In addition to these toys, many games may be mentioned. From the standpoint of education, games for children are worthy of consideration. For, if human nature is most plainly shown in sport, then from these games one can obtain a clear idea of a child’s character, inclination and intellect, the recognition of which should be of utmost importance to the educator. Games also furnish endless and varied material for the cultivation of the child’s mental powers and natural talents, which are developed by physical exercise. The Spartan children were superior to the other Greek children in the power of expression, although they were not so highly educated. This is no doubt due to the fact that at a very early age the Spartan children were forced into a free life in the open air and to systematic gymnastic exercise. The Romans, also though they did not consider gymnastics of so much importance as did the Hellenes, did not neglect them. Being a warlike people, they began to develop and strengthen the body of the child at an early age. The sports of childhood are as important to the boy as work is to the man, and demand as much of his strength and intelligence. The victory in a game gratifies the child as a real victory in battle delights the conqueror. Besides, most games are imitations of the various occupations of adult life and cause the child to show a decided inclination for some particular branch. Plato, as well as other philosophers, recognized this fact. He claimed that a boy, in order to be skilled in a special line of work, should be trained to that work from childhood, and that his first training should be by means of his games. Such preliminary instruction should be followed by that based on theory and science. Experience has often corroborated this theory of Plato, and Hellenic life itself furnishes the best illustration of it. According to the legend, Achilles, attired in the garb of a girl among the daughters of the king, betrayed himself to the keen eye of Odysseus, by handling the weapons, placed by the latter among the ornaments which he offered for sale. Strepsiades, hard pressed by his creditors, says that his son’s extreme fondness for horses and chariots has ruined him, and continuing, he relates with pride how as a mere child his son had made tiny leather carts, moulded houses and ships, and carved frogs from pomegranate rind. (Aristophanes, Nub. 877.) Cato the Younger also, says Plutarch, gave strong indications of his character by the games he played. The youthful Nero amused himself daily by playing with ivory four-horse chariots, thus indicating his future passion for chariot-racing in the circus. The distinguished men of antiquity, when at home, often entered heartily into the children’s games. The famous general, Agesilaos, is represented as riding the hobby-horse with his little boys. Alkibiades was surprised to see Sokrates doing the same thing while at play with young Lamprokles. The Romans, a more serious people than the Greeks, often sought recreation in ball-playing. Cato the Elder, and also Scævola, are mentioned as expert ball players.
The Hellenes were thus well aware that uninterrupted employment was detrimental to both physical and mental life. This idea was most beautifully expressed by Pythagoras in his hygiene of body and soul. Therefore, in connection with the gymnastic system of the Hellenes, were developed many gymnastic games which did not require any special apparatus and which were not intended for tests of superior strength, but merely to furnish pleasant and suitable physical exercise.
A game called ὀστράκου περιστροφή was often played. The boys arranged themselves in two divisions on either side of a line. One of them then held up a piece of broken crockery, or an oyster shell, one side of which was blackened with tar. One division chose the black side, the other the white. A boy then threw the fragment, with the words, νύξ, ἡμέρα. The advantage belonged to that side whose color appeared uppermost after the throw; this division then pursued the other; those who were captured were called donkeys and were debarred from further participation in the game.
The ἐποστρακισμός (Pollux ix, 119), a more informal game, was played by boys on the beach, or on the shore of a pond. The sport consisted in “skipping” smooth, flat pebbles or shells over the surface of the water. The boy who “skipped” his pebble to the greatest distance, or, perhaps, made it cut the water the greatest number of times, was victor. This pastime, known as “Ducks and Drakes,” is still in favor with boys.
There were two games for testing bodily strength, the διελκυστίνδα and the σκαπέρδα. In the διελκυστίνδα a party of children separated into two divisions, each of which faced the other in a row, so as to give every member an opponent. Probably a line of some kind lay between the two divisions, and the game consisted in each boy’s striving to pull his opponent across it by means of a rope. The victory was decided when all members of one side had been forced to the other.
The σκαπέρδα was a game in which a rope was passed through a hole made in a tree-trunk or rough pillar, at some distance from the ground. Two contestants then took their places on opposite sides of the pillar, with their backs to each other and each holding an end of the rope. If one of them could succeed in lifting the other from the ground he was declared victor, but so difficult was the feat that the phrase σκαπέρδαν ἕλκειν came in time to be a proverbial expression applicable to very difficult tasks. This sport was one of the amusements at the Attic Dionysia.
“Blind man’s buff” was played with slight variations under the name χαλκῆ μυῖα, or “brazen fly,” very prettily described by Pollux ix, 122. ἡ δὲ χαλκῆ μυῖα, ταινίᾳ τὼ ὀφθαλμὼ περισφίγξαντες ἑνὸς παιδός, ὁ μὲν περιστρέφεται κηρύττων· χαλκῆν μυῖαν θηράσω· οἱ δὲ ἀποκρινάμενοι, θηράσεις ἀλλ’ οὐ λήψει, σκύτεσι βιβλίνοις παίουσιν αὐτόν, ἕως τινὸς αὐτῶν λήψεται. One child was blindfolded and was obliged to capture one of the rest. With outstretched arms he groped about, repeating the words χαλκῆν μυῖαν θράσσω, “I will hunt a brazen fly.” The others responded θράσσεις ἀλλ’ οὐ λήψει, “you will hunt, but you will not catch,” and at the same time struck him more or less lightly with whips or threads of papyrus. When one of them was caught, he was blindfolded in place of the other, and the game repeated.
A game called χυτρίνδα (Pollux ix, 110-113) demanded great dexterity on the part of the player. One child sat in the middle and was called χύτρα. The others ran round him, pinching or striking him until by a quick movement he managed to catch one of them, who was obliged to take his place and be the χύτρα in turn. Sometimes the child ran about in a circle, carrying on his head a jar which he held with his left hand. His companions would strike him while asking him the question, τίς τὴν χύτραν; (who has the jar?), to which he answered, ἐγὼ, Μίδας (I, Midas). If he touched one of the children with his foot, that child had to take his place.
The term χυνδαλισμός (Pollux ix, 120) was applied to a juvenile play, which somewhat resembled our peg-top. The game consisted in flinging short, pointed poles into the earth, in the following manner. The first child holds his pole, directed downward, and then throws it so as to leave it standing upright in the ground. The second child then tries to throw his pole in such a way as to upset the first one and leave his own standing in its place. The former player then tries his skill, and so on. The arm and eye are especially trained in this game, which is still played in some countries, generally in the spring when the ground is soft.
A game especially suited to develop attention was the following. The players formed a ring: One of them was provided with a cord which he tried to place beside another child without being detected in the act. If he succeeded in doing this, the one beside whom the cord was found had to run round the ring amid the blows of his playfellows; if, on the other hand, he had noticed the other when putting the cord there, that one would have been obliged to run round the ring himself.