IIORSE-BACK RIDING. I2i 



After the time of Pelops, who was contemporary with 

 Bellerophon, it became customary for each king to 

 celebrate his accession with games ; and horse and 

 chariot races never failed to form part of the spectacle. 



Fifty years prior to the siege of Troy, Nestor had 

 disputed the prize in a chariot race with the son 

 of Actor, and about fifty years still earlier, at the 

 obsequies of Azan, son of Areas, Etolus, giving 

 free rein to his flying horses, had overthrown Apis, 

 who died from the effects of the injuries thus re- 

 ceived. It is evident, therefore, that races of various 

 kinds formed part of the funeral ceremonies from the 

 very earliest period of their introduction ; for Etolus 

 was contemporary with Bellerophon, from whose 

 epoch dates the use of horses among the Greeks. 



Four hundred years after the conquest of Troy, 

 according to Father Peton, and twenty-three years 

 after the founding of Rome, Iphitus, a descendant of 

 Oxylus, on the authority of the Delphic Oracle, re- 

 established the Olympic games. It was then, indeed, 

 that these games first assumed fixed forms and were 

 regulated by judicious laws, and that their celebra- 

 tion having become exactly periodical, the Greeks 

 began to compute time by Olympiads. 



But after such a long discontinuance, says Pausa- 

 nias, the different exercises which had formerly been 

 practised sank into almost entire oblivion, and it 

 was only gradually that each was recalled to memory 

 and restored to its place on the list of national games. 



