"Knucklebone Faces and Throws: Play, Rules, and Rhetorical Discourse in Julius Pollux", Mnemosyne 75.5 (2022), 793-810 (original) (raw)
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Play and Games in Classical Antiquity -Jouer dans l'Antiquité classique
Publié avec le soutien du Conseil Européen de la Recherche (ERC) dans le cadre du projet ERC advanced Locus Ludi. The Cultural Fabric of Play and Games in Classical Antiquity basé à l'Université de Fribourg-programme de recherche et d'innovation de l'Union Européenne Horizon 2020 (contrat de financement n o 741520). Site du projet : <locusludi.ch>. Comme tous les livres publiés dans les collections et les séries des Presses universitaires de Liège, ceux de la collection « Jeu / Play / Spiel » sont soumis, avant publication, à un processus d'évaluation par les pairs. Couverture : Jeton en os de Zadar avec Éros courant avec une couronne de victoire. © Musée Archéologique de Zadar, inv. A10281 (photo de Kornelija A. Giunio).
The Knucklebone and the Goose: Playing and Jeopardy for the Boy of Lilaia
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A particularly beautiful marble statue of a boy, a dedication unearthed in Lilaia, Phokis, and on display in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, is an opportunity for us to explore the connection between the boys’ games and the jeopardy in their outcome. Both the expression on the boy’s face and the way he holds an astragal and a goose demand multiple levels of reading. These are related to the intent of the dedication in the first place, the identification of the games requiring an astragal or involving a goose, as well as to the choice of these specific playthings for the particular imagery. Why is he holding a single astragal, and in such a particular way? Why is the goose included in the picture, and what species of Anatidae is this? The apparent originality of the motif and of the work, in comparison with other well-known Hellenistic representations in stone or terracotta, dictated our research into the milieu of artistic and symbolic quests of that period, and also a r...
Early in the nineteenth century excavations of Pompeii there came to light a painted inscription that read: Suilimea Cissonio fratrabiliter sal.The message featured attractive red lettering and the easily understood but theretofore unattested adverbial form: fratrabiliter. It was of sufficient interest that the plaster was excised from the ancient wall, and it was removed to the Naples Archaeological Museum where it remains well preserved today ( ). As this painted message of greetings was among the earliest wallinscriptions to be documented in the excavations of Pompeii, the editors of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum initially explained the name Suilimea as a cognomen. As we shall see, however, that hypothesis was eventually revised as more inscriptions came to light.
Plautus frequently uses new word formations to increase the comicality of his plays. Such facetious neologisms must have been understood by the audience, otherwise the jokes in the comedies would not have made any sense. However, there are a few passages in which the author explains his newly-coined lexemes through the words of the characters in the plays. This article analyses these utterances, trying to explain why Plautus decided to unveil his process of word creation in these particular places, what function the neologisms have in the dramatic text, how the writer denotes and describes the neologisms, and whether it helps spectators to recognise and appreciate his verbal humour. Most of these passages concern legal neolo-gisms (intestabilis-Pl. Cur. 30-32; parenticida-Epid. 349-351; rabo-Truc. 687-690) and one of them contains a comic name/title (Subballio-Ps. 607-609). The playwright explains the etymology of the new Latin words or shows how he has adapted Greek wordplay (arrabo-rabo) for Roman spectators. These riddle-like explanations are composed following the pattern of identification motifs. Their main goal is to intensify the power of the jokes and their impact on the audience.
Horses for courses: Plato's vocabulary and authority in the Onomasticon
in B. Cartlidge, L. Constantini (eds.), Middle Platonism in Its Literary Context (Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies vol. 66.1), 2023
The Onomasticon by Julius Pollux is more than just a word-hoard: Pollux's work actively mediates, through lexicographic appraisal, the cultural assets and anxieties of the Second Sophistic. In the light of the ongoing debate among the Imperial intellectuals and specifically Platonists about the value of style and diction as ingredients of the Platonic text, the numerous references to Plato's vocabulary from across the Onomasticon bespeak an essentially coherent yet ambivalent attitude. Pollux cites Platonic words both appreciatively (at times, demonstrating reasonable awareness of the philosophical content) and critically; there is a tendency to characterize Plato's lexical choices as strained and cavalier. As a case study of how Pollux deals with a famous Platonic passage that was held dear by the Middle Platonists and Imperial pepaideumenoi at large, his handling of the epithets used in the description of the two horses in the Chariot Allegory (Phdr. 253d-e) is examined.
ROLEPLAY AND WORDPLAY IN TIBULLUS: THE REVERBERATION OF HORATIAN IAMBIC
Aevum Antiquum, 2021
Tibullus' sixteen canonical poems owe a debt to Horace's invective Epodes, sixteen of which are in metres that feature alternating lines. Play and playfulness, in particular roleplay and wordplay, typify the creative dialogue between these poetry collections. This article teases out the links between Epode 16 and Tibullus II 5, both featuring Sibylline-style prophecy related to Rome and absence from Rome, with an iambic edge to the elegist's depiction of the Parilia festival, and reminiscences of the etymology of iambic in a focus on magic that also pervades the other Nemesis poems. The poem spoken by Priapus, I 4, also contains iambic elements in the play on the names of the questioner and Tibullus' own beloved Marathus, the gender politics with an attenuated god and hints of cinaedic activity, and the imagery of dogs. Uncovering such echoes enhances our understanding of the influences and achievements of both poets.
The ERC Locus Ludi investigates the history and the dynamics of ancient ludic culture. Play and games provide a privileged access to past societal norms, values, identities, and the collective imaginary. People play all over the world and have done so throughout history, but they do not play the same games, nor do they assign the same meaning and function to play. Our modern western concepts of “play” and “game” differ in several respects from the Greek and Roman ones that this chapter attempts to define. . https://locusludi.ch/team-publications/
Talus: Etymology of a Ludonym and how the Names of an Ancient Gaming Practice could be Indicative of Processes of Cultural Transmission and Stratification, 2021
This paper presents the complex history of the names given to knucklebones by different ancient civilizations. During the whole of antiquity these particular gaming tools had precise cultural and symbolical connotations, which influenced their gaming use and crossed many social, chronological, geographical and cultural boundaries. The peculiar role played by knucklebones within human gaming practices stretches across several millennia. In western Europe during the early Middle Ages, their use went into decline in favour of cubic dice. Over the centuries scholarship has overlapped and confounded the terminology relating to these two different gaming traditions, causing many misunderstandings and translation issues. However, thanks to advances in the field of game studies and through the examination of literary, iconographic and archaeological data, it is possible to establish the original names given to games using astragals and also the complex signifiers and implications that they had for classical culture.