talus

tālus, i, m. [from tax-lus; root tak-, tvak-; cf. Gr. τάσσω, whence taxus; cf. taxillus], the ankle, ankle-bone; of animals, the pastern-bone, knuckle-bone (syn. calx).

• I Lit., Ov. M. 4, 343; Cels. 8, 1 fin.; 8, 7 fin.; 8, 22; Plin. 11, 46, 106, § 253; Ov. M. 8, 808: talum expellere, to dislocate, Mart. 8, 75, 3: extorsisse, Sen. Ben. 5, 24, 1.—
• II Transf.
• • A The heel: purpura ad talos demissa, Cic. Clu. 40, 111; Hor. S. 1, 2, 29 and 99; cf. id. ib. 1, 9, 11: talos a vertice pulcher ad imos, id. Ep. 2, 2, 4: summaque vix talos contigit unda meos, Ov. Am. 3, 6, 6: nudus, Juv. 7, 16.—Poet.: securus, cadat an recto stet fabula talo, whether it stands or falls, i. e. whether it succeeds or fails, Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 176; cf.: tibi recto vivere talo Ars dedit, i. e. to act well, conduct one’s self well, Pers. 5, 104.—
  • B A die (orig. made from the knuckle-bones of certain animals) of an oblong shape, rounded at the ends, and marked only on the other four sides (cf. alea); while the tesserae were cubes, and marked on all six sides. Four tali were used in playing, but only three tesserae: ad pilam se aut ad talos se aut ad tesseras conferunt, Cic. de Or. 3, 15, 58; id. Sen. 16, 58; Plaut. Curc. 2, 3, 75 (354); 2, 3, 79 (358); id. Capt. 1, 1, 5 (73); Cic. Div. 1, 13, 23; 2, 21, 48; id. Fin. 3, 16, 54; Aug. ap. Suet. Aug. 71; Prop. 4 (5), 8, 45; Hor. C. 1, 4, 18; id. S. 2, 3, 171; 2, 7, 17; cf. Becker, Gallus, 3, p. 253 sq.

tālus, ī, m. (statt *taxlus, dah. Demin. taxillus), I) eig.: a) der Fesselknochen, das Sprungbein, an den Hinterfüßen gewisser Tiere, talus bubulus, Plin.: tali suilli, Apul.: tali caprae, Plin.: asinus talos habet, Plin. – u. am menschl. Fuße, Cels. 8, 1 extr. p. 328, 37 D. – b) die vorspringende Basis des Schienbeines, der Knöchel, Knorren, talum intorquere, Auct. b. Hisp., extorquere, Sen. rhet. u. phil.: talum invertere, Apul.: talum expellere, Mart.: talos defringere, Plaut.: talos alci elidere, Plaut. – c) der untere Fußteil, die Ferse, usque ad talos demissa purpura, Cic.: praetexta demissa ad talos, Quint.: vestimentum demissum usque ad talos, Spart.: indumenta in talos demissa, Aur. Vict.: tunicam demissam habent ad talos, Varro fr.: dah. recto talo stare, gerade stehen, bildl., gut bestehen, Beifall erhalten, Hor.: recto vivere talo, gut handeln, Pers. – II) meton., eine urspr. aus den Knöcheln der Hinterfüße gewisser Tiere gemachte Art länglicher Würfel (ἀστράγαλος), an zwei Seiten rund, also mit vier bezeichneten Seiten, auf die er fallen konnte, während die tesserae (κύβοι) kubisch geformt waren, also sechs bezeichnete Seiten hatten. Man würfelte mit drei tesserae, hingegen mit vier tali; die eine Seite des talus war mit einer Eins, die gegenüberstehende mit sechs und die beiden übrigen mit drei und vier bezeichnet: der glücklichste Wurf (Venus od. iactus Veneris) war, wenn jeder Würfel eine andere Zahl zeigte, als 1, 3, 4, 6: der unglücklichste Wurf (canis) war, wenn alle vier Würfel dieselbe Zahl zeigten, tali iactus, Sen.: talorum iactus, Prop. u. (Plur.) Ov.: talis ludere, Cic. u.a.: nequiore talo ludere, mit falschen W. spielen, Mart.: ad talos se conferre, Cic.: talos iacĕe, Plaut.: talos aureos iacĕre, Suet.: iacĕre quattuor talos, Cic.: ita iacĕre talum, ut rectus assistat, Cic.: talos mittere, Sen.: talis iactatis, ut quisque canem aut senionem miserat, in singulos talos singulos denarios in medium conferebat, Suet.

talus [CL] 1 ankle-bone, ankle. b (talotenus) down to the ankle. [spiritus] erant ‥ cruribus uncis, ~o tumido, plantis aversis Felix Guthl. 31; 11‥ ~us, anclou WW Sup. 429; ideo dicta est talaris, id est attingens usque ad ~os, ubi finis est corporis Ailr. Serm. 9. 31. 256D; fuit et mulier ‥ a nativitate fixos in tergo ~os habens Gir. Rem. 7; hec vestis ‥ a collo usque ad ~os extenditur T. Chobham Commend. Virt. 77; ~u, oncleouue ‥ ancleow ‥ oncleou WW.  b per cucullam vero, qua sicut tunica ~otenus induitur, humilitas ordinis ‥ commendatur Ham. S. Alb. (Extr.) 1455. 2 heel. b (of shoe, boot, or sim.) heel, spur. c claw (of bird of prey). calcaneus, talonus qui et cals et ~us dicitur Osb. Glouc. Deriv. 139; ~orum natibus adherentium tenebatur incommodo W. Cant. Mir. Thom. II 33; mulier humi jacens ‥ ~is tellurem conculcabat T. Mon. Will. VI 6; ipsum ‥ propellit ut ad illam ‥ ~o offendat et ultra corruat Map NC III 2 f. 38; quanquam comes a vertice capitis usque ad talum pedis ‥ ferro fideliter esset indutus, tamen ‥ perforato cerebro in mare corruit moribundus Gir. IK II 7; ~us, A. an hele WW.  b fulvus jam ~us nimis est communis Gower VC VII 265; 1417 si magister allutarius pictaciaverit aut novos ~os fecerit, Anglice dictum ‥ talons Mem. York I 189.  c falco ‥ quadrati pectoris ictu vehementi, prepositaque ~orum armatura ‥ ad pedes regios accipitrem confodiendo prostravit Gir. IK I 12 (cf. id. TH I 12: falcones ‥ prepositis ~orum armaturis ‥ confodiunt). 3 knuckle-bone of a sheep, or sim. object, used for gaming. b (pl.) gambling game played with such objects, game of dice, (transf.) gambling. dicitur etiam ~us pro tessera Osb. Glouc. Deriv. 584 (cf. ib. 592); hic pirgus vel ~us, deiz Gl. AN Glasg. f. 20; judicium pillorii pro falsis ~is, judicium pillorii pro falsis ~ibus MGL I 606; hic ~us, a dyse WW.  b idem Johannes lusit cum ‥ Arnaldo Lippard ad ~os ita quod discordia orta inter eos PlCrGlouc 48; 1290 per denariis quos idem liberavit de prestito ad ludum ~orum quos regina mandavit solvi de suis per Russellettum Househ. Eleanor 93; 1378 et in lusu domini ad ~os cum Willelmo Kirkeby, vj. viij d. Househ. Ac. 250; 1437 Robertus Swaby est communis et publicus ~orum frequentator et aleator Stat. Linc. II 403.

tālus, (11) ī, m. , ¶ 1 cheville du pied : Plin. 11, 106 ; Ov. M. 4, 343 ¶ 2 talon : purpura ad talos demissa Cic. Clu. 111, pourpre qui descend jusquʼaux talons ; a vertice ad imos talos Hor. Ep. 2, 2, 4, de la tête au bas des talons ; recto talo Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 176, sans trébucher, cf. Pers. 5, 104 ¶ 3 [primit^t ] osselet à jouer, [puis] dé [rond de deux côtés avec les quatre autres marqués, tandis que les tesseræ étaient marquées des six côtés : on jouait avec quatre tali et trois tesseræ ] : ad talos se conferre Cic. de Or. 3, 58, sʼadonner aux dés, cf. Cic. CM 58 ; Div. 1, 23, etc.

talus , i. m.
踝骨。骰。脚。Vivere recto talo 有好家規。Cadatne fabula an stet talo recto 不問戯悦衆與否。

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tālus ī, m

• TEC-, an ankle, ankle-bone, pasternbone, knuckle-bone: taloque tenus vestigia tinguit, O.: prodibant tubere tali, O.—The heel: ad talos demissa purpura: talos a vertice pulcher ad imos, H.: Securus, cadat an recto stet fabula talo, i. e. succeeds or fails, H.—A die(often made of bone; it had rounded ends, and four sides marked successively 1, 3, 6, 4): ad talos se aut ad tesseras conferunt: talos nucesque Ferre sinu laxo, H.

TALUS

TALUS(ἀστράγαλος), the name of a bone in the hind leg of cloven-footed animals which articulates with the tibia and helps to form the ankle-joint (Aristot. Hist. An. 2.1.34). In the language of anatomists it is still called astragalus; the English name is sometimes hucklebone, but more commonly knuckle-bone (Germ. Knöchel). The astragali of sheep and goats, from their peculiar squareness and smoothness, have been used as playthings from the earliest times, and have often been found in Greek and Roman tombs, both natural and imitated in ivory, bronze, glass, and agate (Propert. 3.24, 13; Mart. 14.14; Ficoroni, Tav. 2). Those of the antelope (δορκάδειοι) were sought as objects of elegance and curiosity (Theophr. Char. 5; Athen. 5. p. 193 f). They were used to play with, principally by women and children (Plut. Alc. 2), occasionally by old men (Cic. de Sen. 16.58). A painting by Alexander of Athens, found at Resina, represents two women occupied with this game. One of them, having thrown the bones upwards into the air, has caught three of them on the back of her hand (Ant d'Erc. i. tav. 1). See the following woodcut, and compare the account of the game in Pollux (9.99). Polygnotus executed a similar work at Delphi, representing the two daughters of Pandarus thus employed (παιζούσας ἀστραγάλοις, Paus. 10.30.1). But a much more celebrated production was the group of two naked boys, executed in bronze by Polycletus, and called the Astragalizontes (Plin. Nat.34.55). A fractured marble group of the same kind, preserved in the British Museum, exhibits one of the twe boys in the act of biting the arm of his playfellow, so as to present a lively illustration of the account in Homer of the fatal quarrel of Patroclus (Il. 23.87, 88). To play at this game was sometimes called πεντελιθίζειν, because five bones or other objects of a similar kind were employed (Pollux, l. c.; Hermipp. fr. 33 M.); and this number is retained among ourselves. This game was entirely one of skill; and in ancient no less than in modern times, it consisted not merely in catching the five bones on the back of the hand, as shown in the woodcut, but in a great variety of exercises requiring quickness, agility, and accuracy of sight.

The name was also given to dice for playing games of chance [ALEA]; et first, no doubt, merely the natural bones marked with pips, afterwards of a conventional shape reproducing the peculiarities of the knuckle-bone. The length was greater than the breadth, so that they had four long sides and two pointed ends, one of them called κεραία (Aristot. l. c.), the other without a name. Of the four long sides, which alone were marked, two were broader, the others narrower. One of the broad sides was convex (πρηνὴς or πρανής), the other concave (ὑπτία); while of the narrow sides one was flat and called χῖον, the other indented. This was called κῷον, and as the rarest was also the luckiest throw, marked 6: the χῖον was marked 1, the broader sides 3 and 4, so that the numbers 2 and 5 were wanting. From the difference of their shapes they did not absolutely require to be marked, and sometimes the pips were dispensed with (Poll. 9.99, τὸ δὲ σχῆμα τοῖς κατὰ τὸν ἀστράγαλον πτώματος ἀριθμοῦ δόξαν εῖχεν). It was the under side of the die, not the upper, that counted, as must be inferred from the fact of the narrowest side giving the highest throw (Marquardt, Privatl. 828).

The Greek and Latin names of the numbers were as follows (Pollux, l. c.; Eustath. in Hom. Il. 23.88; Suet. Aug. 71; Mart. 13.1, 6):--1. Μονάς, εἷς, κύων, Χῖος (Brunck, Anal. 1.35, 242); 2. Ion, Οἴνη· Unio, Volturius, canis (Propert. v. (iv.) 8, 45; Ovid, A. A. 2.206, Trist. 2.473); 3. Τριάς· Ternio; 4. Τετράς· Quaternio; 6. Ἐξάς, ἑξίτης, Κῷος· Senio.

As the bone is broader in one direction than in the other, it was said to fall upright or prone (ὀρθὼς ἢ πρηνής, rectus aut pronus), according as it rested on a narrow or a broad side (Plut. Quaest. Sympos. 5.6, p. 680 a; Cic. de Fin. 3.16.54).

Two persons played together at this game, using four bones, which they threw up into the air, or emptied out of a dice-box [FRITILLUS]. The numbers on the four sides of the four bones admitted of thirty-five different combinations. The lowest throw of all was four aces (jacit volturios quatuor, Plant. Curc. 2.3, 78). But the value of a throw (βόλος, jactus) was not in all cases the sum of the four numbers turned up. The highest in value was that called Venus, or jactus Venereus (Plaut. Asin. 5.2, 55; Cic. de Div. 2.5. 9, § 121; Propert, Suet. ll. cc.), in which the numbers cast up were all different (Mart. 14.14), the sum of them being only fourteen. It was by obtaining this throw that the king of the feast was appointed among the Romans (Hor. Carm. 1.4, 18; 2.7, 25) [SYMFOSIUM ], and hence it was called Basilicus (Plant. Curc. 2.3, 80). Certain other throws were called by particular names, taken from gods, illustrious men and women, and heroes. Thus the throw, consisting of two aces and two trays, making eight, was denominated Stesichorus. A multitude of these names of throws are given by Pollux (7.204 ff.), who quotes the following lines from the Κυβευταὶ of Eubulus (fr. 57 M.):-- Κεντρωτός, ἱερός, ἅρμ ὑπέρβαλλον πόδας κήρυνος, εὐδαίμων, κυνωτός, ἅρτια, Λάκωνες, ἀντίτευχος, Ἀργεῖος, δάκνων, Τιμόκριτος, ἐλλείπων, πυαλίτης, ἐπίθετος, σψάλλων, ἀγυρτής, οἳστρος, ἀνακάμπτων, δορεύς, Λάμπων, κύκλωπες, ὲπιψέρων, Σάλων, Σίμων.

The number of names far exceeds that of possible throws, so that some must have been identical. When the object was simply to throw the highest numbers, the game was called πλειστοβολίνδα (Pollux, 9.117). Before a person threw the tali, he often invoked either a god or his mistress (Plaut. Capt. 1.1, 5; Curc. 2.3, 77-79). These bones, marked and thrown as above described, were also used in divination (Suet. Tib. 14).

For the cubical die marked on all six sides, see TESSERA(Eustath. ad II. 23.87, p. 1397; Becq de Fouquières, Jeux des Anciens, ed. 2, pp. 325-356; Marquardt, Privatl. 826 ff.)

[J.Y] [W.W]

Talus

(ἀστράγαλος). A die used in gambling. The name of a bone in the hind-leg of cloven-footed animals which articulates with the tibia and helps to form the ankle-joint. In the language of anatomists it is still called astragalus; the English name is sometimes “huckle-bone,” but more commonly “knuckle-bone.” The astragali of sheep and goats, from their peculiar squareness and smoothness, have been used as playthings from the earliest times, and have often been found in Greek and Roman tombs, both natural and imitated in ivory, bronze, glass, and agate (Propert. iii. 24, 13; Mart. xiv. 14). They were used to play with, principally by women and children (Plut. Alcib. 2), occasionally by old men (Cic. de Sen. 16. 58).

To play at this game was sometimes called πεντελιθίζειν, because five bones or other objects of a similar kind were employed (Hermipp. Fr. 33 M.); and this number is retained among ourselves. This game was entirely one of skill; and in ancient no less than in modern times it consisted not merely in catching the five bones on the back of the hand, as shown in the woodcut, but in a great variety of exercises requiring quickness, agility, and accuracy of sight.

The name was also given to dice (cf. our slang term “the bones”) for playing games of chance (see alea). The length was greater than the breadth, so that they had four long sides and two pointed ends, one of them called κεραία, the other without a name. Of the four long sides, which alone were marked, two were broader, the others narrower. One of the broad sides was convex (πρηνής or πρανής, the other concave (ὑπτία); while of the narrow sides one was flat and called χῖον, the other indented. This was called κῷον, and, as the rarest was also the luckiest throw, marked 6: the χῖον was marked 1, the broader sides 3 and 4, so that the numbers 2 and 5 were wanting. From the difference of their shapes they did not absolutely require to be marked, and sometimes the pips were dispensed with. It was the under side of the die, not the upper, that counted, as must be inferred from the fact of the narrowest side giving the highest throw (Marquardt, Privatl. 828).

The Greek and Latin names of the numbers were as follows:—1. Μονάς, εἷς, κύων, Χῖος: Unio, Volturius, canis; 3. Τριάς: Ternio; 4. Τετράς: Quaternio; 6. Ἑξάς, ἑξίτης, Κῷος: Senio.

As the bone is broader in one direction than in the other, it was said to fall upright or prone (ὀρθὸς ἢ πρηνής, rectus aut pronus), according as it rested on a narrow or a broad side.

Two persons played together at this game, using four bones, which they threw up into the air, or emptied out of a dice-box (φιμός, fritillus). The numbers on the four sides of the four bones admitted of thirty-five different combinations. The lowest throw of all was four aces. But the value of a throw (βόλος, iactus) was not in all cases the sum of the four numbers turned up. The highest in value was that called Venus, or iactus Venereus, in which the numbers cast up were all different (Mart.xiv. 14), the sum of them being only fourteen. It was by obtaining this throw that the master of revels (arbiter bibendi) was chosen at the drinking-bouts. See Becq de Fouquières, Les Jeux des Anciens, 325 foll., and the article symposium. Cf. also tessera.