The Phæninda[[504]] is supposed to have received its name either from its inventor, Phænides (called Phænestios in Athenæus[[505]] and the Etymologicon Magnum), or from the verb Φενακίζειν[[506]] “to deceive,” because, making as though they would throw at one person, they immediately sent it at another, thus deluding the expectation of the former. It appears at first to have been played with the small ball called Harpaston, though the game with the large soft one may afterwards perhaps have also been called Phæninda. The variety named Aporraxis consisted in throwing the ball with some force against the ground and repelling it constantly as it rebounded; he who did this most frequently, winning. In the game called Ourania, the player, bending back his body, flung up the ball with all his might into the air; on which there arose a contention among his companions who should first catch it in its descent, as Homer appears to intimate in his description of the Phæacian sport. They likewise played at ball in the modern fashion against a wall, in which the person who kept it up longest, won, and was called king; the one who lost, obtained the name of ass, and was constrained by the laws of the game to perform any task set him by the king.[[507]]
A game generally played in the gymnasia was the Skaperda. In this a post was set up with a hole near the top and a rope passed through it. Two young men then seized each one end of the rope, and turning their back to the post exerted their utmost strength to draw their antagonist up the beam. He who raised his opponent highest won. Sometimes they tried their strength by binding themselves together, back to back, and pulling different ways.
The Himanteligmos, “pricking the garter,” in Ireland “pricking the loop,” was really an ingenious amusement. It consisted in doubling a thong, and twisting it into numerous labyrinthine folds, which done, the other party put the end of a peg into the midst in search of the point of duplication. If he missed the mark the thong unwound without entangling the peg; but if he dropped it into the right ring his peg was caught and the game won. Hemsterhuis[[508]] supposes the Gordian knot to have been nothing but a variety of the Himanteligmos. He conjectures that the boys of Abdera were fond of this game, on which account the sophisms of Democritus were called ἱμαντελικτεαὶ, and hence probably a sophist, as one who twists words together, to lash others, was called Himantelicteus.
Another game, not entirely confined to children, was the Chalkismos, which consisted in twisting round rapidly on a board or table a piece of money, and placing the point of the finger so dexterously on its upper edge as to put a stop to its motion without permitting it to fall. This was a favourite amusement of Phryne the hetaira, as building houses of cards was of La Belle Stuart.[[509]] Some of these sports were peculiar to the female sex,[[510]] as the Pentalitha, which is still played by girls in some remote provinces of our island, where it is called “Dandies.” The whole apparatus of the game consisted in five astragals—knuckle bones—pebbles, or little balls, which, gathered up rapidly, were thrown into the air and attempted to be caught in falling on the back of the hand or between the slightly spread fingers. If any fell it was allowable to pick them up, provided this were done with the fingers of the same hand on which the other astragals rested.[[511]] The girls of France, according to Bulenger, still amuse themselves with the Pentalitha, there played with five little glass balls, which are flung in the air and caught so dexterously as seldom to fall either on the table or on the ground. I have never, however, seen it played myself in that country.
The Astragalismos,[[512]] which by the Romans was denominated talorum or taxillorum ludus, (by Hyde through the Greek πάσσαλος, derived from the Hebræo-Punic Assila,) by the Arabs Ka’b or Shezn, by the Persians Shesh-buzhûl bâzi, by the Turks Depshelìm, (played in their country both by girls and boys,) by the French Garignon or Osselets, in English “Cockall.”[[513]] In the game of astragals the Persians, as is implied in the name given above, often use six bones while the Greeks employed only four, which were thrown either on a table or on the floor. According to Lucian,[[514]] the huckle bones were sometimes those of the African gazelle.
The several sides of the astragal or huckle bone had their character expressed by numbers, and obtained separate names, which determined the value of the throw.[[515]] Thus, the side showing the Monas was called the Dog, the opposite side Chias, and the throw Chios. In cockall as in dice there are neither twos nor fives. The highest number, six, was called the Coan (συνορικὸς or ἑξίτης); the Dog or one was called the Chian or dog-chance; to which the old proverb alluded Κῶος πρὸς χῖον, six to one. To have the Dog turn up was to lose, hence, perhaps, the phrase, “going to the dogs,” that is, playing a losing game. The throw of eight was denominated Stesichoros, because the poet’s tomb at Himera consisted of a perfect octagon. Among the forty who succeeded to the thirty at Athens Euripides was one, and hence, if the throw of the astragals amounted to forty points, they bestowed upon it the name of Euripides. All animals in which the astragal is found have it in the hough or pastern of the hind legs. The τὸ πρανὲς, the gibbous side or blank, because it counts for nothing; the τὸ κοῖλον, the hollow side or “put in;” the χῶα, the tortuous side, "cockall," or “take all,” so called because it wins the stake; the smooth side τα χῖα, “take half,” because of the money put in, it wins half. Among the Greeks and Romans the put in was called trias, the blank tetras, the half-monas, and the cockall hexas.[[516]] By the Arabs they are denominated the thief, the lamb, the wezeer, and the sultan; by the Turks the robber, the ploughman, the kihaya, or the dog, and the bey; by the Persians the robber, the rustic, the wezeer, and the schah; by the Armenians the thief, the ploughman, the steward, and the lord. The number of casts among the Greeks, according to Eustathius, amounted to thirty-five.[[517]] Pliny[[518]] speaks of a work of Polycletos representing naked boys playing at this game, and the reader will probably remember the mutilated group in the British Museum, in which a boy having evidently been beaten at astragals, is biting in revenge the leg of his conqueror.
To play at Odd or Even[[519]] was common; so that we find Plato describing a knot of boys engaged in this game in a corner of the undressing room of the gymnasium. There was a kind of divination by astragals, the bones being hidden under the hand, and the one party guessing whether they were odd or even. The same game was occasionally played with beans, walnuts, or almonds, or even with money, if we may credit Aristophanes, who describes certain serving-men playing at Odd or Even with golden staters.[[520]] There was a game called Eis Omillan,[[521]] in which they drew a circle on the ground, and, standing at a little distance, pitched the astragals at it; to win consisting in making them remain within the ring. Another form of the Eis Omillan was to place a trained quail within a circle, on a table for example, out of which the point was to drive it by tapping it with the middle finger. If it reared at the blow, and retreated beyond the line, its master lost his wager. The play called Tropa[[522]] was also generally performed with astragals, which were pitched into a small hole, formed to receive such things when skilfully thrown. The common acorn, and fruit of the holm oak, were often substituted for astragals in this game. The Ephentinda seems to have consisted in pitching an ostrakon into a circle, so as to cause it to remain there. The Skeptinda consisted in placing an ostrakon, or a piece of money, on the ground, and pitching another at it so as to make it turn.[[523]]
[455]. Plato had the utmost faith in the power of education over both mind and body; but his system embraced much more than is usually comprehended under the term, even taking charge of the infant before its birth, and immediately afterwards, in the hope of wisely regulating its physical developement. As the child grows most during the first five years, its size in the following twenty being seldom doubled, most care, he thought, should then be taken that the great impulses of nature be not counteracted. Much food is then consumed, with very little exercise; hence the multitude of deaths in infancy and diseases in after-life, of which the seeds are then sown. For this reason he would encourage the violent romping and sports of children, that the excess of nourishment may be got rid of. De Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 2. seq.
[456]. Plat, de Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 21. seq.