but it was considered foul play
to take such an advantage (439-441, 566-611). These and similar disasters
were no doubt frequent, and, in accordance with the religious character of
the games, they were ascribed to the intervention of the deities, whom the
sufferer had neglected to propitiate (383-393, 546, 547). The prizes, as in
the other Homeric games, were of substantial value, and one for each
competitor (262-270). The charioteer accused of foul play was required to
lay his hand upon his horses, and to swear by Poseidon, the patron deity of
the race, that he was guiltless (581-585). This description is illustrated
by the following engraving from an antique Greek vase; in which we see the
goal as a mere stone
|
Chariot-race. (From a vase-painting.)
|
post, with a fillet wound round it: the form of the chariots is
well shown, and the attitude of the drivers; each has four horses, as in the
earliest Olympic chariot-race; and the vividness of the representation is
increased by the introduction of the incident of a horse having got loose
from the first chariot, the driver of which strives to retain his place with
the others. (Panofka,
Bilder Antiken Lebens, pl. iii. No.
10.) For other representations of the race and its disasters, see Circus, p. 433 ff.; SURRUS, p. 580.
In no other writer, not even in Pindar, have we a description,at once so
vivid and so minute, of the Greek chariot-race as this of Homer's; and it
may be safely assumed that, with a few points of difference, it will give us
an equally good idea of a chariot-race at Olympia or any other of the great
games of later times. The chief points of difference were the greater
compactness of the course, in order that a large body of spectators might
view the race with convenience, and the greater number of chariots. The
first of these conditions involved the necessity of making the race consist
of several double lengths of the course, instead of only one; the second
required some arrangement by which the chariots might start without
confusion and on equal terms. It is now to be seen how these conditions were
satisfied in the hippodrome at Olympia; of which the only description we
possess is in two passages of Pausanias (
5.15.4;
6.20.7 ff.). The
reconstruction of this hippodrome by Hirt (
Lehre d.
Gebäude, pp. 147-150), following Alexandre de la Borde, has
not been superseded by recent discoveries, and is retained by Baumeister (s.
v.
Hippodrom), and nearly every writer on the subject.
The following is the ground-plan which Hirt (pl. xx. fig. 8) has drawn out
from the description of Pausanias. A, B, the sides; C, the
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Ground-plan of Hippodrome at Olymp.a. (Hirt.)
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rounded end of the hippodrome, with raised seats for the
spectators (the dotted line D
d is the axis of the
figure);
a, place of honour for the magistrates
and musicians;
b, side door, perhaps for the
exit of disabled chariots and horses;
c, seats for
the Hellanodicae, the judges of the games;
d,
principal entrance, corresponding to the
porta
triumphalis in a Roman circus; D, the starting-place;
e, its apex;
f, g, its
curved sides;
h, i, &c., up to
l, stations of the chariots, their directions
converging towards the point E; F, G, the goals, or turning-posts; H, the
spina;
p, p, small intervals between the spina and
the goals;
q, the winning line;
m, dolphin used as a signal;
n, altar,
with eagle for signal;
o, o, o, portico of
Agnaptus.
The general form of the hippodrome was an oblong, with a semicircular end, C,
and with the right side, A, somewhat longer than the left, B,
[p. 1.964]for a reason to be stated presently. The right
side, A, was formed by an artificial mound; the left, B, by the natural
slope of a hill. The base of the fourth side, D, was formed by the portico
of Agnaptus, so called from its builder. At this end of the hippodrome was
the starting-place (
ἄφεσις), in the form
of the prow of a ship, with its apex,
e,
towards the area, and each of its sides more than 400 feet long. Along both
of these sides were stalls (
οἰκήματα) for
the chariots about to start, like the
carceres
in the Roman circus; and it was in the arrangement of these stalls that the
peculiarity of the Greek starting-place consisted. According to the view
which we follow, the stalls were so arranged as that the pole of each
chariot, while standing in its stall, was directed to a
normal point E, at which, as nearly as possible, each chariot
ought to fall into its proper course. As this point, E, was necessarily on
the right side of the area (in order to turn the goal on the left hand), and
as the corresponding stalls on each side were required to be equidistant
from the apex,
e (as will presently be seen),
and of course also from the point E, it follows that the base of the
aphesis must have been perpendicular to the line E
e, and therefore oblique to the axis D
d; and this is the reason why the side A was longer
than the side B. The curvature of the sides of the aphesis,
f, g, is a conjectural arrangement, assumed as that
which was probably adopted to give more space to each chariot ,at starting.
The front of each stall had a cord drawn across it, and the necessary
arrangements were made for letting these cords fall at the right moments. On
the signal being given for the race to begin, the cords in front of the two
extreme stalls,
h h, were let fall simultaneously,
and the two chariots started; then those of the next pair; and so on, each
pair of chariots being liberated at the precise moment when those which had
already started came abreast of their position; and when all the chariots
formed an even line abreast of the apex of the
aphesis,
e, it was a fair start. This arrangement of the
aphesis was the invention of the statuary Cleoetas, and was
improved by Aristeides (perhaps the famous painter; see Hirt,
l.c.). Cleoetas celebrated his invention in an
epigram, which he inscribed on the base of a statue made by him at Athens:
“
Ὀς τὴν ἱππάφεσιν ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ εὕρατο πρῶτος
τεῦξε μὲ Κλειοίτας, ϝἱὸς Ἀριστοκλέους.
”
Hirt's explanation of the
aphesis, with the rest of
his reconstruction of the hippodrome at Olympia, has been accepted by most
scholars; among others by Guhl and Koner in the earlier editions of their
Leben der Griechen und Römer. In the last
edition Koner has followed in some particulars the differing views of Count
Lehndorff in his
Hippodromos, and has given a
slightly altered ground-plan (Guhl and Koner,5 pp.
148-150, with fig. 164). The chief difference is that on this view the
chariots are conceived as starting on one side only (the right) of the
aphesis. On this Baumeister remarks (p. 694 a), that
“though containing much that is attractive and in part well
founded, it is still open to much doubt.”
Precisely the same arrangements were made for the start in the race of single
horses (
κέλητες); and in both cases, as in
the race described by Homer, the stalls were assigned to the competitors by
lot. How many chariots usually started, cannot be determined; but that the
number was large is proved by the well-known story, that Alcibiades alone
sent to one race seven chariots. Sophocles (
Elect. 701-708)
mentions ten chariots as running at once in the Pythian games; and the
number at Olympia was no doubt greater than at any of the other games. This
is probably the reason why the arrangements of a starting-place were so much
more complicated in the Greek hippodromus than they were in the Roman circus
[
CIRCUS]. About the centre
of the triangular area of the
aphesis there was an
altar,
n, of rough brick, which was plastered afresh
before each festival, surmounted by a bronze eagle with outstretched wings;
and above the apex of the aphesis was a bronze dolphin,
m. As the signal for the race to begin, the eagle was made to soar
aloft, so as to be seen by all the spectators, and the dolphin sank to the
ground.
The chariots, thus started, had to pass several times round two goals
(
νύσσαι), the distinction between which
is one of the difficult points in the description of Pausanias. On the whole
it seems most probable that the one which he describes as having a bronze
statue of Hippodameia, holding out the victor's fillet, as if about to crown
Pelops with it, was the one nearer to the aphesis, and abreast of the
winning line, F; and that the other, G, round which the chariots made their
first turn, was that which Pausanias calls “Taraxippus, the terror of
the horses.” This was a round altar, dedicated to Taraxippus, who
was supposed to strike a supernatural terror into the horses as they passed
the spot, and whom, therefore, the charioteers sought to propitiate, before
the race began, by
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Race of single horses. (From a vase.)
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offering sacrifices and making vows at this altar. Pausanias gives
various accounts as to who this Taraxippus was: some modern scholars take
the word for an appellation of Poseidon Hippius. He was similarly honoured
in the Isthmian hippodrome. At Nemea there was no such
[p. 1.965]hero, but above the turning point of the course there was a
bright red rock, which was supposed to frighten the horses. He adds the
remark that the Olympian Taraxippus had by far the most powerful effect upon
the horses; and considering that the number of chariots which joined in the
race there was greater than at any of the other games, that remark affords a
pretty clear proof that the explanation of the supposed supernatural terror
is that which has been given above in describing the Homeric race. There are
several vase-paintings on which chariots or single horses are exhibited
turning the goal, which is represented as a Doric or Ionic column. (See
Panofka,
Bilder Antiken Lebens, pl. iii.) One of these is
shown in the foregoing engraving, which exhibits a vivid picture of a race
of single horses: the last rider has been unlucky in turning the goal.
There is no authority in the account of Pausanias for the connecting wall, H,
between the goals, nor does he state that the winning line,
q, was marked out as a white line; but these details
are inserted from the analogy of the Roman circus. So also is the oblique
position of the line of the goals, as compared with the axis of the figure:
of course the greatest space was required at E, where the chariots were all
nearly abreast of each other.
Respecting the dimensions of the Olympic Hippodrome, we have no precise
information; but from the length of the measure called
HIPPICON and on other grounds,
it seems probable that the distance from the starting-place to the goal, or
perhaps rather from one goal to the other, was two stadia, so that one
double course was four stadia. How many such double courses made up the
whole race, we are not informed. The width must have been at least as great
as the length of each side of the
aphesis, namely,
more than 400 feet. There does not appear to have been much architectural
display in the structure, and not many statues. The internal area of the
aphesis, D, contained several altars.
The chief points of difference between the Greek hippodrome and the Roman
circus are the smaller width of the latter, as only four chariots ran at
once, and the different arrangement of the
carceres. The periods at which the Olympic horse-races were
instituted are mentioned under
OLYMPIA
A few other hippodromes in Greece, Syria, and Egypt are mentioned by
Pausanias and other writers; but they deserve no special mention. (Cf.
Krause,
Gymnastik und Agonistik, 1.151 ff.; Guhl and Koner,
ubi supra; Baumeister, s. v.)
Among the Romans the term was also applied to an enclosed space for riding
and driving in, attached to a garden or villa, and planted with trees (
Plin. Ep. 5.6, § § 19, 32;
Mart. 12.50,
5
with Paley's note; “clusus essedo cursus,” Id. 12.57, 23).
[
P.S] [
W.W]