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FOR CHILDREN IN ANCIENT GREECE AND THOSE IN
THE MODERN WORLD, THE MAINSTAYS OF
CHILDHOOD REMAIN THE SAME — TOYS AND GAMES,
PETS, AND SCHOOLWORK
What was life like for children who grew up in
ancient Greece some 2,500 years ago? While some things
have changed, many elements of childhood remain
surprisingly familiar today, from the toys they played with
and the games they enjoyed, to the pets they cherished and
the schoolwork they had to do.
TOYS AND GAMES
As it is today, play was viewed as an important part
of childhood in ancient Greece. Classical authors discussed
the role of play in shaping the character and physical
abilities of children. Many of the toys that Greek children
enjoyed thousands of years ago are still recognizable today.
They include rattles, dolls, yo-yos, push- and pull-toys, and
wooden hoops. As is still the case, many were modeled in
the shape of animals, but using materials such as terracotta,
bronze and glass. Toys were also gender specific in many
cases, with girls playing with dolls and boys playing with
toy chariots.
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Among the most popular toys were knucklebones. Original knucklebones were
small animal anklebones (usually from the hind legs of sheep or goats) that were used
like dice by both boys and girls. They were thrown, with each side assigned a different
numerical value. Gaming pieces made to look like knucklebones were fabricated in all
sizes and from a variety of materials, including glass, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. A
game of knucklebones was similar to playing jacks.
The top was another favorite. Two types are known: the twirler, which had a
stem on top for spinning; and the whipping top, which spun when it was struck by a
whip. They were made using materials such as bronze, stone, glass, and lead, but
wood and terracotta tops were the most common.
Girls in ancient Greece were fond of dolls with movable limbs. These were
made in Greece over a period of approximately 700 years. Although dolls were
fashioned from a wide range of materials, terracotta was by far the most common.
Some ancient dolls held the castanets of dancers, and many had a hole in the top of
the head to accommodate a string, which may have been used to make the figures
dance like marionettes.
Games played in ancient Greece included aporrhaxis, which was like dribbling in
basketball, and ephedrismos, which was a piggyback game. Other activities, such as
juggling, balancing sticks, and playing on the seesaw, can still be seen on playgrounds
today.
PETS
Even in ancient Greece, children were drawn to animals as pets. The most
popular were birds, dogs, cocks, hares, goats, and deer. Wealthy aristocratic youths
had more exotic pets, including cheetahs or monkeys, which were imported from the
East. For older boys, racehorses and hunting hounds were highly desirable. One
surviving inscription tells of a girl mourning the passing of her cherished grasshopper.
Another ancient artifact shows a girl with her pet goose.
SCHOOLWORK
Although paper did not exist in antiquity, children in ancient Greece still had to
do homework. Instead of pen and paper, they used sharp, pointed instruments to
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form letters on wooden tablets covered with a layer of wax, which could be smoothed
for reuse. Older students wrote with reed pens and ink. For their exercises, recycled
materials—like broken pieces of terracotta vases—were used instead of expensive
papyrus scrolls. Surviving examples of schoolwork from ancient Greece show that
young students delighted in practicing the alphabet by writing their own names, as
children still do today.
Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past will be
on view September 14–December 5, 2004, at the Getty Center.
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