The remainder of the guide is devoted to the personal life of the individual from the cradle to the grave. Successive sections are devoted to Infancy and its Amusements; to Education and School Life—to which sections on Writing and Painting are annexed; to games, marriages, music, dancing, pet animals; and, finally, to objects bearing on death and burial.
XXI.—INFANCY. TOYS.
At the end of Case J are four terracotta models of cradles (No. 585) with young children in them. One is a winged Eros, and one is swaddled. Beside the cradles are three cups (No. 586), with spouts shaped as mouth-pieces, which may be supposed to be for milk or pap. Here also are two clay rattles (No. 587), and a child's wooden clapper (No. 588).
Fig. 230.—Child in High Chair (No. 590).
A set of small trefoil-lipped jugs (No. 589) is painted with designs closely connected with child life. Children are shown playing with jugs of this type, with animals and toy carts, or other objects. It is probable that these jugs were given to Athenian children on the festival day of the wine god Dionysos, which went by the name of Χόες ("Jugs"). Note No. 590 (fig. 230), with a child confined in a turret-shaped high chair, and No. 591 (fig. 231), with two children with draw-carts, each holding a jug.
Toys.—Children of all ages and nations bear a great resemblance to one another; consequently, it is not surprising, though it is always interesting, to find that Greek and Roman toys are often very similar to those of modern times. At the corner of Case J is a series of small reproductions of furniture, implements and the like in lead, bronze, pottery and terracotta (No. 592). Often no doubt, they are simply toys, like the furniture of a doll's house. Sometimes, however, they must be supposed to have had a more serious votive character in a temple. In some cases, perhaps, they were of both kinds. Among the treasures of Hera at Olympia, the traveller Pausanias saw a small couch said to have been a plaything of Hippodameia,[74] and it was not uncommon for children on growing up to dedicate their toys in a temple.
