[1] The normal usage is for the four-sided knucklebone (Latin: talus) used in children's games and in dicing (OCD(4) 447-8). It was originally the ball of the ankle joint from the foot of a deer, sheep, horse, or similar animal, but was later manufactured of ivory or metal (Latin: alea). The four "faces" had values of 6 (the hollow, sinuous side called
*kw|=os; Latin: tortuosum), 4 (the concave large side; Latin: planum)), 3 (the convex large side; Latin: pronum) and 1 (the ear-shaped, flat side, called
*xi=os; Latin: supinum, or, as a throw, canis). Unlike the 6-sided die (see
kappa 2602), it does not have a 2 or a 5, for it cannot land on its ends unless in a sandy substance. Knucklebones were known to
Homer (
Odyssey 23.88) and earlier civilizations; they were also known as
a)/stria (
alpha 4255), and might be split in two (
lambda 603,
lambda 604), for unknown reasons.
Gamblers threw four astragaloi at once, shaken from a fluted "tower" (
delta 748) open at both ends, to prevent cheating, onto a table or into a receptacle. There are thus 35 possible throws, some with colourful names,
Stesichorus (4, 4, 1, 1),
Euripides (6 x 4 + 4 x 4), basilicus (
Suetonius,
*Peri\ Paidi/wn 1.18-27, with Taillardat's notes, pp.155-60; Lamer 1946-60). The best known, Venus for four different values (6, 4, 3, 1), may be Roman, later adopted by the Greeks. Implicit in the '
Euripides' throw is that the gambler throwing four 6s followed with a second throw. There is much dispute whether Koos and
Chios↗ were the names of single throws of 6 and 1 respectively, or represented throws of four identical dice (see
kappa 2290).
Suetonius (
Augustus 71) reports a letter of Augustus to
Tiberius in which he describes a game where the players ante-ed for each die thrown of 1 or 6 and the pot was won by the first player to throw Venus.
2This is the usual meaning in Homer (LSJ s.v. I; web address 1; cf. LfgrE fasc. 8.1449-50). ↩3cf. LSJ (web address 1). Whether astragaloi were ever used, as 6-sided dice were, for playing any of the board-games known as pessoi (pi 1384) is unclear. It is more likely that all games with dice were eventually confused by non-gamblers. ↩4Milk vetch (LSJ s.v. VII; web address 2). ↩5This analysis of the Book of Daniel, chapter 5, in the Bible depends on the Septuagint. version of Theodotion, who uses a)stra/galos as a "joint of a finger" (not "wrist" as LSJ s.v. III has it) rather than da/ktulos to represent the Hebrew concept of the finger or hand of God (cf. Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 2.20-21). Theodoret and John Chrysostom use the same word. No other ancient commentary is explicit that Daniel's ability to read the words came from the fact that they were in Hebrew/Aramaic. For example, תקל teqel is the Aramaic equivalent of the measure given in Hebrew as שקל šeqel, and Daniel interprets its appearance on the wall (Daniel 5:24, an Aramaic passage) as meaning that God has put a measure, i.e. end, to the rule of Belshazzar.