Note 37 — Chapter I · EARLY GREEK GAMES AND PRIZES.

Gardiner, p. 15, points out that there is no mention of a chariot-race in the Odyssey, merely because Ithaca was not a land “that pastureth horses,” nor had it “wide courses or meadowland.” The plains of Thessaly and Argos, the homes of Achilles and Agamemnon respectively, were, however, famed for their horses, and the plain of Troy was large enough for the chariot-race. The only other chariot-races mentioned in the Iliad are held in Elis: XI, 696 f.; XXIII, 630 f.