EARLY CIRCUS RIDING 7 



and a driver, the date of this particular sculpture 

 being approximately the fourteenth century B.C. 



It seems practically beyond dispute that before 

 the year 1000 B.C. no people rode on horseback 

 except the Libyans, though chariots must have 

 been used quite 2000 years before that. Yet by 

 the time Homer wrote his poems horsemanship 

 was becoming common amongst a section of the 

 Greeks. 



Indeed by that time feats of skill on horseback 

 upon a par with the antics we see performed to- 

 day in circuses were at least known, and prob- 

 ably they were often watched and greatly liked. 

 Listen, for instance, to the following Homeric 

 simile — the translation is almost literal : — 



"As when a man that well knows how to ride 

 harnesses up four chosen horses, and springing 

 from the ground dashes to the great city along 

 the public highway, and crowds of men and 

 women look on in wonder, while he with all 

 confidence, as his steeds fly on, keeps leaping 

 from one to another." 



There are two references at least in Homer 

 to "four male horses yoked together," but the 

 practice of driving four-in-hand -certainly was not 

 common in the eighth century B.C., or probably 

 until long after. The above reference, however, 



