V] THE DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITATION 491 



cart, and that so far from the spoked wheel having been evolved 

 from the block wheel, the converse is really the case. 



In the tomb of the father and mother of queen Teie, the 

 wife of Amon-hotep III and the mother of Amon-hotep IV, 

 Mr Theodore M. Davis has just found a pleasure chariot broad 

 enough to hold two persons, richly painted and encrusted with 

 gold. The leather work belonging to it is still as fresh as 

 when it was first made. It is fitted with six-spoked wheels still 

 covered with their wooden tires 1 . 



This fresh discovery shows that the conjecture of Mr Carter 

 and Mr Newberry that the wheels of the chariot of Thothmes IV 

 had been fitted with metal tires is wrong. There is no reason 

 now to doubt that it, like the newly discovered chariot and that 

 at Florence, had no metal shoeing on its wheels. 



We have seen that the mule-cart in Homer is fitted 

 with wheels of lightness and elegance, and there is really 

 nothing to distinguish them from those of the chariot. We 

 have a full description of the Achean chariot in the Iliad, 

 for we cannot doubt that the chariot of the goddess Hera 

 is a faithful copy of those used by her worshippers, save that 

 the car of the immortals is represented as being made of 

 precious metals. "So Hera the goddess queen, daughter of great 

 Cronos, went her way to harness the gold-frontleted steeds ; 

 and Hebe quickly put to the car (ochos) the curved wheels of 

 bronze, eight-spoked, upon their axletree of iron. Golden is 

 their felloe, imperishable, and tires of bronze are fitted there- 

 over, a marvel to look upon; and the naves are of silver, to 

 turn about on either side. And the body of the car (diphros) 

 is plaited tight with gold and silver straps, and two rails (antiuc) 

 run round about it. And a silver pole stood out therefrom ; 

 upon the end she bound the fair golden yoke, and set thereon 

 the fair breast-straps of gold, and Hera led beneath the yoke 

 the horses, fleet of foot, and hungered for strife and the battle- 

 cry 2 ." 



This description when compared with actual specimens 

 found in Egypt gives us a very clear view of the structure of 

 the chariot, the plaiting with straps of gold and silver at once 

 1 Times, 10 March, 1905. 2 II. v. 721 sqq. 



