This may be compared with the chariot-race at the funeral games of Patroclus, in the Iliad, xxiii. 362, to which, however, it is very inferior.
All raised the lash together; with the reins
All smote their steeds, and urged them to the strife
Vociferating: they with rapid pace
Scouring the field soon left the fleet afar.
Dark, like a stormy cloud, uprose the dust
Beneath them, and their undulating manes
Play’d in the breezes: now the level field
With gliding course, the rugged now they pass’d
With bounding wheels aloft: meantime erect