V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 487 



" Thus spake he and they fearing their father's voice brought 

 forth the smooth -running car, fair and new, and bound the body 

 thereof on the frame ; and from its peg they took down the 

 mule yoke, a boxwood yoke with knob and well fitted with 

 guiding-rings ; and they brought forth the yoke-strap, of nine 

 cubits with the yoke. The yoke they set firmly on the polished 

 pole on the rest at the end thereof, and slipped the ring over 

 the upright pin, which with three turns of the strap they lashed 

 to the knob, and then belayed it close round the pole, and turned 

 the tongue thereunder. 



" Then they brought from the chamber and heaped on the 

 polished car (apene) the countless ransom of Hector's head and 

 yoked strong-hoofed mules that work in harness, which on a 

 time the Mysians gave to Priam, a splendid gift, but for Priam 

 they yoked the horses that the old man kept for his use and 

 tended carefully at the polished crib 1 ." 



That Priam's mule-car had four wheels is shown by another 

 passage 2 . In the Odyssey 3 we hear of " two-and-twenty excellent 

 four-wheeled waggons (amaxai)" and apparently such too was 

 the vehicle in which Nausicaa set out with her maidens to wash 

 linen in the river 4 . It was " a high waggon (apene) with good 

 wheels and fitted with an upper frame." " Without the palace 

 they made ready the smooth-running mule-wain (amaxa) and 

 led the mules beneath the yoke and harnessed them under the 

 car, whilst the maiden brought forth from her bower the shining 

 raiment." 



From these extracts it is clear (1) that the amaxa (waggon) 

 is identical with the apene or car commonly drawn by mules 

 also in the classical period. Thus in B.C. 500 a race for mule- 

 cars was established at Olympia (abolished in B.C. 444). Anaxi- 

 las, the despot of Rhegium, not many years after won the prize 

 with his mule-car, and commemorated this event, as well as the 

 fact that he was the first to introduce the hare into Sicily, by 

 placing his victorious mule-car and the hare as types on his coins 

 (Fig. 137). It will be seen that this mule-car has four-spoked 

 wheels, and, as the epithet " easily running " is applied to the 



1 II. xxiv. 265-80. 2 Ibid. 324. 



3 Od. ix. 242. 4 Od. vi. 68 sqq. 



