to Delphi, whither the Greeks greatly resort, purposing to
contend in the games of the Pythian Apollo. And first there was a race
of runners on foot; and for this he came forward, and passing all that
ran with him so won the prize. Nor indeed did I ever see such a man; for
there was not one contest in which he had not the pre-eminence. Very
fair was he to look upon, and his name, he said, was Orestes of Argos,
and he was the son of that Agamemnon who in days past was captain of the
host of the Greeks at Troy. But when the Gods are minded to destroy a
man, who is so strong that he can escape? It fell out then that on the
next day at sunset there was proclaimed a race of chariots, to which
there came one man from Achaia, and from Sparta one, and two from Barca
in Africa. After these came Orestes, being the fifth, with horses of
Thessaly. And the sixth was a man of AEtolia, with bay horses, and the
seventh a man of Magnesia in Thessaly, and the eighth was a man of
Oenea, whose horses were white, and the ninth from Athens, a city
which, they say, was builded of Gods, and a Boeotian was the tenth.
First the heralds shook lots for each in a helmet, and each man had his
place according as his lot came forth. And after this the trumpet
sounded, and the horses leapt forward, while the men shouted to them and
shook the reins, and spared not the goad. Great was the noise, and the
dust rose up like a cloud from the plain. And on the backs of the
charioteers and on the wheels of them that went before came the foam
from the horses that followed, so close did they lie together. And
Orestes, when he came to the pillar where the chariots turned, drave so
that his wheel wellnigh touched it, and slackened the rein for the right
horse, and pressed on that which was on the left. So far no mishap had
befallen the chariots, but all had fared well. But here the steeds of
the man of Oenea, being very hard to hold, brake from their course,
and drave against the side of one of the chariots from Barca. And now
they had ended six courses, and were about to begin the seventh. But
with this beginning of trouble went all things wrong, for one drave
against another till all the plain of Crissa was covered with broken
chariots as the sea with shipwrecks. But the man of Athens was very
skilful in driving, and, when he saw the beginning of confusion, he
drew his horses aside and held back, and so escaped without damage. Now
Orestes was the hindermost of al