The “apobates”[407] was a ceremonial race peculiar to Athens and Boeotia, and recalled, according to tradition, the invention of the chariot by Erechtheus. At the founding of the Panathenaea he had himself appeared as charioteer, having with him in his chariot a companion armed with small round shield and triple-crested helmet, as represented in the frieze of the Parthenon. The event undoubtedly preserves the tradition of Homeric warfare when the chieftain was driven to the scene of action and dismounted to fight, remounting again for pursuit or flight. There is some doubt as to the manner of the race. According to one statement[408] the apobates mounted the chariot in full course, by placing a foot on the wheel, and again dismounted, the performance being repeated apparently at fixed intervals.
[Illustration: Fig. 34. Votive Relief. Acropolis Museum. Hellenistic period.]
This account finds some confirmation in one of the groups of the Parthenon frieze, which represents the apobates in the very act of mounting a chariot.[409] Dionysius of Halicarnassus[410] makes no mention of the mounting, but states that at the close of the race, apparently the beginning of the last lap, the apobates dismounted, and from this point chariots and apobatai raced together to the finish. The two accounts are not really irreconcilable if we suppose that Dionysius is thinking merely of the finish, the most interesting part of the race. In most of the groups on the north side of the Parthenon the apobates is represented in the act of dismounting, as he is in Fig. 34. In those on the south side he is standing in the chariot or by its side.[411] The latter scene represents the moment before the race, the other scenes different moments in the race, and there is no need to assume with Michaelis two different motives for the south and north frieze. In inscriptions the twofold character of the race is brought out by the mention of charioteer and apobates as two separate victors. The charioteer is described as ἡνίοχος ἐγβιβάζων, the charioteer “who lets his companion dismount,” a title which suggests the assistance which the charioteer could render to his fellow by a momentary checking of the pace. The course of the race seems to have been from the Cerameicus to the Eleusinium, on the slopes of the Acropolis.