Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

The People 95
them in the grave, evidently to compensate them for the fact that
they had not received one in life. In the graves of even younger
children, feeding bottles have been found. In some cases, the black
glaze around the spout has worn away, indicating that the bottle
had been used before the baby died. Infant mortality—deaths during
the first year of life—was extremely high in Greece, accounting
for at least a quarter of all live births. Diarrheal diseases resulting
from a lack of clean drinking water and the absence of a satisfactory
waste disposal system—the two main killers in the developing
world today—were major causes.
Several Athenian funerary monuments commemorate the deaths
of small children. One bears an inscription that informs us that the
deceased, whose name was Philostratos and who bore the nickname
Little Chatterbox, was “a source of joy” to his parents “before
the spirit of death bore him away.” Another monument shows a
pudgy child of about three stretching out his hands in the direction
of a bird that his adolescent sister is holding. The inscription on the
gravestone states that it was erected in honor of Mnesagora and
her little brother Nikochares “whom the doom of death snatched
away,” perhaps as the result of a joint accident or an illness to which
they both succumbed.
Toys and Games
Most, if not all, toys were homemade. There is archaeological evidence
for miniature horses on wheels, boats, spinning tops, and
rattles. Dolls with movable limbs were also very popular, as, no
doubt, were rag dolls and stuffed animals, though no examples
have survived.
In the following passage from Aristophanes’ Clouds, Strepsiades, a doting
father, tells how his precocious son used to construct his own toys:
Oh he’s clever all right. When he was only knee-high to a grasshopper, he made
houses out of clay and wooden boats and chariots from bits of leather, and he
carved pomegranates into the shape of little frogs. You just can’t imagine how
bright he was! (lines 877–81)
A favorite game thought to have been especially popular among
girls was knucklebones (astragaloi). Each player tossed the knucklebones
in the air and attempted to catch them on the back of her
hand. If she dropped any, she attempted to pick them up without
dislodging those already resting on her hand.