Stanhope, John Spencer: Olympia or topography illustrative of the actual state of the plain of Olympia and of the ruins of the city of Elis (London, 1824)

dolphin of brass is
Each side of the Apl

lied Agnamp

bar at the extreme r.

than 400 feel m lene

becomes wider. A
t of the beak.
in these, stalls

are constructed, which those who enter for the horse race portion out by
lot among themselves. Before the chariots and the horses, a cord is
stretched by way of a barrier. About the middle of the prow is an altar
of unburnt brick, which every Olympiad is covered externally with dust;
upon the altar stands a brazen eagle, with its wings fully extended: when
the person to whom this ditty is intrusted has put in motion the machinery
by which the eagle is directed, it springs up, so as to become visible to all
the spectators ; then the brazen dolphin sinks to the ground ; the cords which
are on both sides of the Portico of Agiiamptus are let loose : the horses tiiat
are in these stalls advance first; and when they come in a line with those
to which are allotted the stalls ol" the second rank, the cords that restrain
these are also loosened, and the same order is observed by all the others,
until they are all drawn up in an equal line at the beak of the prow; am!
here follows the display of the skill of the charioteers, and of the swiftness of
the horses.

We have now to consider bow far the Count de Choiseul succeeded
in reconciling llie octagon building to this description. He maintained,
thai, the point or angle of this building, seen from a distance, sufficiently
resembled the [now of a ship, for Pausanias to have made use of such a
comparison; that the inequality of the sides, answered to the account of