What games did Alexander play as a child?

[marcus]

I've started a new thread for this, as Ianthe's original post is starting to slide down the list. Here is a list that I've taken from the article I mentioned, of games/toys that would have amused children in Classical Athens. There is no reason to suppose that the same wouldn't have been current for Alexander (after all, as you'll see, they are all basically the pre-Playstation toys/games current for our own generation(s)! * L.Beaumont, GÇ£ChildGÇÖs Play in Classical AthensGÇ¥ History Today 44(8), August 1994, 30ff. Plato and Aristotle both said that childrenGÇÖs play should be educational GÇô intellectual, practical, ethical. Example, Plato, 'Laws' I.643B GÇ£if a boy is to be a good farmer, or again, a good builder, he should play, in the one case at building toy houses, in the other at farming, and both should be provided by their tutors with miniature tools on the pattern of real ones.GÇ¥ Toys for infants: - rattle (see Aristotle, Pol. 8.2340b); clay animals (dogs, pigs, tortoises, birds, horses on wheels); stick on two wheels (perhaps to aid infants learning to walk). Toys for older children: - small wheeled carts; dolls (for girls); hobby-horses (Plut. 'Agesilaus', 25.5). They also had pets GÇô dogs, birds, tortoises, mice; and they told (or were told) stories; and they made up their own amusements (Aristophanes, 'Clouds', 877-81). School-age children:- Knucklebones (GÇ£astragaloiGÇ¥) and dice.- A counting game of wits (same as the modern GÇ£morraGÇ¥ played in Italy).- Various chasing, GÇÿtagGÇÖ games, such as blind manGÇÖs bluff, one called GÇ£cooking potGÇ¥, and a team-chasing game called GÇ£ostrakindaGÇ¥ (same as the Austrian GÇ£Black and WhiteGÇ¥ and French GÇ£Day and NightGÇ¥).- Ball games GÇô equivalent of mod. GÇ£pass+¬-bouleGÇ¥, something similar to hockey, and even a precursor of rugby or poss Am. Football. In addition there is evidence for: - hoops and sticks, spinning tops, see-saws, swings, draughts, singing, and riddle-telling. All the best Marcus

[beausefaless]

Deleted

[chris]

Hi MarcusInteresting stuff. I wonder at what age ATG was introduced to lions??!!Chris

[ruthaki]

Thanks Marcus. Of course, having been through various museums in Greece, I've seen quite a few toys on display (usually made from clay -- I imagine there'd have been wooden ones but they obviously wouldn't have lasted throught the centuries).

[Linda]

In fact, the type of games are very similar to those played by children up until the 1970s, I would say. Di dthey play Greeks and Persians, like our Cowboys and Indians, I remember soemwhere reading about a game called "bees"..can't remember where..Linda

[amyntoros]

Two more games here - these from ancient sources. For the record; the first quote from Dio Chrysostom is an imagined conversation.

Dio Chrysostom - The Fourth Discourse on Kingship (Discourse 4) [4.46]
And Alexander said: "Apparently you do not hold even the Great King to be a king, do you?" And Diogenes with a smile replied, "No more, Alexander, than I do my little finger." "But shall I not be a great king," Alexander asked, "when one I have overthrown him?" "Yes, but not for that reason," replied Diogenes; "for not even when boys play the game to which the boys themselves give the name 'kings' is the winner really a king. The boys, anyhow, know that the winner who has the title of 'king' is only the son of a shoemaker or a carpenter - and he ought to be learning his father's trade, but he has played truant and is now playing with the other boys, and he fancies that now of all times he is engaged in a serious business - and sometimes the 'king' is even a slave who has deserted his master. Now perhaps you kings are also doing something like that: each of you has playmates - the eager followers on his side - he his Persians and the other peoples of Asia, and you your Macedonians and the other Greeks. And just as those boys try to hit one another with the ball, and the one who is hit loses, so you are now aiming at Darius and he at you, and perhaps you may hit him and put him out; for I think you are the better shot. Then, those who were on his side at first will be on yours and will do you obeisance, and you will be styled king after all." Xenophon - On The Cavalry Commander, Chapter V.9-10
But given these instructions, a man must himself invent a ruse to meet every emergency as it occurs. For there is really nothing more profitable in war than deception. [10] Even children are successful deceivers when they play "Guess the number"; they will hold up a counter or two and make believe that they have got a fist-full, and seem to hold up few when they are holding many; so surely men can play similar tricks when they are intent on deceiving in earnest. The first game sounds like dodge ball, doesn't it? Best regards, Amyntoros

[ianthe]

Thank you much! Well, apparently, Greek kids of Alexander's era were not so different for us when it came to entertaining themselves.
Ianthe

[yiannis]

It seems that many of these game are still being played, or at lease used to, until fairly recently. At least I (and I'm sure many more) recognize games I played as a kid (including Knucklebones!).Plato (in his "Laws") also mentions that children should play with fake-arms (arches, swords etc.) and also sports (running, jumping, wrestling) something that kids would definitely do, without Plato's advise .
We also have records with little girls playing with miniature kitchenware.