1The hippic programme of Greek agones, combining horse-racing and chariot-racing, was a major spectator sport for more than one millennium¹ (fig. 1). Without doubt, there was a special thrill in a competition among highly specialized units –horse and rider on one side, horses, chariots and driver on the other side. Moreover, there was a permanent struggle among the leading Greek families to be the best horse breeder. This explains the premise that the prize was not given to the best rider or driver, but to the owner of the successful horse or team of horses. In antiquity, the predilection for chariot- racing was carried out in the Roman circus where four factiones (racing organizations) were responsible for the races, especially with respect to the quadrigae.² These events were not only a privilege of the spectators of Rome, who were able to visit the Circus Maximus (fig. 2), but also of those of the 85 circuses in the Roman Empire (if I counted correctly); some are well preserved, others have fallen into ruins today.³ It should also not be forgotten that the ancient tradition of chariot-racing survived in the circus (mostly termed “hippodrome”) of Byzantium until the peak of the Middle Ages⁴ (figs. 3-4).

Fig. 1 — Funeral games of Patroclus: chariot race. Black figured dinos, painted by Sophilos, 580-570 BC. Athens, National Museum 15 499.

Fig. 2 — Chariot-race in the Circus Maximus, Rome. Relief, 3th century AD. Museum Foligno, Toscana.

Fig. 3 — Emperor Theodosius (379-394 AD), in the kathisma of the circus (“hippodromeˮ) of Constantinople. Base of the obelisk of Thutmosis III (1479-1425 BC). Circus of Constantinople.

Fig. 4 — “Hippomaniaˮ in the circus (“hippodromeˮ) of Constantinople. Base of the statue of the charioteer Porphyrius, 6^th century AD. Istanbul, Archaeological Museum.

2Our subject requires more research into the sources, which supply information on horse races, chariot races or even on types of hippodromes in pre-Greek antiquity. That means looking in detail into the cultures of the Ancient Orient and Ancient Egypt. In both, horse and chariot were well known from an early date. It is our aim to find out if the horse and the specialised cart were used in a sporting connection before the Greeks. To begin, we take a look at the horse and chariot in early history.

Horse and chariot in early history

3It is not easy to know which of the facts about the origins of horse training and the invention of the chariot are accurate. However, this complicated question is not the focus of this paper.⁵ It seems that the definitive design of the spoked chariot drawn by a pair of trained horses (after some experiments with different shapes of the cart) was in use at the beginning of the second millennium BC. Such a vehicle, correctly harnessed to the horses, was an effective mobile platform for an archer “when he knew his business” and when his driver was able to guide the team of horses even in a chaotic situation such as battle. Fortunately, today the aim is not to answer the difficult question as to where the spoked chariot was invented. However, it is important to mention two potential candidates: the Ancient Orient⁶ and the Eurasian steps in the north of the Caspian Sea,⁷ the second theory having more and more followers in last few years.

The Ancient Orient

4In the last few decades the Ancient Orient has formed part of the wider research in the discipline of sport history.⁸ Despite these new efforts there have been no clear discoveries concerning horse racing or chariot racing. However, in this context, there are exceptions: the Hittites who ruled Anatolia between 1800 and 1200 BC and temporarily challenged the great power of Egypt. In addition, there are also Greek authors from the classical period who have described the excellence of Persian race horses.

The Hittites

5Three decades ago, when J. Puhvel mentioned the prefiguration of most of the eight disciplines of the funeral games for Patroclus in the Iliad by the Hittites, he noticed a gap in the documentation: “I cannot document at the moment […] athletic horse racing and spear throw…”⁹ Since J. Puhvel, this lack of evidence concerning the sporting activity of horses has been resolved. S. Hutter-Braunsar in her contribution Sport bei den Hethitern, published in the Festschrift for Ingomar Weiler, was able to cite texts describing the appearance of horses in a sporting context.¹⁰ For the springtime festival AN.TAH.ŠUM
race horses (“Rennpferde”) are mentioned as written in CTH 604 = KBo 10,20:

[11^th day] The next day the chief of the young noblemen brings the year into the hesta-house and the king is following him. He puts the race horses at the way. (19^th day) The next day is the day of meat offerings. The king enters the box grove and puts the race horses on their way. After that, the chief of the body-guards or of the young noblemen is setting up the cups before the weather god pihasassi and the sun goddess of Arinna.

6The prize for the horse-race, or chariot-race, is also mentioned: A sickle (of copper) for the victor of the horse-race¹¹. It is not clear, however, how to interpret the term horse race (or chariot race) (pittiyawas ANŠE.KUR.RA = race each other of the horses) as it could mean a race at full speed or a chariot race. The term “pittye-” = race each other is not used in the text of Kikkuli, the famous Hittite training programme for chariot horses. In this text only the following words for paces are mentioned: “zallas uwe-” = trot, “penna-” = let trot, “parh-” = let gallop and “lahlahheskinu-” = let trot excitedly.¹² The training programme handed down together with the name of Kikkuli is a document written in the 15^th century BC Hittite cuneiform script (recorded at the instigation of the Hittite court). Currently, we are in possession of a copy of the text dating from the 13^th century BC written on four clay tablets (fig. 5). The text gives details surrounding the extent, intensity and quality of the training measures that were in place for chariot horses. Luckily, the text was preserved until its 184^th day. We don’t know how many days are missing from the original training period. There is also uncertainty about the real object of the training itself. This may be best exemplified by the first sentence, being more cryptic than revealing: Kikkuli, the horse trainer of the country Mitanni, [is speaking] as follows.¹³ The structure of the text is comprised of the following elements:¹⁴ days of training and season, day time, training units, feeding and watering, care and regeneration. In more detail, this text includes indications for the individual feed –mixtures of hay and food for energy (barley, wheat, a kind of grist)– and the distances to be completed at different paces (trot, gallop, starting gallop, change of speed, short races). Different methods of washing (including dunking) and anointing are also presented. The first to comment on the text, J.A. Potratz, was of the opinion that it served as a document for training race horses.¹⁵ Even if this opinion is considered to be outdated today, we should not exclude the fact that chariot-racing was actually a side-effect of the training and that the main object of the exercise was clearly the preparation of war horses during the training season –autumn and winter– in preparation for the springtime, the normal start of the war season. The engagements of the horses during different times of day and night can also be explained as exercises for the imponderabilities of martial necessities.

Fig. 5 — Clay tablet IV of the Hittite Kikkuli-text, 13^th century BC. Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum.

The Persians

7Herodotus, a witness of the exceptional quality of oriental horses, the author of the Histories, reports an episode which happened when the Persian king Xerxes led his army into Greece in 480 BC:¹⁶

In Thessaly he organized a horse-race to compare his horses with those of the Thessalians. He had learned that the Thessalian cavalry was the best of Greece. During this competition the Greek horses came in last, by far.

8Xenophon reported of the younger Kyros that he organized a horse-race among the tribes unified under Persian rule, with Kyros being the victor of the Persians.¹⁷ Among the Sakes, a horseman who won a race exceeded his rivals by nearly half a racecourse.¹⁸ W. Knauth believes that there were hippodromes to train horses in the time of the Achaemenids.¹⁹ In Yašt 5 the last eastern Iranian King Hosravah made a sacrifice to the goddess Anahita, “that I may drive the foremost team of horses over the long race-course measuring nine laps and containing wooden beams when the young nobleman Nrmanah is my rival on his chariot drawn by horses.”²⁰

9There are also indications that the Indo-Aryans, during the second century BC, who came from the Eurasian steppes to India, used to organize chariot races, as we are informed by some texts of the Rig Veda.²¹

10It is worth mentioning that in an Urartian text, a remarkable athletic performance by King Minua (810-785/80 BC) has survived: on his horse Arsibini, he jumped a distance of 22 ells (= 11.2m).²²

Ancient Egypt

11It is highly significant that the Hittites under their king Muwatalli II and the Egyptians in the fifth regnal year of Ramses II (1275 BC) fought a battle at Qadesh on the river Orontes in which both sides used great contingents of chariots²³ (fig. 6). The Egyptian reports mentioned 2,500 Hittite chariots and this can be further backed up the battle through illustrations on the walls of some of the big temples of Egypt. The infrastructure necessary for maintaining such a military force became apparent with the discovery of a large stable complex in the Delta Residence of the 19^th-20^th Dynasty, the so called “City of Ramses” in the eastern Nile Delta²⁴ (fig. 7). The headquarters of the chariot forces, known from surviving documentary evidence, were provided with a large area for the teams to practice driving, adjacent to which were the repair workshops and the actual stables. The interiors of the stables were divided into boxes and offered sufficient space for six horses each. The allocated fixed places were created by connecting stone slabs (fig. 8). Limestone and lime sludge applied to the ground resulted in remarkable cleanless, a prerequisite for professional husbandry. As many as 460 horses in total could be accommodated here, equating to a maximum force of 230 teams.

Fig. 6 — The battle of Kadesh (1275 BC): Ramses II (1279-1213 BC) against the Hittites. Relief in Abu Simbel.

Fig. 7 — View of a section of the royal stables in Qantir/Ramses City, 19th/20th dyn. Reconstruction.

Fig. 8 — The interior of the royal stables of Qantir/Ramses City with connecting stones, 19^th/20^th dyn. Reconstruction.

12It is possible to get an accurate impression of the appearance and quality of an Egyptian chariot (figs. 9-10) by means of the six originals from the tomb of Tutʽankhamūn (1333-1323 BC).²⁵ These are the result of an outstanding technical development in the art of the wheelwrights.²⁶ For M.A. Littauer and J.H. Crouwel, leading experts on the history of chariotry, the chariots of Tutʽankhamūn represent a peak in the history of wheelwrighting: “... in the vehicles of Tutʽankhamūn, we may well have examples of the most sophisticated chariots ever made –not just from the point of view of decoration, but also of construction.”²⁷ (figs. 11-16). The secret in terms of their excellent construction was the art of bending different kinds of wood needed for the composition of a chariot.²⁸ The Egyptian wheelwrights executed perfection when handling wood; with the help of hot vapour, the different parts of the chariot requiring special flexibility like the pole, yoke, railing and wheels could be moulded into the desired shape. The technical process can be seen in a (supplemented) fragmentary illustration in the tomb of Intef (Theban Tomb 155)²⁹ (fig. 17). Other tombs display detailed information on the work of the cartwrights (figs. 18a, b) and already completed chariots³⁰ (fig. 19).

Fig. 9 — Hieroglyph of a chariot. Tomb of Ahmose, Elkab, 18^th dyn.

Fig. 10 — Reconstructed chariot (total weight 24 kg). Private tomb, Western Thebes. Firenze, Museo Archeologico 2678.

Fig. 11 — Tomb of Tutankhamun (1333-1323 BC, KV 62), antechamber with chariots, now Cairo, Egyptian Museum.

Fig. 12 — Chariot A 3 of Tutankhamun (1333-1323 BC). Cairo. Egyptian Museum JE 61 991.

Fig. 13 — Chariot A 2 of Tutankhamun (1333-1323 BC). Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 61 989.

Fig. 14 — Chariot A 2 of Tutankhamun (1333-1323 BC), detail. Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 61 989.

Fig. 15 — Wheel of chariot A 4 of Tutankhamun (1333-1323 BC). Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 61 993.

Fig. 16 — Chariot A 4 of Tutankhamun (1333-1323 BC), cross section of wheel. Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 61 993

Fig. 17 — Bending a shaft using wood-bending technique. Tomb of Intef (TT 155), 18^th dyn.

Fig. 18 — Cartwrights at work. a. Tomb of Puiemre (TT 39), 18^th dyn. (after Herold 2006, 63 [Stellmacherbeleg 4]); b. Tomb of Hepu (TT 66), 18^th dyn.

Fig. 19 — Syrians bringing tributes to Egypt: chariot and copper ingot. Tomb of Rekhmire (TT 100), 18^th dyn.

13The Egyptian king is often represented standing in the chariot after its introduction by the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. But due to the king’s dogma, he is never involved in competition with horses. The taboo for a pharaoh to compete in a sporting contest can be explained however, because even a theoretical defeat would infringe the position of his superiority and uniqueness. Nevertheless, he is depicted with a real sporting attitude in connection with the vehicle. He goes towards (for iconographic reasons alone without a driver) copper ingots, serving as targets, piercing them with his arrows. This performance (not being realistic) is often mentioned in the official inscriptions of the 18^th dynasty so that it is possible to compare the (alleged) achievements of different kings.³¹ Amenophis II (1428-1397 BC) was noted in particular as being an outstanding athlete in this discipline. His stela from the third pylon of the temple of Amun at Karnak (now in the garden of the Museum in Luxor) (fig. 20 a and b) preserves the following text:

The perfect god, great in strength, who acts with his two hands in the presence of his army, the mighty bowman who shoots to hit and whose arrows do not go astray; when he shoots at a target of copper, he splits it as (one splits) papyrus, without (even) considering (using) any wooden one to […] on account of his strength. Strong of arm, whose equal has never existed; Mentu, when he appears in the chariot.

Fig. 20a and b — Shooting stela of Amenophis II (1428-1397 BC). Karnak, temple of Amun, now in the garden of Luxor Museum.

14The text concerning him piercing an ingot with five arrows (fig. 21):³²

The great target of foreign copper at which his Majesty shot, of three fingers in thickness. The one great of strength pierced it with many arrows; he caused three palms’ (thickness) to come forth at the back of this target, one who shot every time he aimed, the hero, lord of strength. His Majesty did this pleasure before the entire land.

Fig. 21 — Copper ingots from the shipwreck of Uluburun, ca. 1300 BC.

15What is reported here is surpassed by Amenophis II himself on his Sphinx-stela (fig. 22), while the bowman, again in his chariot, is acclaimed to have hit four ingots set up as targets at short intervals, and pierces them so completely that the arrows fall out of the back of them.³³ The following passage describes this record: “It was a performance never done before, not being mentioned in any narration”.³⁴ The sporting attitude of the Egyptian king, as an archer shooting at copper ingots, left such an impression that centuries later it entered the Odyssey. When Odysseus came back to his island of Ithaca, after an absence of 20 years, he –alone among the suitors– managed to string his bow and to hit the holes of 12 axes. In a similar fashion to a pharaoh cementing his rule through the achievements of his bow and arrow, the performance of Odysseus was intended to regain his wife Penelope and his dominion.³⁵

Fig. 22 — Sphinx stela of Amenophis II (1428-1397 BC). Giza, opposite to the Sphinx (4^th dyn.).

16Amenophis II was also an expert of horses and a master of their training. This is exemplified through his Sphinx-stela: “He knew all about horses, not having his equal in this numerous army”.³⁶

17Furthermore, as rejoiced by his father Thutmosis III (1479-1425 BC), also a master with the bow,³⁷ when he was young he loved his horses and above all to train them: “When he was a crown prince, he loved his horses and rejoiced in them, while he recognized (= could appraise) their exterior, skilled in their guidance and entered in their behaviour”.³⁸

18Fr. Starke is of the opinion that this condensed statement about the king’s horse training is directly comparable to that of the Kikkuli-text:³⁹ where, in the Kikkuli-text, it was deemed that training the horses in the royal stables was appropriate as interpreted from royal father Thutmosis III’s advice: “Instruct them, make them obedient and treat them properly when they resist you”.⁴⁰ The divine patrons of the horses, coming from the Orient, were very satisfied:⁴¹

Reshef and Astarte rejoiced in them, when he did all what his heart wished. He trained horses who had no equals. They did not get tired when he took the reins, and they did not drop with sweat even in the swift gallop.

19Apart from the good condition the king bestowed upon them, here the new experience of high speed is expressed. One could almost speak of an ecstasy of speed, if you compare this to the Sphinx-stela of his son Thutmosis IV (1397-1388 BC):⁴²

He went in for sport and rejoiced in the desert of Memphis at its southern and northern side, while he shot at the copper ingot, hunted lions and desert game, and drove on his chariot, his horses being swifter than the wind.

20As it appears, the quality of swiftness taken here, typical for a horse, was the base of the word in the original Indo-European language: “*ekuos” (lat. equus) = swift⁴³ (figs. 23-24).

Fig. 23 — Excursion in a chariot. Painted tile, New Kingdom. New York, Metropolitan Museum 17.194 2297.

Fig. 24 — Ostrich hunting. Fan, tomb of Tutankhamun (1333-1323 BC). Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE 62 001.

21It was supposed that a track in the Western part of Thebes not far from one of Amenophis III’s (1388 BC-1351/50 BC) buildings situated at Kom el-‘Abd could be a race course for the training of drivers and archers, an opinion full of speculation.⁴⁴ It is clear that there was a place suitable for horse training when we look at the scene of the mortuary temple of Ramses III (1183/82-1152/51 BC) in Medinet Habu and read the inscription. The king is represented selecting a pair of horses with which to begin training (fig. 25):⁴⁵

The king, appearing like Montu (= god of war), his strength is like that of the son of Nut (= Seth), to see the horses which his own hands had trained for the [great] stable of the palace made by the lord of the two lands, Ramses III.

22The Egyptian term “shpr”, here translated as to train, literally means to let arise, a very good expression for the training process which normally lasted for a long time.

Fig. 25 — Ramses III (1283/82-1252/51 BC) setting of to train his horses. Medinet Habu, mortuary temple of the king.

Greece before the foundation
of the agones

23For a long time the communis opinio was that the Olympic Games, the oldest and most important Greek agon, was founded in 776 BC. This date was invented by Hippias from Elis (also found in Plato’s dialogues), a sophist of the 5^th century BC who had wanted to distinguish the contest organized by his home town as the oldest.⁴⁶ The credibility of this date was questioned in 1988 by A. Mallwitz who corrected it to about 700 BC due to archaeological evidence in the sanctuary of Olympia itself.⁴⁷ Now, it seems possible to bring the date closer to the foundation years of the other classical panhellenic agones (at Delphi, at the Isthmus of Corinth and at Nemea) which started at the beginning of the 6^th century BC.⁴⁸ At this date, being also the temporal incision of the subject of this conference, Greece already had a long tradition of conducting chariot races. The atmosphere of such a competition is described in full detail in the Iliad, the oldest literary work written in the Greek alphabetic script. The splendid sport report of book 23 containing the funeral games in honour of Patroclus spends 391 verses on the topic of chariot racing. This is nearly twice as much space as that dedicated to the other seven disciplines of the event organized by Achilleus and supplied with very extravagant prizes.⁴⁹ The stage-fright of the horses at the start; the skill of the Greek heroes of the first category who drove the horses themselves; the tension of the spectators who were watching the end of the race and were equally anxious about their favourites; the (failed) tricky attempt of hotspur Antilochus to obstruct his opponents; the accident of Eumelos caused by the goddess Athena; the donation of a prize of honour to the old man Nestor – the brilliant verses of the poet make it obvious that he was a witness to such a contest, a wide-spread custom in Greece of the 7^th century BC.⁵⁰

24Chariot racing was already known in Mycenean times, as demonstrated by documentation on iconographic sources. Inventories of chariots and their parts exist today as signs in the texts of Linear B⁵¹ (fig. 26), thus the sporting use of  “teams of horses” comes as no surprise. The oldest representation of a race of a biga was found on a bezel of a golden signet-ring from Aidonia (not far from Nemea) dated from the 15^th century BC which was repatriated to its country of origin only a few years ago⁵² (fig. 27). The relatively small scene in deep relief shows two horses going at a quiet pace running before a chariot with two wheels and four spokes. The driver is a person without weapons who is vividly gesticulating and moving his kentron in the direction of the drawn animals, which are guided by the reins. The horses are not shown in a gallop which seems to speak against an interpretation as a race and the absence of a second chariot is further evidence against such an explanation. On the other hand, the “driver without weapons” is represented in a peaceful action, so a sporting excursion or a training trip cannot be excluded. Additionally, the absence of a second driver must not be overrated because the small dimension of the bezel made it difficult to fit in a second vehicle.

Fig. 26 — Inscribed clay tablet (Linear B), chariots. Palace of Knossos, 14^th/13^th century BC, now Herakleion, Archaeological Museum 232.

Fig. 27 — Chariot drawn by two horses, charioteer holding reins and goad. Gold signet ring, Aidonia, 15^th century BC. Athens, National Museum BE 1996/11.1, now in Nemea Museum.

25There is one other documentation of the Mycenean period in Greece depicting the scene of a chariot race. This object is a larnax from tomb 22 in Tanagra (now in the Archaeological Museum Thebes, Boeotia, inv.-no. 1) dated from the 13^th century BC. Its four main scenes –sacrifice of animals, bull leaping, mourning women and two chariots in opposite directions with a pair of duelists between them– are understood as funeral games in honour of someone who died⁵³ (figs. 28a, b). It seems possible that the chariots were used not only during the ekphora but also as tools of later chariot racing.⁵⁴

Fig. 28 — a. Killing of animals, bull-leaping. Tanagra, tomb 22, larnax, 13^th century BC. Thebes, Archaeological Museum 1 (after Tzachou-Alexandri 1989, no. 13); b. Mourning women, duel, two chariots. Tanagra, tomb 22, larnax, 13^th century BC. Thebes, Archaeological Museum 1.

26Considering the last two documents we cannot maintain with certainty that they were in fact chariot races. However, this is the case with the following source; an illustration on a Mycenean amphora from Tiryns dated from the 13^th century BC showing fragments of two chariots with two wheels and four spokes drawn by two galloping horses⁵⁵ (fig. 29). The driver is in the body of the chariot (without weapons), his head bent forward holding the reins and causing the horses to increase their pace. Even if we only see one horse in profile it seems certain that a pair of horses is meant, as seen on the signet ring of Aidonia. In contrast to the illustration of the ring, the presence of two (of originally four) chariots allows us to speak of a race (where several teams are competing) and not just a swift training ride. Moreover, it is also possible to see a turning-post in the vertical element. Independent of the interpretation of Kl. Kilian, J.H. Crouwel is also of the opinion that this scene is “... the first indisputable evidence, that chariot racing has Bronze Age antecedents”.⁵⁶

Fig. 29 — Chariot racing, drawing with completion. Tiryns, Mycenaean amphora, 13^th century BC, now in Nauplia Museum.