If $\alpha$ is an ordinal, then the space of all ordinals less than or equal to $\alpha$ is a compact Hausdorff space when endowed with the order topology. Let $C(\alpha)$ be the space of all continuous real-valued functions defined on the ordinal interval $[0, \alpha]$. We characterize the symmetric sequence spaces which embed into $C(\alpha)$ for some countable ordinal $\alpha$. A hierarchy $(E_\alpha)$ of symmetric sequence spaces is constructed so that, for each countable ordinal $\alpha$, $E_\alpha$ embeds into $C(\omega^{\omega^\alpha})$, but does not embed into $C(\omega^{\omega^\beta})$ for any $\beta < \alpha$.