GAMES. – Games are an activity of the higher forms of biological and psychic life in human beings, appearing both as the expression of natural physical energies (clearly visible in children’s games) and as a means of expressing the religious and social cohesion of the group, eventually becoming a spontaneous means of interrupting work and restoring the individual’s physiological and psychic balance. Thus games are found in practice in all civilizations, from the most primitive to the most advanced.
Among primitive peoples, games have their roots in the sacromagical motive, operative among all primitive human groups, which seeks to revive, through the energy released by contests of dancing, running, or athletic exercises, the forces of nature, especially at critical moments in the growth of vegetation.
To this motive of an animistic character must be added the social one, insofar as the structure of the group feels strengthened by participation in the same ceremony; and in the case of votive games celebrated following a victory, the vital principle of the group is exalted and its vigor renewed.
Leaving aside the enumeration of the games offered by the various religions, we shall mention those in use in the classical religions of Rome and Greece.
I. ROME
In Rome, from the beginning, the g. were agrarian in type, in honor of deities of vegetation, and were celebrated at fixed times under the direction of the aediles. Alongside the fixed games, there were votive ones on the occasion of extraordinary events, directed by the dictator or the consul.In terms of type, the Roman g. were circenses, consisting of gymnastic exercises and races, celebrated in the circuses; mumera, gladiatorial spectacles held on the occasion of funerary honors; and scænici, theatrical performances given to appease and honor the gods.
The religious value of the g. emerges not only from the assertion of the writers, “ludorum primum initium procurandis religionibus datum” (Livy, VII, 3), but also from their ceremonial. The great procession (pompa) that opened the circenses was led by images or symbols of the gods carried on biers (fercula) and began with a sacrifice (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VII, 70); any error or omission committed required the spectacle to be repeated (Cicero, De har. resp., 11).
The principal Roman g., arranged in chronological order, are: 1) Ludi Romani (or Magni, or Maximi), celebrated from 4 to 19 September in the Circus Maximus in honor of the Capitoline triad (Livy, I, 35). 2) Ludi Florales, instituted in 238 B.C. and dedicated to the goddess Flora; they lasted from 28 April to 6 May and had a licentious character, intended to stimulate fertility (Ovid, Fasti, III, 575 ff.). 3) Ludi Apallinares, instituted during the Second Punic War to implore the aid of Apollo, Diana, and Latona; held from 6 to 13 July, they followed an entirely Greek rite and had a theatrical character (Livy, XXV, 12). 4) Ludi plebei, in honor of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, mentioned for the first time in 216 (id., XXIII, 30), but of more ancient origin. 5) Ludi Ceriales, in honor of Ceres insofar as she produces and develops vegetation; they were directed by the plebeian aediles and fell on 19 April (Ovid, Fasti, IV, 679 ff.). 6) Ludi Megalenses. They began in 194 on the occasion of the dedication of the temple of Cybele, the Magna Mater, on the Palatine. They were theatrical and lasted from 4 to 10 April.
Toward the end of the Republic and during the Empire, other g. were added: the Ludi Victoriae Sullanae, founded by Sulla in 82; the Ludi Victoriae Caesaris, founded by Caesar in 46; and the Ludi Augustales, founded by Octavian in 11 B.C.
Special mention must be made of the secular g., Ludi saeculares, an ancient cathartic ceremony to be performed every century, which sought to purify the people from physical or spiritual miasmas. This ceremony was renewed by Augustus in 17 B.C., almost as a consecration of the new era of religious and political peace that he had inaugurated after the civil war. The festival was preceded by three days (26, 27, and 28 May) of purifying fumigations (suffimenta) and the gathering of cereals (fruges), and took place from 1 to 3 June: at night, with sacrifices to the Noerae, the Ilithyiae, and Terra; and by day, with joyful ceremonies dedicated to Jupiter (1 June), Juno (2 June), Apollo, and Diana (3 June). Horace composed the hymn that twenty-seven boys and an equal number of girls sang at the conclusion of the rite.
II. GREECE
In Greece, the games (ἀγώνες ἱεροί) possessed great religious-national significance because through them the Hellenic race affirmed its unity despite the political division of the various city-states. They also served to stimulate among the Greeks certain qualities such as strength, courage, and youthful vigor. The games (races and wrestling) always opened with religious ceremonies; they also included contests in poetry and eloquence and awarded as a highly coveted prize of moral significance a crown of branches from sacred plants.The most important games, all dating from the first half of the sixth century B.C., at the close of the Greek Middle Ages, were: 1) the Pythian Games, in honor of Apollo, which traditionally dated from the third year of the 49th Olympiad (582 B.C.). They were held on the plain of Crisa, below Delphi, at first every nine years, then every four (penteteric), and an essential element was the recitation of the πυθικὸς νόμος, which narrated and represented Apollo’s victory over the serpent Python, the first possessor of the site; later, gymnastic contests and races were added in imitation of the Olympic games. The prize for the victors was a branch of laurel from Parnassus (Pindar, Pyth., 8, 28). 2) the Nemean Games, in honor of Zeus, traditionally dating from the fourth year of the 51st Olympiad (573 B.C.), held in the Valley of Nemea, near the city of Cleonae, and possessing a funerary character, since they commemorated the death of the child Opheltes (Archemorus). They were trieteric, that is, celebrated in the second and fourth years of each Olympiad. The prize for the victors was a crown of celery (σέλινον; Pindar, Nem., 4, 153). 3) the Isthmian Games, in honor of Poseidon, traditionally dating from the fourth year of the 49th Olympiad (581 B.C.). The god was said to have instituted them for the death of his son Melicertes. They were celebrated at Schenuntes in the Gulf of Corinth, under the presidency of the Corinthians. The Athenians had a special place there, whereas the Eleans were excluded, perhaps because of commercial rivalry between Elis and Corinth. They were trieteric, that is, celebrated in the second and fourth years of each Olympiad. The prize for the victor was a crown of celery. Nicola Turchi
4) the Olympic Games. These were the oldest and most important and were celebrated every four years on the plain of Olympia (penteteric), in honor of the founding hero Pelops (Pausanias, V, 8, 2), eponym of the Peloponnese, in whose myth solar motifs (the wheel, a clear solar symbol) and funerary motifs (the hero’s tomb, existing within the precinct of the games) are interwoven.
The traditional historical year in which the Olympic games were first celebrated dates back to 776 B.C.; this date was established, toward the end of the fifth century B.C., by the sophist Hippias of Elis, who, scientifically reorganizing the list of Olympic victors, was able to trace it back to that year, also determining the first winner of the first Olympic event: Koroibos. Hippias’s work, considerably revised and completed by Aristotle and his school, became about a century later the basis of chronological systems (Timaeus), and a constant element in dating until A.D. 393, the year in which Theodosius suppressed the Olympic games.
Five days were devoted to them (Pindar, Ol., V, 6), and they fell around the full moon of the month Parthenios (or Apollonios, if it was an intercalary year) according to the Aeolian-Doric calendar, corresponding to the month Hecatombaion of the Athenian calendar, that is, to July-August.
With regard to the political importance of the Olympic games, it should be noted that, from the first Olympiad onward, according to tradition, when messengers (σπονδοφόροι) departed from Olympia to proclaim the forthcoming Olympic games, a “sacred truce” (ἐκεχτερία) was established among the Greek cities for the entire duration of the celebrations. During the same period, the area of Olympia, where the sanctuary of Zeus stood, was inviolable to every armed person, and the gravest penalties were imposed upon transgressors.
While men of every age and condition could freely attend the Olympic games, among women only unmarried girls were admitted; married women were most rigorously excluded (those who transgressed were thrown from Mount Typaion). The sole exception was made for the priestess of Demeter Charnyne, who had her place opposite the Hellanodikai (the judges of the contests).
As for the uncertain and much-debated arrangement of the various contests, it should be briefly noted that on the first day the judges of the games selected the various competitors: men, boys, and horses; then, before the statue of the terrible Zeus Horkios, the athletes swore an oath of loyalty upon the still-smoking flesh of the sacrificed boar. This same day (which perhaps coincided with the eleventh day of the moon) was devoted first of all to the various sacrifices of oxen (βουθυσίαι) before the great altar of Zeus and the six double altars sacred to the twelve major divinities (see the list in Eroforus of Heraclea, frg. 29; in whom the twelve months of the year should rather be recognized), erected by Heracles (cf. Eroforus and Pindar, Ol., V, 6). Then, after a contest among trumpet players, the “bloody libations” (αἱμανοφίαι) were offered at the tomb of Pelops.
The actual contests (ἀγωνίσματα) began on the second day with the gymnastic contests of the boys; on the third, the various footraces took place (σπάδιον, δίαιλος, δόλιγος), and perhaps also the multiple contests of the πένταθλον: long jump (ἄλμα), discus throw (διακασδολία), javelin throw (ἀκοντίσματα), running (δρόμος), and wrestling (πάλι). At the end of this day, the victors (καλλινίκοι), accompanied by a large procession, ascended to the temple of Zeus and sacrificed their palms and crowns to the god.
On the fourth day, the finest and most imposing contests of the Olympic games were celebrated: the equestrian contests (two-horse chariots, four-horse chariots, and, in a later period, chariots drawn by two mules), at the end of which the owners of the horses were solemnly awarded prizes.
Finally, on the fifth day, a solemn procession made up of the victors, magistrates, ambassadors of the Greek cities, and an enormous crowd proceeded once more to the Altis, where sacrifices were performed at the great altar of Zeus and funerary sacrifices beside the tombs of the mythical heroes (Scholia on Pindar, Ol., III, 33 b, c). On the evening of this solemn day, the magistrates and victors concluded the Olympic Games with a great banquet in the Prytaneum (Pausanias, V, 15, 12).
III. CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY
It is natural that Christian children generally possessed the same toys and enjoyed the same amusements as their pagan contemporaries.In the tombs of children in the underground cemeteries of Rome, articulated dolls made of bone and ivory were found as early as the time of M. A. Boldetti (Osservazioni sopra i cimiteri, Rome 1720, pp. 496–97); two were found in the cemetery beneath Viale Regina Margherita (E. Josi, Cimitero alla sinistra della Via Tiburtius al Viale Regina Margherita, in Riv. d’arch. crist., 11 [1934], p. 32, fig. 53; p. 213, fig. 74); tintinnabula, small bronze bells, were also found as early as Boldetti’s time (op. cit., p. 498), as well as, in more recent times, bells attached to children’s loculi (E. Josi, Il cimitero di Panfilo, in Riv. d’arch. crist., 3 [1926], p. 114, fig. 34). In a sarcophagus discovered in a mausoleum of the cemetery in catacumba, ivory disks bearing horses were found. Boldetti also discovered small ivory masks in the Roman cemeteries (op. cit., p. 504). The great passion that the Romans had for games of chance is well known. The followers of the new faith were not exempt from it either, as is shown by Christian writers. From the pamphlet «de aleatoribus» (v.), now dated between 260 and 300, it appears that games of chance were very widespread among the Roman faithful of that period. The Council of Elvira, around the year 300, imposed one year of excommunication on the faithful who had played dice for money. In the apostolic canons of the following century, gaming is prohibited to all ecclesiastics. Among Christian antiquities, particular interest is offered by the marble gaming boards, tabulae lusoriae, preserved in large quantities almost exclusively from the catacombs and other Christian burial places of Rome; these boards, suitably sawn, served to close the openings of the loculi. Each game board, divided into two equal sections, bears thirty-six squares, generally marked with letters which, arranged six by six, form words and phrases often referring to the game itself. Its rules are not known with precision. It was undoubtedly a game involving dice and counters, chance and skill. Most of these boards date from the third and fourth centuries, that is, from the period when burial in the catacombs was practiced. Moreover, there is no shortage of examples whose markings and inscriptions indicate that they were made by Christian craftsmen. It must therefore be acknowledged that these gaming boards, before being used as closures for tombs, actually belonged to Christian families.
IV. IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Few reports have come down to us concerning the games in use during the Middle Ages: generally, chroniclers limit themselves to recalling the military games that accompanied some extraordinary event. Others were more closely connected with religious custom, such as the Roman festival of the «cornomània» (v.). In the 13th century, at Padua and Treviso, on the occasion of Pentecost, a popular game called the «defense of honesty» (enclosed in a wooden tower) was organized in the presence of the clergy, with the participation of representatives and gonfalons from neighboring cities. From the 12th to the 16th century, in Venice, the anniversary of the victory achieved in 1162 over the patriarch of Aquileia was celebrated with a singular symbolic rite and game in which the highest dignitaries of the State took part. Many games, including secular ones, traditionally had their venue in churches and lasted until the Counter-Reformation (for example, the games of May 1 sponsored by the Colonna family in the church of SS. Apostoli in Rome, which Pope Clement VII attended in 1523; the Pentecost fire in Orvieto Cathedral, etc.).During the communal period, the taste for gymnastic games revived; distinguished humanists, such as Guarino Veronese and Vittorino da Feltre, later turned their attention to their educational importance. Games of chance, deception, and society are repeatedly mentioned in the communal statutes; but those preferred by coteries and private individuals were above all dice and tarot cards (invented by the Arabs and spread throughout Europe by the Spaniards beginning in the 14th century). The game of chess also enjoyed great popularity, and allegorical and astrological meanings were attributed to II. No mention has been made here of the «banned courts» and «courts of love»; but one cannot omit recalling how the passion for the games of jesters was subsequently transmitted to the courts of the Renaissance, including the papal court, down to Leo X and Clement VII.
The medieval games that survived are for the most part connected with the festivals of the patron saints of individual cities. Others, characteristic of Italian civic custom, such as the Palio of Siena, arose later and enjoyed great popularity.
For the term game, understood as recreation, V. DIVERTIMENTI; understood as gymnastics, V. GINNASTICA; understood as gambling or stock-market speculation, V. SCOMMESSE E GIOCHI D'AZZARDO.