Roman statue of girl playing astragaloi

Knucklebones also known as hucklebones, dibs, jackstones, chuckstones or five-stones, is a game of very ancient origin, played with five small objects, originally the knucklebones of a sheep, which are thrown up and caught in various ways. Modern knucklebones consist of six points, or knobs, proceeding from a common base, and are usually made of metal or plastic. The winner is he who first completes successfully a prescribed series of throws, which, while of the same general character, differ widely in detail. The simplest consists in tossing up one stone, the jack, and picking up one or more from the table while it is in the air; and so on until all five stones have been picked up. Another consists in tossing up first one stone, then two, then three and so on, and catching them on the back of the hand. Different throws have received distinctive names, such as riding the elephant, peas in the pod, and horses in the stable. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2304x3456, 451 KB) Roman Statue of a girl playing astralagoi[[categro 130 - 150 aC Berlin, Antikenmuseum The photo was taken by me at the Glyptothek Munich File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2304x3456, 451 KB) Roman Statue of a girl playing astralagoi[[categro 130 - 150 aC Berlin, Antikenmuseum The photo was taken by me at the Glyptothek Munich File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on... The knuckle is the joint of a finger, which, when the hand is shut, is brought into prominence. ...

The origin of knucklebones is closely connected with that of dice, of which it is probably a primitive form, and is doubtless Asiatic. Sophocles, in a fragment, ascribed the invention of draughts and knucklebones (astragaloi) to Palamedes, who taught them to his Greek countrymen during the Trojan War. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey contain allusions to games similar in character to knucklebones, and the Palamedes tradition, as flattering to the national pride, was generally accepted throughout Gteece, as is indicated by numerous literary and plastic evidences. Thus Pausanias mentions a temple of Fortune in which Palamedes made an offering of his newly invented game. Sophocles (ancient Greek: ; 495 BC - 406 BC) was the second of three great ancient Greek tragedians. ... In Greek mythology, Palamedes was the son of Nauplius and Clymene. ... The fall of Troy by Johann Georg Trautmann (1713–1769) From the collections of the granddukes of Baden, Karlsruhe The Trojan War was waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor, by the armies of the Achaeans (Mycenaean Greeks), after Paris of Troy stole Helen from... It has been suggested that Deception of Zeus be merged into this article or section. ... Odysseus and Nausicaä - by Charles Gleyre The Odyssey (Greek: , Odusseia) is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the poet Homer. ...

According to a still more ancient tradition, Zeus, perceiving that Ganymede longed for his playmates upon Mount Ida, gave him Eros for a companion and golden dibs with which to play, and even condescended sometimes to join in the game (Apollonius). It is significant, however, that both Herodotus and Plato ascribe to the game a foreign origin. Plato (Phaedrus) names the Egyptian god Theuth as its inventor, while Herodotus relates that the Lydians, during a period of famine in the days of King Atys, originated this game and indeed almost all other games except chess. (Herodotus, History, Book I) The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Díos), is... The Rape of Ganymede, by Rubens In Greek mythology, Ganymede, or closer to the Greek Ganymede the great man that leads (in Greek — Γανυμήδης, Ganumēdēs) was a divine hero whose homeland was the Troad. ... Two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida in Greek mythology, equally named Mount of the Goddess. ... Eros. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... See 110 Lydia for the asteroid. ...

There were two methods of playing in ancient times. The first, and probably the primitive method, consisted in tossing up and catching the bones on the back of the hand, very much as the game is played today. In the Museum of Naples may be seen a painting excavated at Pompeii, which represents the goddesses Latona, Niobe, Phoebe, Aglaia and Hileaera, the last two being engaged in playing at Knucklebones. According to an epigram of Asclepiodotus, astragals were given as prizes to schoolchildren, and we are reminded of Plutarchs anecdote of the youthful Alcibiades, who, when a teamster threatened to drive over some of his knucklebones that had fallen into the wagonruts, boldly threw himself in front of the advancing team. This simple form of the game was generally played only by women and children, and was called pent alit ha or five-stones. There were several varieties of it besides the usual toss and catch, one being called tropa, or hole-game, the object having been to toss the bones into a hole in the earth. Another was the simple and primitive game of odd or even. Pompeii is a ruined Roman city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the commune of Pompei. ... For a place in the Oio Region in Guinea-Bissau, see Leto, Guinea-Bissau In Greek mythology Lētō (Greek: Λητώ, Lato in Dorian Greek, the hidden one) is known to be a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and in the Olympian scheme... Apollo and Artemis slaying the children of Niobe by Niobid Painter (c. ... // Phoebe or Phebe may refer to: Phoebe, the third Halliwelll sister in Charmed. ... Aglaia can refer to: Aglaea in Greek Mythology Aglaia (genus), botany This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

The second, probably derivative, form of the game was one of pure chance, the stones being thrown upon a table, either with the hand or from a cup, and the values of the sides upon which they fell counted. In this game the shape of the pastern-bones used for astralagoi, as well as for the tali of the Romans, with whom knucklebones was also popular, determined the manner of counting. The pastern-bone of a sheep, goat or calf has, besides two rounded ends upon which it cannot stand, two broad and two narrow sides, one of each pair being concave and one convex. The convex narrow side, called chios or the dog counted I; the convex broad side 3; the concave broad side 4; and the concave narrow side 6. Four astragals were used and 35 different scores were possible at a single throw, many receiving distinctive names such as Aphrodite, Midas, Solon, Alexander, and, among the Romans, Venus, King, Vulture, &c. The highest throw in Greece, counting 40, was the Euripides, and was probably a combination throw, since more than four sixes could not be thrown at one time. The lowest throw, both in Greece and Rome, was the Dog.

The order of play goes:

• Over hand ones twos threes, fours
• Scatter ones, twos, threes, fours
• Dumps
• Over hand scatter ones, twos, threes, fours
• Clicks
• No Clicks
• Little Jingles
• Big Jingles
• Juggles
• Horse on the stable
• Through the arch
• In the cave
• Playing golf
• Over the line
• Over the Jump
• Down the chute
• Tread the needle
• Catching flies
• Cut the cabbage
• This is the house that jack built
• Camels
• Picking Apples
• Car Parks

See also

• Jacks
• The Taba Game
• Venus Throw

A set of jacks Jacks (sometimes called jackstones, fivestones or onesies) is a playground game for children. ... The taba game is an alternative name of knucklebones and its a very popular game played by the gauchos in 19th century Argentina. ... The Venus Throw was the highest roll in the Ancient Roman gambling game of tali, or knucklebones. ...

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• Statistical analysis of knucklebone throws

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Image File history File links Wikiquote-logo-en. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Image File history File links WikiNews-Logo. ... Wikinews is a free-content news source and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. ... Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...