Always had a fascination with the Quadriga, the four beautiful horses on the porch of the Basilica San Marco in Venice. Admire them since my first visit in 1975. Soon thereafter, I discovered that the Venetians had looted them from Constantinople. Until 1204 they stood in the Hippodrome of the Byzantine Capital. I did not give this a lot of attention. It seemed that Roman Emperors loved horse races. Rome had its Circus Maximus. Constantinople its Hippodrome. Horse races were thrilling as shown in the classic movie Ben Hur – one of my childhood’s favourites.
The Hippodrome in Perge, the old provincial capital of Roman Pamphylia (Atalaya)
Turned out that hippodromes were far mor common and have deeper historical roots. When sailing along the southern coast of Anatolia in 2018, we found many more. There are hippodromes in the ancient towns of Petara, Perge, and Megarsus and one in King Herod’s harbor, Caesarea. From literary sources we know that almost every Greek town including Athens had one. Given their flat architecture, most were built over during the years following classic times and disappeared. However, occasionally there is one found like the recently discovered racecourse in Delphi – even the oracle town had a hippodrome.
The Sun God Helios racing across the sky in his chariot pulled by four horses
Given their prominence in ancient Greece, why were they built? For entertainment only? Chariots drawn by four horses were not used by armies any longer – the military technology was out of date. Luckily, Homer wrote down Greece’s ancient tales and myths which, together with modern research on the origin of European people, sheds some light.
A little foray into Greek mythology is necessary. When we watch the sun rise today, our location on the globe turns toward our sun, the star which burns hydrogen and shines for more than 4 billion years. The Greek saw something different. They saw the Sun God Helios racing across the sky in a chariot pulled by 4 stallions. Helios, Zeus cousin, had two sisters, Selene (moon) and Eos (dawn). He worked 24/7 – during the day he raced across the sky – at night he raced back through the underworld to start again the next morning.
Zeus, not living in the sky any longer but on Mount Olympus
Both Zeus and Helios were grand children of the first generation of Deities – Gaia, the Mother Earth, and Uranus, the Sky Father. They had 12 children, the Titans, the second generation of Deities. However, under the leadership of Zeus, the children of the Titans overthrew their parents and assumed power. Greek mythology is far more complicated than these few lines. But a 5 min blog is not the place to talk about it. Wikipedia provides a good summary even though you need to read it more than once.
Helios, doing his job, racing across the sky
Helios and Zeus fought the Titans together – at one point Helios and Selene held back light to create darkness and give Zeus a battle advantage against the Titans. Both Zeus and Helios had a kind of a non-interference alliance. Helios was the eyes of Zeus providing him with light so he could see everything all the time. Zeus let him race across the sky without interfering. Basically, each was looking after his own business. Over the centuries though the warship of Zeus became more important. Relicts of the dual reign of Zeus and Helios remained. Rhodes is an excellent example where Helios as Colossus of Rhodes straddled the harbor entrance and where chariot races were held in his honor. The chariot races were a form of warship for Helios – they celebrated the sun on which our survival depends
Helios, the colossus of Rhodes, guarding the harbour entrance
The concept of a Sky God and a Mother Earth goes back further than the Greek. It comes from Indo-Europeans who once lived on the steppe of Central Asia e and gave us our languages. By 2’000 BC they tamed horses and used them for cattle herding. They also invented the chariots as mobile platforms for archers. Chariots were a formidable weapon which dominated the Middle Eastern battlefields for 1’000 years. Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites – everybody used or adopted them.
The habitat of Indo-Europeans before they migrated to India, the Middle East and Europe
We do not really know why the Indo-Europeans moved out of the steppe. Possibly climate turned arid and destroyed their habitat. The Indo-Europeans split. Some tribes moved west (Germans, Celts), Southwest (Greek, Illyrians, Romans), South (Hittites, Persians) and Southeast (Indians). They did not only bring their languages but also their cultural and religious heritage. The word for sun in Greek is Helios, in Latin Sol, Sòl in ancient Norsk and Surya in the Indian Vedic script. In all cultures, Gods were riding in chariots through the air and the Sun God is racing the sun from dawn to dusk.
Horse Racing on a Greek Terra Cotta Vase
Sometimes I wonder whether the common ancestry of all European Deities was one of the reasons Roman culture was so easily adopted everywhere. Whether people were Celts, Germans, Hispanics, Illyrians, Greek or Persians, their own, original Deities were also a family and their own Gods had comparable duties to the Roman Gods. When Romans arrived, local and Roman Deities merged and became one. This is - of course - incorrect for Egypt where the Romans had to adopt the local cult and Israel with its monotheistic Yahweh.
The Quadriga on top of San Marco is a faint echo of the Helios cult of ancient Greece. It is also a reminder of our origin as Indo-Europeans. Our ancestors once lived in the steppe of central Asia, spoke the same language, and believed in a Sky Father and a Mother Earth.
The most beautiful Quadriga, now safely inside the San Marco Basilica in Venice