At the end of Case J are four terracotta models of cradles (No. 585) with young children in them. One is a winged Eros, and one is swaddled. Beside the cradles are three cups (No. 586), with spouts shaped as mouth-pieces, which may be supposed to be for milk or pap. Here also are two clay rattles (No. 587), and a child's wooden clapper (No. 588).
Fig. 230.—Child in High Chair (No. 590).
A set of small trefoil-lipped jugs (No. 589) is painted with designs closely connected with child life. Children are shown playing with jugs of this type, with animals and toy carts, or other objects. It is probable that these jugs were given to Athenian children on the festival day of the wine god Dionysos, which went by the name of ??e? ("Jugs"). Note No. 590 (fig. 230), with a child confined in a turret-shaped high chair, and No. 591 (fig. 231), with two children with draw-carts, each holding a jug.
Toys.—Children of all ages and nations bear a great resemblance to one another; consequently, it is not surprising, though it is always interesting, to find that Greek and Roman toys are often very similar to those of modern times. At the corner of Case J is a series of small reproductions of furniture, implements and the like in lead, bronze, pottery and terracotta (No. 592). Often no doubt, they are simply toys, like the furniture of a doll's house. Sometimes, however, they must be supposed to have had a more serious votive character in a temple. In some cases, perhaps, they were of both kinds. Among the treasures of Hera at Olympia, the traveller Pausanias saw a small couch said to have been a plaything of Hippodameia,74 and it was not uncommon for children on growing up to dedicate their toys in a temple.
Fig. 231.—Greek Toy Jug (No. 591). 1:1 and 1:2.
Fig. 232.—Greek Terracotta Doll (No. 593). Ht. 5? in.
Fig. 233.—Old Woman on Mule (No. 596). 1:1.
Fig. 234.—Seated Doll, with Marriage-Bowl, Epinetron and Shoes (No. 599). Ca. 1:2.
Fig. 235.—Terracotta Model Tops and Design from Vase-Painting. (No. 600).
Ht. of Model on right, 4¼ in.
The dolls that survive from Greek times were chiefly of terracotta, and frequently furnished with movable arms and legs. It will be noticed that most of these dolls have holes pierced in the top of their heads for the passage of strings connected with the arms and sometimes with the legs. These would produce a movement of the arms and legs, and explain the term ?e???spasta ("drawn by strings") applied to these dolls. In Xenophon's Symposium a travelling showman speaks of being kept by the profits drawn from such puppets.75 One, holding castanets, is illustrated here (fig. 232; No. 593). We get allusions in literature to these dolls and other small terracotta figures, which show that one of their chief uses was the amusement of children. One writer76 speaks of "those who make little figures of clay in the form of all kinds of animals destined for the beguiling of little children." Such a figure is that of the donkey with a sea-perch tied on its back (No. 594) or the fascinating group of the little boy on the goose (No. 595), and the old woman on the mule (No. 596; fig. 233). Many of these toys bring vividly to mind country scenes in Greece at the present day. Though they were doubtless intended chiefly for little children, women did not altogether disdain these terracotta toys. A Greek tombstone of the fifth century B.C. has a relief showing a girl, quite grown up, standing with a terracotta doll, exactly like those in this Case, in her hands, while a young slave-girl holds the figure of a duck before her.77 Humbler but less breakable toys of Roman date are the wooden horse (No. 597) and rag doll (No. 598) from Egypt. For the most part these toys have been found in the tombs of children. The seated figure of a girl (No. 599; fig. 234), holding an ivory dove in her hand, and surrounded by her spinning instrument for the knee (see p. 145), her shoes, and marriage-bowl, was found in a tomb near Athens, probably of the fourth century B.C. The bowl is almost certainly the ???? ?a????, used by the bridal pair immediately after marriage. It is therefore not unreasonable to conclude that the tomb was that of a newly wedded bride. Another plaything in vogue among the Greeks was the whipping top, an ancient model of which in terracotta (No. 600) is seen in the Case and is illustrated on the right of fig. 235. On the left of the figure is another form of Greek whipping top (of terracotta, found in the sanctuary of the Kabeiri at Thebes), and in the centre a design from a vase, in which a woman is represented whipping such a top. In a Greek epigram78 the top is mentioned as a boy's plaything, together with a ball, a rattle, and the favourite knucklebones, and an inscription from the sanctuary of the Kabeiri at Thebes speaks of four knucklebones, a top (st??????), a whip, and a torch dedicated by a woman named Okythoa.79
(591) Cat. of Vases, III., E 533 ff.; Benndorf, Griech. u. Sicil. Vasenbilder, p 64; (599) For the ???? ?a????, see Ath. Mitt., XXXII. (1907), p. 111 f.; (600) See Ath. Mitt., XIII., p. 426 f., and Van Branteghem Coll., No. 167.
e?f??? t?? sfa??a?, ?????ta??? te F???????
??e?? ta?t?? p??????? p?at????,
?st?a???a? ?' a?? p???' ?pe??at?, ?a? t?? ????t??
????, ?????s???? pa????', ??e???ase?.
