Chapter III. Agon and aristeia
p. 51-70
Texte intégral
A friendly agon
1Far from being a parody, the warriors’ game with counters and dice is one of the activities that demonstrate the excellence (aristeia) of an elite, characterised by physical and intellectual abilities as well as moral virtues. On the reverse of vases that display the players scene, a gymnasium scene reflects the integration of board games into a training programme that advocated the harmony of body and mind. A calyx-krater in Toledo (fig. 1.11; 520-510)99 shows Achilles, Ajax, and Athena on one side, all named by inscriptions, framed by palm trees, including a kalos praise to an anonymous handsome youth (ho pais kalos), whilst on the other side athletes are practising javelin and jumping to the sound of the double flute under the watchful eyes of two pedotribes. Similarly, on the reverse of an amphora in Sèvres,100 athletes are training—wrestling and running. The correlation between the two sides is also found on an amphora in Florence (fig. 1.12a, b; 540-530).101 One side features two warriors in arms, squatting, motionless and focused, while the other shows two naked, standing boxers with massive, muscular bodies, engaged in a violent physical confrontation. On both sides, the duel is about to end. The fight between the wrestlers (fig. 1.12b) has reached its climax under the gaze of a judge who seems to be intervening with his stick between the opponents.102 The athlete on the left has been hit and blood is spurting from his nose; behind him, a crowned athlete is holding a cloth, perhaps to wipe away his blood. However, as with the players, the moment is suspended in time, and a reversal of fortune is still possible. Mario Iozzo103 points out that the right arm of the injured pugilist could be gathering momentum to deliver the final blow that would grant him victory. The inscription above the fighter on the right could allude to this outcome by humorously naming him Apyochos or Aphyochos, ‘clumsy’.104
2This combination of physical and intellectual entertainment is present in the texts. In Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis, games with counters and athletic events keep the champions busy as they wait to depart. The women’s chorus watches on as Achilles races, Diomedes throws a discus, while Protesilas and Palamedes play with counters.105 A threne by Pindar, quoted by Pausanias,106 praises the heroic stature of virtuous men in the afterlife by describing the activities that demonstrate their superior social status, some with horses, engaged in bodily exercises, games with counters, pessoi, or music performance.107 Games with counters contributed to the elite’s sense of happiness, as did horses, athletic training and musical delights. Pindar adds that perfume offerings were burnt on the altars to associate the gods with this bliss.
3This aristocratic activity is reflected by the miniature terracotta gaming tables deposited in elite Attic tombs for almost a century (figs. 1.13a-d; 675/570).108 These miniature tables, with five, seven, nine or eleven lines and sometimes one or two terracotta dice, were not functional, but simulacra created for funerary rites. The oldest example (fig. 1.13a; 675-650),109 with a proto-Attic style decoration, comes from the offering trench of a tomb in the necropolis of Vari (Anagyrous) in Attic. Four female mourners are set at the corners, their hands resting on the top of their heads to pull out their hair; they are turned towards the centre, as if observing a scene unfolding on the board. The deliberate smashing of the table and the presence of a dice suggest the performance of specific burial rites. A later model (fig. 1.13b; 580-570)110 comes from an offering pit in the Kerameikos cemetery, where elite families were buried in the Archaic period. The Copenhagen example (fig. 1.13c; 600-575)111 may also have had a mourning figure at its centre.
Fig. 1.12a, b. Amphora attributed to the Leagros Group, 540-530. Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale no inv. number (ex coll. Campana).

Fig. 1.13a. Terracotta table (18 x 24,8 x 18,3cm), 675-650. Athens, National Museum NAM 25665. Terracotta dice (H. 2,5cm). Athens, National Museum NAM 25664.

Fig. 1.13b. Terracotta table (H. 15cm), 580-570. Athens, Kerameikos Museum 45 and 47.

Fig. 1.13c. Terracotta table (H. 14 x 37 x 18,3cm), 600-575. Copenhagen, National Museum 1950.

Fig. 1.13d. Terracotta table (12,8 x 28 x 20,3cm), 600-575. La Tour-de-Peilz, Swiss Museum of Games 700.

4The game with counters applies the same principles as the athletic and military agon,112 but the playful competition is carried out between peers, two individuals of equal strength and belonging to the same camp, not two enemies, like Achilles and Hector for instance. Achilles and Ajax are equal champions, as stated by Idomeneus in the Iliad: “But to no man would great Telamonian Aias yield […] Not even to Achilles, breaker of the ranks of men, would he give way, in close fight at least”.113 This fundamental equality is emphasised throughout the series by the symmetry of the poses, gestures, clothing, and weaponry. Their excellence can also be seen in the choice of weapons and clothing, particularly ornate on the first vases in the series (figs. 1.1, 1.2, 1.7), which contribute to the beauty of the game and of war.
5On a lekythos from the Acropolis Museum (fig. 1.14; 500-475),114 a visual comparison is drawn between the duel between the players on the body of the vase and the confrontation between two ferocious lions on the shoulder, a metaphor for the bravery of warriors in the Iliad.115 Lions and panthers are also depicted on the shields (figs. 1.1, 1.37) and on the uprights of miniature terracotta gaming tables (fig. 1.13d).116
6On an amphora by the Chiusi Painter in Munich (fig. 1.15; c. 510),117 the two players are crowned with wreaths, which establishes an analogy between playful competition and athletic contests, while at the same time signalling their equality. This parity is expressed in other ways on the Copenhagen miniature table (fig. 1.13c). Two terracotta dice are attached to either end of the board, and both show the value six, the result of the best throw, as if symbolising the excellence of both partners.
Fig. 1.14. Unattributed lekythos, 500-475. Athens, Acropolis Museum ΝΑ 1957 Αα 2146.

Fig. 1.15. Amphora attributed to the Chiusi Painter, c. 510. Berlin, Antikensammlung 1962.28.

7Following in the footsteps of Roger Caillois, Roberte Hamayon118 has emphasised the extent to which this equality between peers is one of the foundations of agonistic play. The focused, calm attitude of the players is a sign of the complicity that allows them to safely experiment with daring strategies. Respect for others is combined with fair play training for the winner and the loser. With each game, the reversibility of the roles brings a community together:
Like any other game involving two players, [the struggle] is first of all understood and experienced as establishing a relationship in which each player could be the other: even if the outcome of a confrontation arouses jealousy in one player and arrogance in the other, the winner knows that he could be the loser in the next confrontation, and vice versa.119
8In all scenes, the players’ hand gestures indicate that the outcome of the game has not yet been decided. They grasp or move a game piece (figs. 1.1- 1.3), prepare to throw a dice (fig. 1.31), raise a hand to comment on the game, express surprise (fig. 1.24), or perhaps indicate a number (fig. 1.15). On some vases (figs. 1.3a, 1.8b, 1.35b), the player on the right may hold out two fingers to ask for a break or forfeit the game.120 On most vases, small differences in the weaponry help to distinguish the players: the decoration on the cloak or shield, the hairstyle or facial hair, being helmeted or not, the helmet resting on top of the head or fully worn, covering the entire head (fig. 1.5). Each element signals that the game will produce a far more important distinction, a winner and a loser. These differences are expressed very subtly on Exekias’ amphora (fig. 1.1a). Ajax does not wear a helmet, while Achilles’ helmet is sitting high on his head, dominating his partner. Ajax is leaning forward, with a nervous expression, his eyebrow marked with a double line expressing restrained emotion. Achilles wears more ornate armour and clothing than Ajax; his armband is topped with a panther’s head and his mantelet is dotted with oriental geometric and floral motifs in which a deer is grazing.121 The shields are depicted on opposite sides, facing each other with the protruding face of a satyr on Achilles’ side, surmounted by a bearded snake resting on top of a panther, and a Gorgon surrounded by bearded snakes on the other. Achilles seems to have the upper hand over Ajax, but the viewer of the vase knows that Achilles will be the first to die in Troy, struck in his heel by Paris’ arrow, and that Ajax will save his corpse by carrying it off the battlefield. His barely contained grief will drive him into a state of madness and will lead him to commit suicide, humiliated and in despair for not having received Achilles’ weapons. All these episodes were painted by Exekias.122
9The importance of indeterminacy in their game reveals another facet of Athena’s role among the players. Athena always raises one arm while holding her spear in the other hand (figs. 1.4, 1.9) in a way that is usually interpreted as a call to order, urging action, as the gods regularly do in the Iliad.123 In an anthropological perspective, her function may be to add play, understood as a performance, to the game: Athena’s gesture implies ‘an action in progress’,124 while the players are almost motionless. She also stares at one of the warriors, usually to her right,125 to signal that the game is about to end and that there will be only one winner. She also acts as a kind of judge, guaranteeing a fair outcome to a game between equals.126
10Athena also presides over the vote for Achilles’ weapons with a similar referee function. The vote to decide between Odysseus and Ajax has counters or pebbles placed on a large block in front of the goddess. On a cup signed by Douris (fig. 1.16),127 Athena in arms stands behind the block, surrounded on either side by three men wearing a himation. Symmetrically, two are in the process of placing a counter on the surface of the block. A third man approaches from the right to place the last counter. Many counters are already stacked on the left. Athena extends her arm and turns her gaze towards the winner, Odysseus, standing at the far left, rejoicing by raising his hands. Ajax, on the far right, wrapped in his himation, is about to succumb to despair and death. The similarity in the structure of these two types of scenes is not insignificant. In both series, the result occurs in the presence of a deity.
War at play
11The game with counters is called paidia, a term that suggests a pleasurable form of entertainment, but Philostratus points out that Palamedes’ invention also sharpens intellectual acuity, because far from being light and easy (rhathymia), which suggests carelessness, it requires insight (ankhinous) and serious attention (spoude).128
12The intellectual value of the training provided by Pente Grammai lies in its strategic dimension, which provides a form of preparation for military life.129 This playful agon also teaches players to deal with the randomness of the roll of the dice and to prepare themselves for fate’s unexpected blows.130 The roll of the dice can be seen as a “process for educating responsibility and willpower, as a trigger for anticipation or positive subjective probability’”, writes Roberte Hamayon.131 In this way, the game helps to develop essential skills on the battlefield by learning to control one’s emotions so that the right decisions can be made quickly and dispassionately. Many texts refer to the temperament revealed during a game.132 In late Antiquity, an epigram by Agathias (6th cent. CE) recalls this salient point:
Sitting at this beautiful marble table, you will shake that toy you find so charming: the cone from which the dice tumble. If you win, be wary of being too proud of it, and if you lose, avoid grieving and complaining about an unfortunate throw. It is in the little things that a man’s character shines through, and the dice show just how far you can control yourself.133
13In the players series, the presence of Athena, the patron goddess of wisdom and moderation, who personifies military intelligence, reinforces this objective. Philostratus refers to the benefits of this ludic training in war. He recounts how Achilles undertook military expeditions to stay active during the siege of Troy. He is said to have invited Palamedes, the inventor of the game with counters, to join him, because he lacked restraint and, carried away by his enthusiasm, forgot discipline.134 Achilles relies on Palamedes, whom he takes as his model and guide, to teach him to contain his ardour and advise him on the best tactics. This statement can be understood in the light of the skills that the game developed in terms of both self-control and tactical acumen.135
14The representation of the players as hoplites brings the theme of the game into focus: war, strategy, and the rules of conduct to be observed in battle. As on the lid of a strategy game box, the vase-painters multiply the references to the epic universe. The juxtaposition of play and war features the imaginary military operations that the players carry out on the board game. The Andokides Painter (fig. 1.8b) heightens the allusion by pointing the players’ spears towards the board, as if to symbolically mimic the confrontation between the counters. On an amphora in Brussels (fig. 1.6),136 two warriors fight each other around the players, duplicating their fictitious duel. On the shoulder of a hydria in the Louvre (fig. 1.17; c. 525-475),137 an epic duel takes place under the gaze of two spectators in himation above the playful agon depicted on the body of the vase.
15Sometimes the ludic metaphor extends to the entire vase. Under one of the handles of a red-figure cup attributed to the Euergides Painter (fig. 1.18a, b; c. 510),138 two squatting warriors play over a block. Under the opposite handle is a rampart with the gate of Troy. On one side are three Trojans, one of whom is called Hector, and on the other three Greeks, one of whom is called Telephus. Arranged symmetrically, the players, the city to be taken and the opponents in arms seem to be setting the scene for their objective: to take a city by deploying different strategies.
Fig. 1.16. Cup signed Python (potter) and Douris (painter), c. 480. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum 3695.

Fig. 1.17. Unattributed hydria, 525-475. Paris, Musée du Louvre F 291 (Cp 202).

Fig. 1.18a, b. Cup attributed to the Euergides Painter, c. 510. London, British Museum 1836,0224.125 (E10).

Fig. 1.19. Amphora attributed to the Red-line Painter, 500-475. Copenhagen, Thorvaldsen Museum H512.

Fig. 1.20. Stamnos attributed to the Berlin Painter, c. 485. Munich, Antikensammlungen 2406.

Fig. 1.21. Amphora, Manner of the Acheloos Painter, c. 510. Munich, Antikensammlungen 1547 (J434).

16The vase-painters also take up epic iconographic schemes and transpose them to the game. On an amphora in Copenhagen (fig. 1.19; 500-475), the players are flanked by two women who stretch out their arms towards them, like Thetis and Hecuba, the mothers of Achilles and Hector, or Eos, Memnon’s mother, in Trojan battle scenes.139 The figure of Athena may refer to her role as Achilles’ protector in the Iliad.140 In scenes from the Ilioupersis, she is often depicted at the heart of the battle near the hero. On an amphora by the Berlin Painter in Munich (fig. 1.20; c. 485),141 she stands at the centre of the duel between two real enemies, Achilles and Hector, but she is as invisible to the combatants as she is to the players; she moves in the same direction as Achilles, whom she watches while holding out her helmet towards Hector, who is collapsing, mortally wounded. This gesture is repeated by the painter of a stamnos in Munich (fig. 1.21; c. 510).142 Athena has removed her helmet and is holding it over the player on the left, staring at him, as if to emphasise the military importance of the game. On a hydria by the Leagros Group in Berlin,143 there is no longer any suggestion of play. Two helmeted warriors are fighting, with Athena seated on the block at the centre, acting as a judge in a battle that seems to oppose real enemies.
17Painters sometimes juxtapose scenes to reflect on ‘good’ or ‘bad’ war models. On a hydria by the Leagros Group in Würzburg (fig. 1.22; 510-500),144 the game is displayed on the shoulder of the vase, directly above the sack of Troy on the body. In a position that is both dominant and a counterpoint, the players’ discipline takes on an exemplary dimension, enhanced by Athena, standing in the foreground in front of the gaming table. The players’ composure contrasts with the murderous madness unleashed on the vase’s body. Neoptolemos, who has inherited his father Achilles’ hybris, is about to thrust his sword through King Priam, who has taken refuge on the altar of Zeus Herkeios. The old man has fallen, his head bowed, his pleading gaze directed towards the upper register. He raises his right arm towards Athena on the shoulder as if to invoke her protection and denounce this crime against the gods themselves. The outstretched arms of the lamenting woman standing behind him, possibly Hecuba, emphasises this prayer. In front of Neoptolemos’ helmet, letters form a name, Leagros,145 which fills the central space above Priam’s head. The kalos praise could be a generic appeal to young people of military service age, inviting them to question the codes of conduct of honourable combatants.146 Behind Neoptolemos, a girl in embroidered chiton stands motionless, holding a flower. Her role as an onlooker of the action heightens the emotional dimension of the scene. Her flower could be an attribute of the soon-to-be scorned grace of the young Trojan women. The allure of the fragrance could also refer to men’s fascination for blood.147
18The latent threat of hybris and quarrels created by the tension of war is translated in a humorous way on a plate in Berlin (fig. 1.23; c. 525).148 The rim of the vase is decorated with a frieze depicting, above the heads of the players, two roosters fighting, surrounded on either side by four squatting young men holding their winged protégés. The two birds confront each other, raising their feathers mirroring the fan-shaped plumes of the players’ crests. However, the model offered by the animals differs from that of the warriors. Roosters were trained in Greece to fight in betting games. Marco Vespa149 explains that the belligerent nature of the cock is a lesson in courage while teaching self-control, but the birds are so fiery that they end up losing their temper blindly. In their fury, they lose all sense of proportion and kill each other.150 The representation of their fight above the players serves as a counter-example. It evokes both the passion for a competitive game and the danger of uncontrolled destructive violence within the same group, as in the case of the roosters.
Fig. 1.22a, b. Hydria attributed to the Leagros Group, 510-500. Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum HA33 (L311).

Fig. 1.23. Plate attributed to the Burgon Group, c. 525. Berlin, Antikensammlung V.I. 3267.

19In an anonymous epigram, the relationship between the game and learning the codes of war is made explicit. The space on the board corresponds to the battlefield, and the counters to the very body of its inventor, Palamedes:
Your bones, O Palamedes, should have been sawn up and made into instruments of the art, (techne) that is derived from war. For it was in war that you invented it for us, another war, the war of friends on a wooden field.151
20This fictional war, ‘on a wooden field’, takes place between friends, in a safe environment, and trains a techne, a specialised knowledge. But violence is never far away. The bones from which the counters are made in the epigram conjure up the image of the hero’s dead body, which the pyre does not, in the Greek context, annihilate in the way that modern incineration does. In the Iliad, Patroclus’ companions extinguish the flames of the pyre with wine, then gather up his bones and place them in a carefully chosen receptacle.152 This second, imperishable body replaces the mortal, carnal body. The perfectly white bones preserve the identity of the deceased. This identity is at the heart of the epigram, where Palamedes’ bones undergo another transformation. They are cut up to make artefacts that refer to the symbolic value of substitutes for counters representing soldiers, a topos that runs through Greek and Latin literature.153 Palamedes’ body thus experiences a very peculiar type of metamorphosis, one might even say transfiguration. The dead hero is multiplied into soldier-counters that actively demonstrate his power in each game. Any player can grasp this second degree, as the game pieces are often actually made of bone, albeit animal bone.
Fig. 1.24. Amphora attributed to the Leagros Group, 510-500. Munich, Antikensammlungen 1417 (J3).

Notes de bas de page
99Bf calyx-krater, Toledo, Museum of Art 63.26; Para 149.23bis (Rycroft P.); BAPD 351102; Kossatz-Deissman 1981, no. 408; Buchholz 1987, no. 129; Callisto 117.
100Bf amphora, Sèvres, Musée Céramique 6405; unattributed; BAPD 10478; Buchholz 1987, no. 34.
101Bf amphora, Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale no inv. number (ex coll. Campana); Iozzo 2018 (Leagros Group).
102His crown may indicate that he has won a previous battle.
103Iozzo 2018: 43.
104Iozzo 2018: 49 notes that it could be an Ionian dialect.
105Eur. IA, 195-198.
106Pind. Thr. frgt 129, apud Plut. Cons. ad Apoll. 120c (35) (transl. F.C. Babbitt, Loeb). See Duplouy 2006 on the mutual social recognition amongst the Greek elite.
107Heroes in the afterlife are also associated with play; see Polygnotus’ painting of the underworld, the Nekya (first half of 5th cent.), in the Cnidian meeting room at Delphi. Paus. 10.3, describes three characters, Ajax of Salamis, Palamedes and Thersitus, playing dice together, ‘Palamedes’ invention’, as Ajax, the son of Oileus, looks on.
108See Chidiroglou, Schädler, Schierup 2022.
109Athens, National Museum NAM 25665 (the table) and 25664 (the dice); Kalipolitis 1963: 123-124, pl. 53-55; Kallipolitis-Feytmans 1985: 35-40, 10-11, figs. 5-8; ibid., fig. 9 illustrates the upright of another table in London, British Museum 138.476, with the mention of an additional fragment found on the Acropolis (not illustrated); Chidiroglou, Schädler, Schierup 2022: 20-21, figs. 1-2.
110Athens, Kerameikos Museum 45 (dice) and 47 (table); Kübler 1970: 394-395: 512- 513, no. 129, pl. 102 (Opferplatz Ψ); Banou, Bournias 2014: 267; Chidiroglou, Schädler, Schierup 2022: 21-22, fig. 3. See also the one in Myrrhinous with eleven lines, Brauron archaeological museum BE 5545; Chidiroglou, Schädler, Schierup 2022: 22-24, figs. 4-6.
111Copenhagen, National Museum 1950; Ussing 1884: 149-151. See also Blinkenberg 1898: 8-9; Breitenstein 1941: 171, pl. 19; Schädler 2009: 175, fig. 1: 180, fig. 5; Dasen, Gavin 2021, fig. 7. Chidiroglou, Schädler, Schierup 2022: 24-26, figs. 8-12.
112On war and sport as agon, Pritchard 2013: 165-176.
113Il. 13.321-325 (transl. A.T. Murray, revised by W.F. Wyatt, Loeb).
114Bf lekythos from the sanctuary of the Nymphs, Athens, Acropolis Museum ΝΑ 1957 Αα 2146.
115On the ‘ferocious’ lion in the Iliad, Schnapp-Gourbeillon 1981: 39-47 sq. On the panther, e.g., Il. 21.573-574.
116La Tour-de-Peilz, Swiss Museum of Games 700; Schädler 2019b; Chidiroglou, Schädler, Schierup 2022: 26-27, figs. 11, 14-16.
117Bf amphora, Berlin, Antikensammlung 1962.28; Para 170.3, Add2 102 (Chiusi P.); BAPD 351259; Kossatz-Deissman 1981, no. 402; Buchholz 1987, no. 98; May 1991: 171, fig. 163; Kunze 2022: 93. See also the crowned heads on a bf amphora, Mannheim, Reiss-Museum Cg 345, op. cit. supra n. 30.
118Caillois 1958: 215 and 222, defines the intimate relationship between the principles of agon, competition, and alea, indeterminacy, which “provide opposite but complementary solutions to a single problem: that of the equality of all at the outset, either in the face of fortune […] or with regard to the conditions of the competition […]. Alea and agon are thus contradictory, yet mutually supportive. A permanent conflict opposes them, an essential alliance unites them”; quoted and commented by Hamayon 2021: 48-49.
119Hamayon 2021: 165. On the analogy between the spirit of play and the spirit of gift, both of which establish an alliance and a relationship of reversibility, Caillé 2015. The agon establishes friendship through rivalry; on the complicit relationship between loser and winner in the game, Hamayon 2016: 149-150.
120On the apagoreuein gesture, right hand raised, one or two of the athlete’s fingers extended, see Kratzmüller 2007.
121Mackay 2010: 328, pl. Ic (detail of deer on the lower back); she notes that this web of incisions, while creating a visually pleasing effect of poikilia, richness and variety, lightens the density of the two bodies; on the floral motifs, Kei 2021: 82.
122Mackay 2010: 338-339; Moignard 2015: 17-31
123There are many examples. E.g., Athena calls out to Diomedes: Il. 5.800-813.
124Hamayon 2021: 194.
125The gods are often around Achilles in the Iliad, as e.g., Il. 20.98: Aeneas is reluctant to confront him, because at his side, there is a god ready to ward off misfortune.
126In Aeschylus’ Eumenides, Athena acts as judge at Orestes’ trial between the Erinyes and Apollo. On her relationship with Tyche, see ch. IV.
127Rf cup, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum 3695; ARV2 429, 26, 1653 (Douris); BAPD 205070; Buchholz 1987, no. 188, fig. 58 b; Williams 1980. See the series of voting scenes on red-figure vases compiled by Buchholz 1987: 179-181, nos.188-195, figs. 58- 59.
128Philostr. Her. 10.33.4.
129According to Pl. Resp. 7.521c-527d, Lg. 7.819a8-c7, games were also associated with the mathematical exercises required of future warriors; see Macé 2022b and ch. VI.
130On Pl. Resp. 10.604d5, Macé 2022b also shows that exercise kept the soul supple in the face of misfortune.
131Hamayon 2021: 212.
132On the saying wrongly attributed to Plato: “You can find out more about someone in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”, d’Angour 2013a: 293. The theme, however, is a topos that dates to antiquity. Character is most naturally revealed during play, e.g., Quint. Inst. 1.3.11-12.
133Anth. Pal. 9.767. See Ov. Ars am. 3.354-380; Hor. Sat. 2.3.168-75.
134Philostr. Her. 10.5.2-7.
135For younger children, this is undoubtedly one of the aims of training for the ephedrismos or piggyback riding game, learning to get to know each other’s bodies intimately and to trust each other; see Part 2. Gymnastic games.
136See also bf oinochoe on which the warriors flanking the players stand back and look at them: Nicosia, Cyprus museum C433; ABV 325.41, 441.2, Add2 98 (Euphiletos P.); BAPD 301727; Buchholz 1987, no. 26, fig. 54; Kunze 2022: 93.
137Bf hydria from central Italy, Paris, Musée du Louvre F 291 (Cp 202); BAPD 11295; Buchholz 1987, no. 46.
138Rf cup from Vulci, London, British Museum 1836,0224.125 (E10); ARV2 90.33 (Euergides P.); BAPD 200728; Kossatz-Deissman 1981, no. 424.
139Bf amphora, Copenhagen, Thorvaldsen Museum H512; ABV 601.7; BAPD 1012933 (Red-line P.); Buchholz 1987, no. 40. See also the cup where the players are surrounded by two women: bf cup, New York, Brooklyn Museum 33.399; ABV 646.202 (Group of the Haimon P.); BAPD 331971. Bf cup, Paris, Musée du Louvre F 414; ABV 646.200, 653; BAPD 331969 (Leafless Group); CVA Paris, Musée du Louvre 10, 1951 (F. Villard): 100-101, pls. 114-115.
140E.g., Il. 20.98, where Athena, walking before him, “ensured his salvation”.
141Rf stamnos, Munich, Antikensammlungen 2406; ARV2 207.137, 1633 (Berlin P.); BAPD 201956; Kossatz-Deissman 1981, no. 566.
142Bf amphora, Munich, Antikensammlungen 1547: ABV 385.3, Add2 102 (Manner of the Acheloos P.); BAPD 302880; Buchholz 1987, no. 119; Pfisterer-Haas 2004a: 382, fig. 38.4; Kunze 2022: 94.
143Bf hydria, Berlin, Antikensammlung F 1907; ABV 360.8, Add2 95 (Leagros Group); BAPD 302003; CVA Berlin, Antikenmuseum 7, 1991 (H. Mommsen): 29-31, pls. 23-24; Kunze 2022: 80, pl. 38a.
144Bf hydria, Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum HA33 (L311); ABV 362.35, Add296, Para 161 (Leagros Group); BAPD 302030; Buchholz 1987, no. 126.
146See Garlan 2013: 12-15: war is not “a blind unleashing of pure, uncontrolled violence”, but a set of ‘regulated practices’.
147On the gesture of holding a flower as an attribute of the radiant grace of youth, Kei 2021: 159-181. On the smell of blood, which young boys must become accustomed at an early age, Pl. Resp. 7.537a.
148Bf plate, Berlin, Antikensammlung V.I. 3267; ABV 90.6, Para 33, Add2 24 (Burgon Group); BAPD 300833; Buchholz 1987, no. 61, fig. 55a; May 1991: 169, fig. 166.
149Vespa 2019; Dasen, Vespa 2022a.
150On the motif. Bruneau 1965. On the harmful aggressivity that can be triggered by the sight of these shows, see also Matuszewski 2019: 110-113.
151Anth. Pal. 15.18 (transl. W.R. Paton, Loeb, modified).
152Il. 23; Poplin 1995.
153See Bakewell 2021 on the game metaphor on Callipolis and his guardians in Plato’s Republic. In Latin writings, the counters are however in glass, see Laus Pisonis, 185-208.
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Penser (avec) la culture vidéoludique
Discours, pratiques, pédagogie
Selim Krichane, Isaac Pante et Yannick Rochat (éd.)
2022
Jouer dans l’Antiquité classique/Play and Games in Classical Antiquity
Définition, Transmission, Réception/Definition, Transmission, Reception
Véronique Dasen et Marco Vespa (éd.)
2021
Lire les magazines de jeux vidéo
Couverture(s) de la presse spécialisée française
Sélim Ammouche, Alexis Blanchet, Björn-Olav Dozo et al. (éd.)
2022
Temporalités et imaginaires du jeu
Rémi Cayatte, Audrey Tuaillon Demésy et Laurent Di Filippo (éd.)
2023
La Plume dans la Play
Comment les techniques d’enquêtes ont investi la presse jeu vidéo
Boris Krywicki
2024
