Part 15

Herodotus has a curious story to the effect that the Lydians invented dice, knucklebones, balls, and other playthings to help them to pass a time of famine, by playing and eating on alternate days.[81] Draughts ([Greek: pessoi]) are expressly excepted from his list, and were ascribed to the fertile invention of Palamedes at the time of the Trojan war. Games played with knucklebones (small bones forming part of the ankle-joint in cloven-footed animals) may be described first, since they were, as may be judged from the number of ancient knucklebones found (No. =621= in this Case), extremely common. We are told in the _Anthology_ of a boy who gained eighty knucklebones as a writing-prize.[82] Among women too they were a favourite plaything. The illustration (fig. 242), from a painting on marble found at Resina (the ancient Herculaneum), shows two women engaged at knucklebones. (See also the terracotta group D 161 in the Room of Terracottas, Case 32). This game was called "five-stones" ([Greek: pentelithoi]), a name still given by children to a very similar game. The lexicographer Pollux describes the game thus: "The knucklebones are thrown up into the air, and an attempt is made to catch them on the back of the hand. If you are only partially successful, you have to pick up the knucklebones which have fallen to the ground, without letting fall those already on the hand.... It is, above all, a woman's game."[83] This description makes the illustration clear. Each woman has five knucklebones, and the one whose turn it is to play has caught three on the back of her hand; the two which are falling to the ground she would have to pick up without shaking off those already on the hand.

Besides being used in various kinds of games, knucklebones were also employed as dice. The four long faces of the knucklebone differed from one another in form, one being convex, another concave, another nearly flat, and the fourth sinuous and irregular. The values assigned to these sides were: (_a_) to the flat side ([Greek: chion]), 1; (_b_) the sinuous side ([Greek: kôon]), 6; (_c_) the concave ([Greek: hyption]), 3; (_d_) the convex ([Greek: prênes]), 4. This is the order in which they are shown in fig. 243, from left to right. Astragali thus required no marks of value upon them, since their sides were naturally distinguished. The ordinary cube-shaped dice, marked 1-6 (No. =622=) were also widely used by the Greeks and Romans (fig. 243). The usual arrangement of numbers was, as now, 1 opposite 6, 2 opposite 5, and 3 opposite 4,[84] but other arrangements occur. Some dice are interesting on account of their peculiar form, _e.g._, the squatting silver figures (No. =623=, fig. 204), which are marked with the values 1-6 on different parts of the body. A Roman bronze dice-box is shown in fig. 244 (No. =624=). The ordinary materials of dice were ivory, bone, or wood. Of the multifarious ways of playing with dice known to the Greeks and Romans, the one most in vogue may be mentioned. In this three dice were used, and the object was to throw the highest number ([Greek: pleistobolinda]). The best throw, three sixes, became proverbial. In Aeschylos' _Agamemnon_ the watchman, when he saw the beacon-fire blaze forth which told of Agamemnon's victorious return, exclaimed:----"I'll count my master's fortunes fallen fair, now that my beacon watch has thrown a triple six."[85] With astragali, on the other hand, the best throw was 1, 3, 4, 6, and was called "the throw of Venus." For this each bone had to present a different face.[86] The worst throw was the "Dogs," when four aces turned up.[87]

Dice of exceptional form are the twenty-sided one, inscribed with the Greek letters [Greek: A] to [Greek: Y] (No. =625=), a fourteen-sided one inscribed with Roman numerals (No. =626=), and an uninscribed fourteen-sided crystal die from Naukratis. With these may be mentioned the triple teetotum (No. =627=) and the four-sided triple die, one side of which has been left plain (No. =628=).

Of the rules governing other games, represented here by several pieces, we are entirely ignorant. The plaster pawns (No. =629=) found at Panticapaeum (Kertch) in the Crimea, probably belonged to some game analogous to our draughts. An interesting set of pieces is that of the ivory discs (No. =630=; fig. 245), which bear on their obverse a design in relief _e.g._ two Muses and the head of the Sun-god, and on their reverse a number, from 1 to 15, in both Greek and Latin figures, as well as a word descriptive of the design on the obverse. Thus the two illustrated have on their reverse

+VI+ [Greek: MOUSAI] [Greek: TH] [Greek: F]

and

+II+ [Greek: HÊLIOS] [Greek: B]

(_i.e._, VI.--Nine ([Greek: th´]) Muses--6, and II.--Helios--2) respectively. It seems pretty clearly established that these discs were used as pieces in a game, which probably resembled draughts or backgammon. Fifteen of these pieces have been found together in a child's tomb at Panticapaeum. The game appears to have been popular in the first and second centuries after Christ, and probably had its origin in Alexandria. It seems likely that it bore a resemblance to the Roman game called _duodecim scripta_ ("twelve lines"), played with fifteen pieces on either side. The moves were determined by the throw of the dice, as in our backgammon. Another set of pieces belonging to a game are the label-shaped ivories (No. =631=; fig. 245), inscribed on one side with words, often of an abusive character, such as _male (e)st_ ("bad luck"), _fur_ ("thief"), _nugator_ ("trifler"), _stumacose_ ("ill-tempered fellow"), etc., and on the other with numbers. The pieces mentioned have the numbers +XXIII+, +A+, +II+, +I+, and +II A+ respectively on their reverse sides (see fig. 245). The whole series of numbers on these ivories runs from 1 to 25, and includes in addition 30 and 60; it is noteworthy that the highest numbers have inscriptions of a complimentary character, _e.g._, _felix_ and _benigne_. The pieces may have been used in the Roman game called "the game of soldiers" (_ludus latrunculorum_).[1]

At the top of Cases 57-58 is an oblong marble board (No. =632=), inscribed with six words of six letters each. It was found in a tomb near the Porta Portese, Rome. The words are--

+CIRCVS PLENVS+ +CLAMOR INGENS+ +IANVAE TE+ ? _te(nsae)_

"Circus full," "Great shouting," "Doors bursting (?)."

Each word is separated from that opposite it by a flower within a circle. Many such stones are known, always with six words of six letters, so that it seems clear that they were used as boards for a game, possibly the _duodecim scripta_ already mentioned. The pieces used were probably the so-called "contorniates," bronze discs of coin form, with designs in relief on either side within a raised rim and a circular depression. Two examples of these contorniates (in electrotype) are exhibited below the stone board (No. =633=). The pieces are of late Imperial date, of about the time of Constantine. Many have subjects closely connected with the circus, a fact which harmonizes well with the inscription on the board described. One of the two exhibited has a head of Alexander and a representation of a chariot race, the other a head of Nero and a water organ (see below, p. 216).

(=630=) Cf. _Röm. Mitt._, 1896, p. 238 ff.; _Rev. Arch._, 4th Series V. (1905), p. 110 ff.; (=631=) _Röm. Mitt._, 1896, p. 227 ff.; (=632=) Cf. _Num. Chron._ (4th Series), VI., p. 232 ff.; _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1887, p. 118.

On ancient toys and games generally, see Becq de Fouquières, _Les jeux des anciens_; Daremberg and Saglio, s.v. _Ludus_.

[Footnote 81: Herodot., i. 94.]

[Footnote 82: _Anth. Pal._ vi. 308: [Greek:

Nikêsas tous paidas, epei kala grammat' egrapsen, Konnaros ogdôkont' astragalous elaben.] ]

[Footnote 83: Pollux, ix. 126 (reading [Greek: ephistatai] and omitting [Greek: ê]).]

[Footnote 84: Cf. _Anth. Pal._ xiv. 8: [Greek:

hex, hen, pente, dyo, tria, tessara kybos elaunei.] ]

[Footnote 85: Aesch., _Agam._ 32: [Greek:

ta despotôn gar eu pesonta thêsomai, tris hex balousês têsde moi phryktôrias.] ]

[Footnote 86: Mart., xiv. 14:

Cum steterit nullus vultu tibi talus eodem, Munera me dices magna dedisse tibi. ]

[Footnote 87: Prop., iv. 8, 45 f.:

Me quoque per talos Venerem quaerente secundos, Semper damnosi subsiluere canes. ]

[Footnote 88: _Latro_ originally meant "a mercenary soldier."]

XXIV.--MARRIAGE.

(Wall-Case 53.)

=Greek Marriage.=--Though neither Greek nor Roman marriage was definitely associated with the religion of the state, it was, however, among both peoples closely associated with religious rites of a domestic character. Plato in his _Laws_ makes it the distinguishing mark of the legally wedded wife that "she had come into the house with gods and sacred marriage rites." These rites are sometimes represented upon Greek vases, as may be seen from the objects and illustrations placed in this Case. The ceremonies may be conveniently divided into those concerning (_a_) the preparation of the bride; (_b_) the removal of the bride from the house of her father to that of her husband; (_c_) the reception at that house; and (_d_) the presents given on the day following the marriage ([Greek: epaulia]).

(_a_) On the day before her wedding the bride not infrequently made an offering of the playthings of her childhood to some deity, presenting her toys to Artemis in particular. On the day before marriage, too, water for the bridal bath was brought in procession in the special form of tall vase called a [Greek: loutrophoros]; a small model is seen in Case 59 (No. =634=). The vase is also seen standing on the chest in the room of the bride here depicted (No. =635=; fig. 246). The scene is taken from the design on a toilet box of the fifth century B.C. (E 774), which shows the bride being adorned for her marriage. Besides the tall amphora already mentioned, two vases called "marriage bowls" ([Greek: lebêtes gamikoi]) are seen standing on tall stems before the door, on the further side of which one of the bride's friends is turning the magic wheel intended to inspire the bridegroom with a greater longing of love. So Theocritus sings:

"Draw to my home, O mystic wheel, the man that I long for."[89]

(_b_) The arrival of the husband, who comes to fetch the bride to his home, may probably be recognised in the design on the fifth-century vase No. =636=. It is, however, a special and sacred occasion which is here represented. The bride, who is seated and holds a sceptre, is probably the Basilinna, wife of the Basileus, the magistrate at Athens who was charged with the supervision of the state-religion. She turns back to look at the bridegroom, who is none other than the wine-god Dionysos, holding his thyrsos or staff crowned with the pine-cone. Two love-gods fly towards the pair with wedding gifts, while on the right approaches a Victory holding lighted torches, which served to light the night-procession to the bridegroom's house. The subject is explained by a ceremony which took place at the Attic wine-festival of the Anthesteria, celebrated annually in February and March. On the second day of the festival there was a mystic marriage between the wine-god Dionysos and the wife of the Basileus,[90] and it can hardly be doubted that the present design refers to this.

(_c_) The actual progress of the bride to her husband's home is depicted on the black-figured vase No. =637=, of sixth-century date (fig. 247). The departure took place at nightfall by torch-light, and the bride and bridegroom usually (as in the present instance) made the journey in a mule-car, attended by a friend called the _parochos_. On the vase (fig. 247) the bride and bridegroom are seen in front of the mule-car, and the _parochos_ is seated behind. When the pair reached their home, they were welcomed by the father and mother of the bridegroom, and a procession was formed to the hearth-altar. This is a scene depicted on No. =638=, a reproduction of a painting on a toilet-box in the Third Vase Room (D 11, on Case F). The bridegroom leads the bride by the hand towards the hearth-altar, by the side of which stands the hearth-goddess Hestia, holding a sceptre and what is probably a fig, an allusion to the figs, dates and other fruits showered over the wedded pair as they reached the hearth, and thence called [Greek: katachysmata] (down-pourings). Before the pair go a boy playing on the double-flutes and two women holding torches, who probably move round the altar, as well as another woman, who perhaps leads the way to the bridal chamber (figs. 248 and 249).

(_d_) Upon the day following the marriage the relations and friends brought presents to the house ([Greek: epaulia]).[91] The presents consisted chiefly in objects likely to be useful to the bride, such as vases, articles of toilet, spinning implements, etc. The subject was a favourite one with the Greek vase-painters, probable examples being the designs on E 188 in Case 47 and the toilet-box E 773 in Case H in the Third Vase Room. A still better instance occurs on the restored "marriage vase" E 810 in Case H in the same room.

=Roman Marriage.=--Roman practice recognised various methods of lawful marriage. The illustrations and objects shown in this Case deal only with certain ceremonies which were common to all of them. They concern (_a_) the betrothal; (_b_) the actual wedding rites; and (_c_) the escorting (_deductio_) of the bride to the house of the bridegroom.

(_a_) The betrothal took the form of a solemn contract between the fathers and guardians on either side. In all Roman contracts it was customary that a pledge should be given, and this pledge often consisted in a ring. It was fitting, therefore, that a ring given to the woman by her betrothed should come to be a sign of the betrothal contract. It is natural to identify these rings with a series of Roman rings which have for their design two clasped right hands. An example in gold of about the third century A.D. (No. =639=) is shown in this Case.

(_b_) The actual ceremony of marriage consisted in the solemn clasping of hands (_dextrarum iunctio_), an action seen on the relief on the sepulchral chest (No. =640=) placed in this Case. The inscription shows that the chest was dedicated by a freedman and imperial scribe named Vitalis to the memory of his wife Vernasia Cyclas. The ceremony is only shown in an abbreviated form on this chest, but it appears in more detail on a relief from a sarcophagus (No. =641=; fig. 250). The husband and wife clasp hands, and between them stands the _pronuba_ or matron-friend of the bride, placing a hand on the shoulder of each. On the left of the group stands a man, perhaps the bride's father. To left and right of this scene of everyday Roman life we have the mythological personages whose attendance at the wedding may be supposed to be of good augury--Mars, Victory and Fortune. The clasping of hands was followed by a sacrifice to Jupiter, and this closed the actual wedding ceremonies. The sacrifice is represented in the illustration (fig. 251) taken from a Roman sarcophagus.[92] The bride, and bridegroom stand by the burning altar, upon which the latter pours a libation. Behind the pair stands _Juno pronuba_, the presiding goddess of the wedding rites. On the right a bull is being led up to sacrifice, and on the left stand Venus, Hymenaeus and the Graces.

(_c_) When night had fallen there followed the procession, in which the bride was escorted from her father's house to that of the bridegroom, a procession described in one of the most splendid of the poems of Catullus.[93] Torch-bearers and flute-players led the way, and the wedding train was accompanied by a crowd, the boys in which chanted rude jesting verses and petitioned the bridegroom for nuts.[94] When the doorway of the house was reached, the bridegroom carefully lifted the bride over the threshold, that there might be no ill-omened stumbling. "Carry the gilded feet across the threshold," sings Catullus, "that the omen may be favourable." This moment is illustrated by a scene from a Roman comedy (No. =54=), taken from a lamp exhibited on Table-Case K (see above, p. 28, fig. 17). The bride is being carried on the back of a man, while a Cupid waits at the door to receive her. Within the house she received a gift of fire and water, elements so necessary to the performance of the housewife's duties, and on the day following the wedding she did sacrifice at her husband's altar.

(=635=) _Cat. of Vases_, III., E 774; Furtwängler and Reichhold, _Griech. Vasenmalerei_, I., pl. 57 (3); (=637=) _Cat. of Vases_, II., B 485; (=638=) _Cat. of Vases_, III., D 11; _Ath. Mitt._, XXXII., 1907, p. 80 ff.; (=639=) _Cat. of Rings_, 276; (=640=) _Cat. of Sculpt._ 2379; (=641=) _Journ. of Hellenic Studies_, XXXVI., p. 85.

See also Daremberg and Saglio, s.v. _Matrimonium_.

[Footnote 89: Theocr. ii. 17: [Greek:

iunx, helke ty tênon emon poti dôma ton andra]. ]

[Footnote 90: Cf. Aristot. [Greek: Ath. Pol.] 3, 5; Dem. _c. Neaer._, c. 76; Mommsen, _Feste d. Stadt Athen_, p. 393 ff.]

[Footnote 91: See _Jahrb. d. arch. Inst._, 1900, p. 144 ff.]

[Footnote 92: _Mon. dell' Inst._ iv., pl. 9.]

[Footnote 93: No. lxi.]

[Footnote 94: _Ibid._, l. 131 f.]

XXV.--MUSIC AND DANCING.

(Wall-Cases 54-56.)

=Music.=--The Greek term [Greek: mousikê] (music) included much more than we mean by music. It was applied to the education of the mind as opposed to [Greek: gymnastikê] (gymnastics), the education of the body. In the narrower sense, however, it corresponded to the modern term, and to this the Greeks from early times attached a high importance. It was the effect of music upon the character which appealed to them above all things, and it was this which caused Plato to banish from his ideal state certain modes of music which would, he thought, be injurious to its well-being. These modes or "harmonies" were named after race-divisions. We find the Dorian, the Aeolic, the Ionic, the Lydian, and the Phrygian. The Dorian was universally approved for its manly qualities, but Plato rejected the Lydian as useless and effeminate.[95]

Of the stringed instruments used among the Greeks, the lyre was the most prominent. There were two varieties of this, the kithara and the lyre proper. The kithara, an instrument with a large wooden sounding board and upright arms, was played chiefly by professional musicians, such as the kitharist represented on a fine vase in the Third Vase Room, who has won a victory at one of the great musical contests (E 460; Pedestal 7). The illustration (fig. 252), taken from an amphora of the fifth century (E 256, Case H, Third Vase Room), shows Apollo playing on the kithara, which is supported by a band passing round his left wrist, but leaving the fingers of the left hand free to play on the strings. In his right hand he holds the _plectrum_, which is attached by a cord to the instrument. The _plectrum_ was of various forms, but its most essential part was the tooth for catching and sounding the wires. The lyre proper (fig. 253) is distinguished by its curving arms and sounding board of tortoiseshell (hence called _chelys_). The wooden framework and parts of the shell of a Greek lyre found in a tomb near Athens are shown in Case 56 (No. =642=). As the popular instrument, the lyre was naturally taught in schools. Two interesting Greek vases (Nos. =643= and =644=), exhibited in these Cases, give pictures of boys receiving music lessons at a school. In one instance a boy is learning the lyre, in another the boy is playing the flutes, while the master, who holds a _plectrum_, is playing on a lyre. Domestic animals are freely admitted, and the discipline seems far from severe.

As the school scene shows, flute-playing, though condemned by Plato and Aristotle,[96] was commonly taught at Athens. Ancient flutes are distinguished from the modern instruments by the vibrating reed which formed the mouthpiece, and by the fact that they were always played in pairs. Hence the frequency with which pairs of ancient flutes are found. Two of sycamore wood (No. =645=; Case 56) were discovered in the same tomb (near Athens) as the lyre described above (No. =642=). Another pair of flutes (in bronze) from Italy (No. =646=; fig. 254) have their mouthpieces in the form of busts of Maenads. A terracotta shows a pair of female musicians (No. =647=) playing with a drum and double flutes. To assist the playing of the two flutes together a mouth-band was often worn, as may be seen from designs on vases, _e.g._, on a cup of Epiktetos (E 38; Third Vase Room), and on some of the Cypriote sculptures in the Gold Ornament Room passage.

A framed impression from a Greek hymn to Apollo inscribed on stone is here exhibited (No. =648=). Musical notes, indicated by letters of the Greek alphabet in various positions, are placed at intervals over the letters to guide the singer. The inscription was found at Delphi, where other inscriptions of a similar character have come to light.

Flute-playing was very popular with the Romans, among whom it was considered the proper accompaniment of every kind of ceremony.[97] For military purposes they used several other wind instruments. Two bronze mouthpieces (No. =649=) in Case 55 may perhaps come from long straight trumpets (_tubae_). The Roman curved horn (_cornu_) is represented by two large specimens in bronze (No. =650=) placed at the top of Cases 55, 56. The terracotta bugle in Case 55 is probably a model of the Roman _bucina_ (No. =651=).

The simplest of all ancient wind instruments is the rustic Pan's pipe (_syrinx_), usually formed of seven or eight hollow reeds fastened together with wax. The Greek Pan's pipe has the reeds of equal length, the different notes being produced by the different positions of the natural joints of the reed. An example may be seen among the Cypriote sculptures in the Gold Ornament Room passage. The Roman _syrinx_ had its lower edge sloping, the result of cutting off the reeds immediately below the natural joints. A terracotta statuette in Case 55 (No. =652=) represents a shepherd boy playing on a Pan's pipe of the Roman kind, and a marble relief from Ephesus at the top of Case 54 (No. =653=) shows a beardless man seated with a large _syrinx_ in his hands. The Greek inscription tells us that the relief was dedicated by Ebenos, a "first flute," to Hierokles his piper.

It was the Pan's pipe which gave Ktesibios of Alexandria (third century B.C.; cf. p. 120) the model on which he constructed his water-organ, an instrument which became popular with the Romans. A Roman "contorniate" shown in Case 58 has one of these water-organs represented upon it. The air was supplied by water pressure and the notes were played by means of a key-board.