Charioteering and Footracing in the Greek Imaginary

Most brides won in races in Greek myth are won in footraces, but Hippodameia is won in a chariot race. Does it make any difference? I argue that footraces and chariot pursuits have systematically different but complementary meanings, and that understanding these patterns sheds light both on the descriptions of races and abductions in early Greek poetry and also on the peculiarities of the famous myth about Pelops and Hippodameia.

The race at Aristotle, Rhetoric 3. 9 is usually taken as a stadion. Interpreting it as a diaulos brings it in line with Aristotle’s doctrine of the period and a slight emendation contrasts the two laps.

The Iliad surpasses its proposed limits yet falls short of our initial expectations. As critics have long noticed, the Iliad consistently establishes boundaries, of both space and narrative, only to disrupt, surpass, or subvert them. The embassy to Achilles, for example, seems to provide Achilles the honor that he demands – the honor Athena had promised him from the beginning of Book 1 (1.213), but Achilles remains unsatisfied and his wrath continues.