File:Homeric games at ancient St. Andrews; an epyllium. Edited from a comparatively modern papyrus and shattered by means of the higher criticism (1911) (14576936310).jpg

Identifier: homericgamesatan00shewuoft (find matches)
Title: Homeric games at ancient St. Andrews; an epyllium. Edited from a comparatively modern papyrus and shattered by means of the higher criticism
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Shewan, Alexander, 1851-
Subjects: Homer
Publisher: Edinburgh J. Thin
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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th preferring it and other enjoyments to the pursuit ofknowledge. So that there was evidently some pastime inwhich the inhabitants of these towns indulged immoder-ately. What was its nature? One suspects at onceEleusinian influence. For ye<pvpa is a bridge, and weknow that one of Demeters titles was Gephyj-aea. Therewas a bridge over the Cephisus on the road which thesacred procession took on its way back from Eleusis toAthens, ye^i^p/^w was the verb used to denote the bandy-ing of abuse at this point, ye^f/a/cr/io? was the coarse funitself, and ye(^vpi.(nai was applied to those who took partin it. On this hint we might conclude that bridge was agame in the course of which an opponent (or partner) wasfreely slanged. But another explanation is possible. Herodotus tellsus (v. 57 f) that there were Tetpvpaloi among the Phoenicianswho came over with Cadmus, and that they introducedvarious oioaa-Kokia, (Abbott renders lessons, Macanelements of culture; better, perhaps, tips, a thing 144
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< (r» Jim fu IM. ArPKNOIX 15 145 or two ), besides the ypa^iJiara, or alphabet, which musthave been so Xvypii to the schoolboys of the day.iwapla-rep euaOe^, co 7roi»;pt, ypti/uLuara. The late DrButcher has told us the Greeks had no natural turn forlearning their letters, so they would kick at compulsoryPhoenician. Now what were these new things? Gamesof various kinds, no doubt,—kv^oi of course, especiallyTrXeicTToSoXnoa, and Wire ypafx/mat, and the earlyequivalents of p(7r iinpar or odd and even, and capitaaiit navia or pitch and toss, and the game, whatever itsnature, that was played on that most sumptuous board that has been found in the palace of Minos. And surelycards. For a hint at one such game, see on 556. Cardscame, like most games (Schrader, 785) from the East.The aboriginal Boeotians would go daft over someparticular card game, and it would be called, after theseGephyraean sharpers, by the name which we have trans-lated bridsre. At Rome in later times it would be a L

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