In this fourth (of five) episode of The Ideas That Make Us, Bettany Hughes explores the history of the word "Agony", which derives
from the Greek "agon". It originally meant a meeting or gathering (to see the games) but came to mean "struggle" or "competition". The words
"agony", "agonise", etc., are derived from "agon".
Listen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03b2v70
The Ideas That Make Us. "Agony".
BBC Radio 4.
Tx. Monday 8th September 2014.
(First Broadcast: 19th September 2013).
Duration: 15 minutes.
Available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03b2v70
The Image
The image (above), from the cover of Elton Barker's Enter the Agon, shows Achilles and Ajax hunched over a game board, engrossed in a game of petteia ("pebbles"), known by the Romans as ludus latrunculorum or latrunculi.
The image comes from a C6th BC Greek amphora excavated from an Etruscan tomb, now in the Vatican's Etruscan museum.
The Game
David Parlett offers a brief account of the game in his history of board games (Parlett, pp. 234-238), along with the suggestion that the game board excavated from Stanway, near Colchester (aka "The Stanway Game" or "The Doctor's Game") is an example of latrunculi. Ulrich Schädler, on the other hand, suggests the Stanway game may be an example of a Celtic tafl-type game, such as fidhcheall or gwyddbwyll (Schadler, p. 373).
Parlett, D. (1999) The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford. Oxford University Press.
Schädler, U. (2007) "The doctor’s game – new light on the history of ancient board games" in Crummy, P., et al.Stanway: An Elite Burial Site at Camulodunum. Britannia Monograph Series No. 24. London. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. pp. 359-375.
Listen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03b2v70
The Ideas That Make Us. "Agony".
BBC Radio 4.
Tx. Monday 8th September 2014.
(First Broadcast: 19th September 2013).
Duration: 15 minutes.
Available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03b2v70
The Image
The image (above), from the cover of Elton Barker's Enter the Agon, shows Achilles and Ajax hunched over a game board, engrossed in a game of petteia ("pebbles"), known by the Romans as ludus latrunculorum or latrunculi.
The image comes from a C6th BC Greek amphora excavated from an Etruscan tomb, now in the Vatican's Etruscan museum.
The Game
David Parlett offers a brief account of the game in his history of board games (Parlett, pp. 234-238), along with the suggestion that the game board excavated from Stanway, near Colchester (aka "The Stanway Game" or "The Doctor's Game") is an example of latrunculi. Ulrich Schädler, on the other hand, suggests the Stanway game may be an example of a Celtic tafl-type game, such as fidhcheall or gwyddbwyll (Schadler, p. 373).
Parlett, D. (1999) The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford. Oxford University Press.
Schädler, U. (2007) "The doctor’s game – new light on the history of ancient board games" in Crummy, P., et al.Stanway: An Elite Burial Site at Camulodunum. Britannia Monograph Series No. 24. London. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. pp. 359-375.
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