All the car races were one of the main attractions of the ancient Greece, they were dangerous to both horses and men. It generated a lot of interest similar to that generated by motor racing today.
It is unknown when the chariot races began but they may be as old as the chariots themselves. The misenas already practiced them, because ceramics and engravings on the subject have been found.
Homer describes them in his book The Ilida, in the funeral games of Patroclus, the race was carried out around a tree stump, it was won by Diomedes, who obtained as a prize a slave and a cauldron.
It is also said that chariot races gave rise to the Olympic Games, when King Oenomaus challenged the suitors of his daughter Hippodamia, but was defeated by Pelops, who founded the games in honor of his victory.
In Olympics of antiquity and in the Parahellenics, there were car races with four horses and with two horses, but it is doubtful whether they were founders of the Olympics, as there are documents that chariot racing was introduced in 680 AD
They began with a return to the racecourse, where the herald said the names of the charioteers and their owners.
Unlike the other athletes, these were not naked, they wore a clothing called xystis, which was a tunic that reached up to the ankles, fastened above the waist with a rope, they had two straps, one upper and one lower to prevent them from getting up. the race. Since modern riders were chosen for their lightness and height, they were teenagers. Very dangerous were the turns in the racetrack that could overturn the car, and even die. The car racesIt was a way of showing the prosperity of the Greeks.
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