horses, which are yoked to the chariot, and seems about to complete the arrangement of the harness, while an attendant in a short garment is helping him; another attendant leads a third horse, which is probably also to be yoked to the chariot; while the owner holds in his hand the reins and the goad with which to urge on the horses. The usual plan was to fasten the middle horse to a yoke at the end of the pole which is raised in front, while the outer horses were connected with ropes at either side, fastened to a ring in front of the chariot. The reins were all drawn through a ring or loop at the top of the pole, and the pin on to which this ring was fastened was connected with a vertical rod in front of the chariot by a line drawn very tight, the object of which is not clear; perhaps it was to establish equilibrium between the car, which was drawn backwards by the weight of the driver, and the forward pressure given to the pole by the pull of the horses. This picture also shows other details of harnessing, the bridle, etc.
The races took place in the Hippodrome; but the one at Olympia is completely destroyed, and all the knowledge we possess of its situation is due to Pausanias, who gives us no information concerning the length of the course to be run twice by full-grown horses. However, he supplies a detailed description of the starting places, which were very complicated, since no competitor must have an advantage over another by starting earlier or having a shorter piece of ground to cover. For this purpose the two long sides of the Hippodrome were of unequal length, and the one at the end of which were the goal and the seats of the judges was rather shorter than the other; the stands for the chariots were not in a straight line, but in the form of the segment of a circle. The ropes, which prevented the chariots from starting before the appointed time, did not all drop at the same moment, but one after another in such a way that the chariots started first from the more distant stands, and reached a given point at the same time as those from the nearer stands, which started a few seconds later, so that the racing began at this place under equal conditions. The signal was given by the sound of trumpets, and also by some ingenious mechanism which caused a bronze dolphin on an elevated place at the beginning of the course to fall, while an eagle, which till then had rested on an altar, rose into the air with extended wings. At this sign the barriers fell, and the chariots started in the appointed order over the longer side of the course, and then, turning back, returned by the shorter side. This was the exciting contest which has been so magnificently described by Homer in his account of the funeral games in honour of Patroclus, and by Sophocles in the "Electra." The victor who first reached the goal, near which sat the umpires, received the much-coveted reward of a wreath; but even the next seems to have had some distinction or, at any rate, an honourable mention.