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Do not deface books by marks and writti^s '>/y:.: ' THE Game of tjoXk. D'ARCY WENTWORTH THQMPSOJf, C,B PROFESSOR OF NAT.MAf'T^TORYj'tjNiV.feRSITy 'COLLEGE, °''llHiiimiiteHiii'!lX.,,P,'±F.Y Wenlworth Thorn i Clin 3 1924 029 933 730 ' GljAStJbw. ROBEB*: HOSE-& CO. LTD. Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029933730 The Game of iioXt?. By D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. In considering the passage in the Republic {ifiT. E) in which allusion is made to the game of icoKk, commentators have over- looked the curious circumstance that what is apparently the same game is played to this day, and that the pieces are still called by their ancient name. Mr. Lane's account, in The Modern Egyptians, of the game 'Seega' reads like a translation of Julius Pollux's description of the game iroKiq. This game, Lane's description of which I am able to supplement or to understand the better by the help of my friend Mr. Gilbert Elliott of Cairo, is played by the movement of pieces on a ' board/ whose ' squares,' usually represented by holes in the ground, are set in five rows of five each way. This is the Trecro-a irevraypanfia of the fragment from the Sophoclean Nauplius. ' The players,' says Mr Lane, ' have each twelve " kelbs," ' i.e. ' dogs,' and Pollux tells us — twu yj/rit^wv [/caXeiTai] eKOLo-Tt] Kvoov. Thc squares are now called by the Arabic word 'beit,' or the Persian 'khanat,' which mean 'houses,' or may (especially in the latter case) be translated ' places,' the equivalent of the Greek The ' dogs ' of the one player are bits of dingy stone, and of the other are of red brick or tile. Each player by turns arranges his pieces, two at a time, where he pleases on the board, leaving vacant the central hole. They then proceed to move, each piece being permitted to move to the next vacant space, forwards, backwards or sideways, but not diagonally. After the first disposition of the pieces (during which process no 'taking' is permitted), the aim of each player ' is to place any one of his kelbs in such a situation 2 THE GAME OF Ho'Aty that there shall be, between it and another of his, one of his adversary's kelbs. This, by so doing, he takes,' and not, as in draughts, by leaping over it. So Pollux : Siyprnxeveov Se ety Svo Twi/ ^f/^^iiov Kara Tag XP<"^?' ^ Texvtj Tijs iraiSia^ ecrri irepCKyf^ei tSiv Svo y{^r]tpoov ofioxpooov Ttjv erepoxpovv aveXeiv. The central square or hole is the only one unoccupied in the placing of the pieces in the beginning of the game, and it is the most important one, inasmuch as its possession gives the utmost opportunity of intercepting an opponent's piece : a piece standing thereon is therefore valuable to the owner, and a special object of the opponent's attack. Pollux tells us — Twv Se Trevre eKarepoiidev ypa/ji.fjLwv fiecrri Tii fjv, lepa KoXovfievri ypafifiri. Kai 6 tov eKeldev kivwv ireTTOV irapoifKiav eiroiei' Kwo) rov a(f>' lepa?. Suidas tells us more clearly that only in desperation did the player abandon the central citadel : Ktvijerw tov a0' le/oay, Tov TO e-Tri twv Tr/v ecrxuTriv /Soijdeiav kivovvtwv TeTaKTUi. Daphnis, in the same language, described maliciously the peril of the maid Galatea, Kai (jtevyei ^iXeovTO koi ov (j>i\eovTa Siwksi, koi TOV cnro ypafifxa? Kive'i \i6ov (Theocr. Id. vi.). MeursiUs quotes also from Eustathius, De Amoribus Ismeniae, al Se ye /j.ijTepei ^fJLwv Koi, XtOov o (paa-i, tov airo ypafifxrji Kivovai tt/jo? Saxpvov : and Kiveiv tov \l9ov would seem to be the equivalent of ciere calcem, in Plaut. Pcsnul. iv. ii. The obscure fragment of Cratinus (Meineke, 2, 44 (3)) contains at least an allusion to Kvva koX ■KoKiv Trai^eiv. This Egyptian game is simply that ireTTela of which Thoth, according to Plato in the Phaedrus, was the inventor, and the Arab guides have made, in certain of the great stones on the summit of the Pyramid, their pentagram of holes to play it on, in their idle time, as Palamedes did at Ilium: — koi JlaXafii^Sovi eTTivorjcraiuievov Kv^etav Koi ireTTelav ev 'IXiw, elg vapafivOiov XifAov, KUTaaxovTOS Trjv CTTpaTiav, Xidos eKei eSeiKVVTO, Kada HoXefjuov lerTopei, e(j>' oS eirea-a-evov (Eustath. ad II. ^ ; cf Soph, in Palamede, Philostr. in V. Apollon. iii. 22). Hesychrus, s.v. ireufra Trevxey paix/xa, notes the difference between irerTela and Kv/Sela : — Lia(j>epei Se veTTela Kv/Selas ev ^ fiev yap Toiis Kv^ov? ava^piTTTOva-iv, ev Se Ty ireTrela, avTO fiovov tu? T/r»)^ow THE GAME OF U6M 3 fieTUKivovai. In Other words, in the one game the pieces are moved at will, as in chess and draughts, and in the other according to the fall of the dice, after the manner of backgammon ; and the Arabs also have their game of 'tab,' which differs from 'seega' in being regulated by a ' throw.' It was Such a game of dice that Euripides speaks of in the fine fragment of the Erechtkeus (Plut. De Exil. 604 D), al S aWai iroXeii | Treacrwv Ofjiolais Sia^opnQelaai ^oXais, \ aWai Trap aXXwv eltAv eta-aywyi/j.oi : — which reading is, I think, generally preferred to the Sia^opah eKricruevac, of Lycurg. adv. Leocrat. While much may be made clear for us respecting these games of antiquity, it must be remembered that' the subject is extremely intricate, and that the difference between the different games, e.g. ireneia and Kv^eia, ludus latrunculorum, ludus xii scriptorum, s. scruporum, etc., and their corresponding nomenclature in Greek and Latin, are in many cases unknown and still oftener incapable of distinction in the brief allusions of ancient writers. Such allusions are innumerable, and have for the most part been gathered together by Meursius, Souterius, Senflebius and others in Gronovius' Thesaurus. Compare, for instance, Ovid. A. A. ii. 207: Sive latrocinii sub imagine calculus ibit, Fac pereat vitreo miles ab hoste tuus; ibid. iii. 357: Cautaque non stulte latronum proelia ludat, Unus cum gemino calculus hoste perit ; and the Carmen ad Calp. Pisonem : Callidiore modo tabula variatur aperta Calculus, et vitreo peraguntur milite bella, Ut niveus nigros nunc, et niger alliget albos. There are certain ternis that involve particular confusion; for example ki/jSo? appears to mean a particular throw, as well as the tessera itself (cf Senflebius ap. Gronov. Thes. vii. 1171), and I am inclined to think that the term canis may in like manner mean either the throw, or the piece moved in accordance with it; cf. Prop. iv. 8. 45, Ovid, A.A. ii. 206, Tr. ii. 473: Quid valeat tali; quo possis plurima jactu Finger e, damnosos effugiasve canes . . . Discolor ut recto grassetur limite miles. Cum medius gemino calculus hoste perit: Ut mage velle sequi sciat, et revocare priorem Nee tuto fugiens incomitatus eat. There is likewise a difficulty in understanding certain of the Scholia that describe the game, due to an apparent confusion, as in the words i/r^^ot and irea-aol, between the pieces and the squares. 4 THE GAME OF HoXw Whether or no the whole board was called ttoXk, as Pollux tells us (koI to fjLev irXivOlov KaXetrai ttoXis), I am inclined to feel reasonably certain that the individual squares were themselves called TToXeis; cf. Hesych. s.v. Ilo'Xet? irai^eiv, also Zenobius, Cent. v. Parv. 67 (cit. Meursio) koL SoKei fierevtivexQai airo rwv roh '4^oii Trai^ovroov, Taif Xeyofievaii vvv /xev }(uipaK, rore Se TroXecrtv. See also Eustath. Odyss. fol. 29, Kcxi eKoXovvTO at /nev ypafifiiKoi x^ipai voXeig ourTeiorepov. There are probably more allusions contained in Plato's short passage than we can well discern. But it at least seems to me probable that eKafrrri yap outwv TroXet? etVJ TrafxiroKXai, oiXX' ov iroXii is simply an allusion to the whole board with its many squares, to both of which the name TroXty is ambiguously applied : and then I think it is clear that he goes on to picture the war of the rich against the poor, as it were between the black and white pieces of the game.