ἡλίου τέλλοντος. The passage of Xen. just cited, referring to the Olympic festival of 364 B.C., shows that the chariot-races then preceded the pentathlon, on the same day,—and must therefore have begun in the early morning.
The Pythian hippodrome was in the Crisaean plain (180 n.), near its upper or northern end, where the rocky gorge of the river Pleistus opens upon a level tract. The site of Crisa, on a spur of Parnassus, overlooked it from the north, and Delphi from the north-east. Beautiful as was Olympia, the scene of the Pythian festival was unrivalled in the grandeur of its natural surroundings.
