The headword here,
a)/stria, may here stand in error for
a)stri/a, the unattested nominative singular of
a)stri/as, read by
Eustathius in
Suetonius (
*peri\ paidi/wn 1.18, ed. Taillardat pp. 66, 155), or else is an error for
a)/strias (the accusative plural of
a)/stris), to be restored in the verse of
Callimachus quoted here (
Hecale fr. 276 Pfeiffer).
This abbreviated form of the normal word, astragalos (
alpha 4250), may have been used to associate knucklebones with the Greek word for "star" (see
tau 7, notes [7] and [8]), but it seems normal to Aelius (
Peri pathon 3.2) and
Hesychius (cf. schol.
Plato,
Lysis 206C). This gift is attested as one offered to boys for sexual favors; cf.
Callimachus fragmenta incertae sedis 676 Pfeiffer ("I will straightaway give you, dear lad, five newly cleaned knucklebones [also
a)/strias] of an African deer").