By skill, too, the captain holds his ship on course,
scudding the wine-dark sea though rocked by gales.
By skill alone, charioteer outraces charioteer.
The average driver, leaving all to team and car,
recklessly makes his turn, veering left and right,
his pair swerving over the course – he can’t control them.
But the cunning driver, even handling slower horses,
always watches the post, turns it close, never loses
the first chance to relax his reins and stretch his pair
but he holds them tight till then, eyes on the leader.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 23, lines 360-369. At the funeral games to honor Patroclus, Nestor coaches his son Antilochus with tips for the chariot race. Despite his son having the "slowest nags", Nestor says that it is skill and not brawn that will see one charioteer outrace the others.