Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Astragalizontes

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

ASTRAGALIZONTES (ἀστραγαλιζοντες). A Greek name used to designate persons engaged in playing with the knuckle-bones of animals (ἀστραγάλοι, Latin Tali), one of which is here shown (Astragalizontes/1.1) from an original of bronze, a very favourite subject with the sculptors and painters of Greece. (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 19. § 2. Pausan. x. 30. 1.) Both sexes amused themselves in this way, and employed the knuckle-bones for many different games, but the simplest and commonest, which appears to be represented in the annexed engraving (Astragalizontes/1.2), from a Greek painting discovered at Resina, resembled what our school-boys call "dibs," and consisted merely in throwing the bones up into the air, and catching them again on the back of the hand as they fall down. In many others, which were purely gambling games, the bones were marked with numbers, and used as dice. Jul. Poll. ix. 100 — 104. Eust. Od. i. p. 1397. 34. sq. and TALUS.

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  Astragalizontes/1.1
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  Astragalizontes/1.2