Mythical origins of the game of knucklebones in the Mediterranean World

Beginning in 5000 BCE, the talus bones of hooved animals (also known as astragali) have been found in higher numbers than other bones and in contexts unrelated to food preparation in archaeological excavations.  Although the astragalus is not entirely symmetric, it is thought these bones were used like dice in games of chance.

Sophocles, in a written fragment of one of his works, ascribed the invention of knucklebones to the mythical figure Palamedes, who taught it to his Greek countrymen during the Trojan War. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey contain allusions to games similar in character to knucklebones. 

Palamedes was the warrior Agamemnon sent to Ithaca to retrieve Odysseus, who had promised to defend the marriage of Helen and Menelaus. Odysseus did not want to honor his oath, so he plowed his fields with an ass and an ox both hitched to the same plow, so the beasts of different sizes caused the plow to pull chaotically. Palamedes guessed what was happening and put Odysseus' son, Telemachus, in front of the plow. Odysseus stopped working and revealed his sanity.

Odysseus never forgave Palamedes for ruining his attempt to stay out of the Trojan War. When Palamedes advised the Greeks to return home, Odysseus hid gold in his tent and wrote a fake letter purportedly from Priam. The letter was found and the Greeks accused him of being a traitor. Palamedes was stoned to death by Odysseus and Diomedes. According to other accounts, the two warriors drowned him during a fishing expedition. Still, another version relates that he was lured into a well in search of treasure, and then was crushed by stones. 

Although he is a major character in some accounts of the Trojan War, Palamedes is not mentioned in Homer's Iliad but Euripedes and other dramatists wrote plays about his fate. The Greek sophist, Gorgias, penned the "Defense of Palamedes", an oration dealing with issues of morality and political commitment in which he demonstrates how plausible arguments can cause doubt in the acceptance of conventional truths.  Later, the Roman poet Ovid discusses Palamedes' role in the Trojan War in his Metamorphoses and Palamedes' fate is also described in Virgil's Aeneid. 

However, both  Herodotus and Plato ascribe a foreign origin to the game. Plato, in Phaedrus, names the Egyptian god Thoth as its inventor, while Herodotus relates that the Lydians, during a period of famine in the days of King Atys, originated this game.

Two young women playing knucklebones Greek 330-300 BCE said to be from Capua, Italy that I photographed at "The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece" at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum.

Closeup of one of Two young women playing knucklebones Greek 330-300 BCE said to be from Capua, Italy that I photographed at "The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece" at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum.

Maidens Playing "Knucklebones" Greek Late 4th or early 3rd century BCE Terracotta that I photographed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. The maidens are playing an ancient form of jacks, known as astragalus (knucklebones), a game in which five small animal bones were tossed into the air and caught on the back of the hand. The grouping of separate statuettes is almost unknown before Hellenistic times, when artists became fascinated both by the interaction of figures and by the challenge of representing complex poses, such as this crouching stance.

One of Two Boys Fighting Over a Game of Knucklebones 1st century CE Roman copy of 2nd century BCE original from Rome that I photographed photographed at "The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece" at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum.

Game piece of bone in the shape of a baboon, 332–30 B.C.E., Ptolemaic Period, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Animal ankle joints, anatomically termed astragals, were used as gaming pieces. The knucklebone itself might be carved, or astragal-shaped gaming pieces might be carved from other sources or materials. All were termed astragals, which were used like dice or jacks. 

Terracotta vase in the form of an astragal (knucklebone), ca. 460 B.C.E., Attributed to an artist recalling the Painter of London D 12, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Astragals were popular toys in antiquity. As each side of an astragal is distinctive, what mattered in a game was how the pieces fell. Such games of chance also acquired prophetic or erotic aspects. The poet Anacreon wrote about the astragals of Eros—the dice of Love. It is entirely appropriate that this large example is decorated with a lyre-playing Eros.

Carchemish orthostat at the Gaziantep Archaeology Museum courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Dick Osseman. This is one of a set of orthostats, that adorned the Royal Buttress in Carchemish in Gaziantep province. They are from the 8th century BC. The hieropglyphs at this scene bear the names of children of the Country-lord: Malitispa, Astitarhunza, Tarnitispa, Issikaritispa, Sikara, Halpawaki, Yahilatispa. These are two of three people holding knucklebones.

 

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A footbath as dining entertainment?

Although this elegant bowl could easily have been used for serving food, it is designated as a footbath by curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. How did they arrive at this conclusion? According to Marjorie J. Milne in her article "A Greek Footbath in the Metropolitan Museum of Art" published in the American Journal of Archaeology back in 1944, such shallow wide bowls with low lion-footed bases appeared fairly often in vase paintings, particularly in representations of Theseus' adventure with Skiron.  Such a bowl is also shown being used as a footbath for washing Odysseus' feet on a skyphos (two-handled cup) from Chiusi by the Penelope Painter.

Another unique aspect of this vessel is that it was cast and not tooled except for the radiating grooves separating the petals of the flower finials.  An armor specialist at the museum at the time points out that casting so large a bowl was a difficult feat.

The "footbath" was used for other purposes, too, by the Greeks, Etruscans, and the Romans, as revealed in literature and other vase paintings. It was apparently used for such tasks as a complete sponge bath or to wash an individual's hair.  It also made a convenient surgeon's basin.  Since the vessel was most frequently used to wash a guest's feet before a meal, it was usually kept in the diniing room. As such it was sometimes comandeered for entertainment purposes such as a wine cooler or to play kottabos, a game of skill played at Ancient Greek and Etruscan symposia (drinking parties), especially in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE. It involved flinging wine-lees (sediment) at a target in the middle of the room. The winner would receive a prize ("kottabion"), comprised of cakes, sweetmeats, or kisses.

Ancient writers including Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides describe these competitions although the practice apparently died out by the Roman period.  Dexterity was required to succeed in the game, and unusual ability was rated as highly as corresponding excellence in throwing the javelin. Kottabos was customary, and, at least in Sicily, special circular buildings were established, so the players might easily be arranged around the target, and follow each other in rapid succession. Like all games in which the element of chance found a place, it was regarded as more or less ominous of the future success of the players, especially in matters of love – and the excitement was sometimes further augmented by some object of value being staked on the event like an attending servant.

The game seems to have originated in Sicily, or the land of the Sikels. But it spread through Greece, from Thessaly to Rhodes, becoming especially fashionable at Athens.  Although some scenes of kottabos have been found depicting women playing the game, such as a scene of four hetairai playing the game with a popular youth as the subject of the toast, painted by Euphronois, it is thought these scenes were meant to be humorous as women were not usually participants in the contest. Another interpretation of the four hetairai is that these female symposiasts are Spartans (Athenians considered them generally unable to control their women). This would account for the Doric dialect used on the inscription and also the absence of couches, which is consistent with the stereotypes about Sparta held by the Athenians. The use of female symposiasts as a humorous trope is consistent with several black-figure vases with figures that are interpreted as Etruscan women. As with Spartan women, they were considered to be uncivilized.

Bronze footbath with its stand, late 5th–early 4th century BCE from Sicily or southern Italy at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

Image:  Detail from a fresco depicting a symposium scene with kottabos player (center) from the Tomb of the Diver, 475 BCE at the Paestum National Museum, Italy.

 

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Cypriot funerary colonettes from the Roman period

Only a handful of these funerary colonettes, referred to as cippi, decorated with portrait busts, have been recovered from Roman Cyprus.  The Museum of Cycladic Art points out that this type of grave marker was used commonly from the Late Hellenistic to the Late Roman period in several parts of Cyprus, such as Limmasol (Amathous), Larnaca (Kition), Famagusta (Ammochostos) and Kyrenia but the majority are simply inscribed with the deceased name, sometimes the name of the father or spouse, and expressions of condolence such as "no one is immortal." 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art compares their appearance during this period to the development of personalized Egyptian painted portraits around the same time. I couldn't help but see the resemblence of these grave markers to chess pieces, though.There may be absolutely no connection at all but I found it interesting that the game of chess is thought to have originated around the same time (or possibly earlier) in the Gupta Empire of ancient India.  From there it spread to Persia and became part of the courtly education of Persian nobility.  Cyprus was ruled briefly by the Persians until its conquest by Alexander the Great and, eventually, the Romans in 58 BCE.  Although chess is thought to have been developed before 600 CE, its earliest origins are uncertain.

I've read a number of historical fiction novels set in ancient Rome where political maneuvers are referred to as part of "The Great Game." I can easily imagine followers of an ancient philosopher with the same viewpoint fashioning their funerary monuments to personify their lives as pieces in life's Great Game! 

Cypriot Cippus (Grave Column)  Middle-Late Roman, 100-300 CE from Tremithousa, Larnaca (Cyprus) at the Museum of Cycladic Art.

Cypriot limestone funerary cippus (tomb marker) depicting a woman named Kratea.   In an attempt to capture her individuality, she is represented with rather bony and irregular features, and her hair is parted down the middle, a convention that seems to imply that she was elderly. Her jewelry is meant as an indicator of her wealth and status.  Roman, , 2nd–3rd century CE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Cypriot limestone funerary cippus (tomb marker) depicting  a youth is identified by the Greek inscription that reads: “Good Artemidoros, farewell”, Roman, 2nd–3rd century CE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

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Rome II: Total War promises amazing graphics for future documentaries

Today I had a chance to view a trailer for the upcoming video game "Rome II: Total War" and was simply awestruck by the sense of reality the game delivers.  In fact, I thought at first I was watching a live action clip:


In addition to encouraging a new generation to become interested in Roman history, the first iteration of "Rome: Total War" was used to create some very informative graphics for such documentary series as the History Channel's Decisive Battles and the BBC's Time Commanders.  The game was so wildly popular that a large "mod" community grew up around it who developed everything from new textures to unit editing and the ability to play previously unplayable factions.  Battle reenactments available in the original game include:

• Battle of Lake Trasimene
• Battle of Raphia
• Battle of Telamon
• The Siege of Gergovia
• Battle of the River Trebia
• Battle of Asculum
• Battle of Carrhae
• Battle of Cynoscephalae
• Battle of Teutoburg Forest



Alexander the Great and his lifelong companion Hephaistion Marble 320 BCE (1) (Photo credit: mharrsch)

• Siege of Sparta

Additional expansion packs like Rome: Total War: Alexander added the ability to assume the role of Alexander the Great and Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion provided maps of Europe during the decline of the western Roman Empire and interactions with

• Goths
• Vandals
• Sarmatians
• Saxons
• Franks
• Alemanni
• Sassanids

Now it looks like the new game will extend Roman reach farther east than the original version.   Furthermore, with the huge strides in computing capabilities that have occurred in the last nine years (game is scheduled for release in 2013),  a new graphics engine that will power the visuals of the game and new unit cameras will allow players to focus on individual soldiers in the battlefield.  Creative Assembly pointed out that they wish to bring out the more human side of the war this way, with soldiers reacting with horror as their comrades get killed around them, and officers inspiring their men with heroic speeches before siege towers hit the walls of the enemy city. This will be realized using facial animations for individual units, adding an unbelievable feel of horror and realism to the battles.  That aspect of the game is what I find most intriguing.

I've always thought it would be culturally insightful to be able to play through sequences in the "down time" of an ancient soldier and sit around a campfire to hear stories from your comrades' lives and emotionally bond with them.  I'd like to attend the pre-battle preparations, speeches and reading of the auspices as well as participate in post-battle mop up and a brilliant triumph.

Game designer Creative Assembly also plans to include a bigger role for ancient navies.  I wonder if the Roman galleys will be equipped with a corvus?  When I read John Stack's novel Master of Rome , I learned that the corvus was actually only used for a few years because it could throw a galley dangerously off balance in stormy conditions.  It would be an interesting addition that a player could choose to use or not based on the impending battle conditions.

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