The game of dice is one of the oldest games on earth and was known in antiquity in India, China, Lydia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Early references to dice in ancient Indian monuments - the hymn collection Rigveda and the epic Mahabharata - reflect the popularity of dice in ancient India. Even no deposit bonus casinos have this game in the arsenal. The dice were brown nuts of the tree Vibhidaka, played with a large number of dice ("a pack of them frolics, three times fifty" - in the "Player's Hymn" from the "Rigveda"); about the rules of the game is known that if when throwing the dice out of the vessel (or when snatching them from the pile) the number of dice divided by four, the player won, if there were extra dice - lost. "The Player's Hymn," the first literary text to mention dice, portrays them as a magical element hostile to man:
For bones are dotted with barbs and hooks,
They enslave, they torment, they sizzle,
They bestow like a child, they deprive the victor of victory.
The unlucky player tries to hex the dice, makes peace with them,
Make friendship with us! Have mercy on us!
(translated by T. Elizarenkova).
In the Mahabharata, the episode of dice-playing is included in the main storyline of the poem - the story of the struggle between the cousins Pandavas and Kauravas (reflecting the Vedic myth of the struggle between the gods, representing the upper part of the cosmos, and the asuras, the demons of the lower world): Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandavas, loses the kingdom, his brothers, himself, and Draupadi, the common wife of the Pandavas, to the Kauravas. In the most famous episode of the Mahabharata, the tale of Nal and Damayanti, the whole plot revolves around a game of dice. Nal, playing with the dice enchanted by the evil spirit Kali, loses his kingdom and goes into exile; the dice, having turned into birds, catch up with him and deceitfully take away his last clothes. (Subsequently, Nal, having learned the secrets of the game, returns to his wife and regains his kingdom.)
Along with the game of dice in ancient India the practice of predicting the future on dice was widespread - the so-called ramala: cubic-shaped dice were strung in a row on an axis; rotating the dice around the axis, magical numbers were obtained, correlating with the pages of fortune-telling books.
In ancient Greece the invention of dice was attributed to the Greek Palamedes, a participant of the Trojan War (Sophocles); according to another version (Herodotus), dice, along with other ancient Greek games, were invented by the Lydians (a people inhabiting Asia Minor) during the reign of Atys to distract themselves during the great famine ("one day all the time engaged in games not to think about food, and the next day ate, stopping games"). The game of dice is described by Homer in The Odyssey (105):
Playing dice, they sat in front of the entrance on the skins of bulls killed by them; and heralds, establishing the table, together with nimble slaves ran: those poured water and wine into the feast craters; and those, nostrrevataya sponge washed the tables, they moved them and, different meat, having cut a lot, it spread.
In ancient Greece there were two types of dice: cubes, identical to modern dice (called "kegs", played three, later - two) and astragals (had four faces with markings in the form of a depression: respectively 1, 3, 4, 6, played four astragals). There were known games: even and odd; hitting a bone into a hole in the board; throwing a bone into a drawn circle. Throwing a dice was called hitting. The dice were thrown from a special cup: the one who had the highest sum of points won. Different combinations of points on the dice were named after gods, heroes, heathers and famous husbands (the worst throw of 4 points was called "dog", the best - "Aphrodite"), could be considered happy and unhappy. During the feast, the winner of the dice game was usually elected symposiarch. There were special gambling houses for playing dice.
In Ancient Rome, the game was played in a similar way (the throws had similar names). Although the dice game was officially forbidden in ancient Rome and allowed only during the Saturnalia festival, it became extremely popular: Roman writers and emperors were fond of it (Emperor Claudius even wrote a manual on dice playing, which has not survived).
The first known law against gambling - Lex aleatoria (alea - dice) was approved in Rome in the III century B.C. It prohibited alea - gambling and allowed all other games: public, sports, including gladiatorial. See LAW.
In ancient Greece and Rome, dice were also used for divination, in which they were thrown into water, as well as on special tables with numbered advice and sayings (the numbers corresponded to the thrown points): the fortune-teller could also take in one hand a bone "for himself", and in the other - "for the god", the ratio of points allowed to establish whether the god answered the question posed affirmatively or negatively. Fortune-telling dice were dedicated to Hermes (Mercury).
Tacitus (in his book "On the Origin of the Germans and the Location of Germany") testifies about the spread of the dice game among the ancient Germans, noting the extreme gambling of the game and the rigidity of the rules: "...having lost all their possessions and throwing the dice for the last time, they set their freedom and their body as the stake. The loser voluntarily gives himself up as a slave and, however younger and stronger than the winner, allows himself to be bound and offered for sale without complaint". See also ANCIENT GERMANS.
Many ancient peoples, including North American Indians, Aztecs, Mayans, South Pacific Islanders, Eskimos, and Africans, played dice made from a variety of materials and with different shapes and markings. Bones were made from plum and peach pits, seeds, bones of sheep, bison, caribou, moose, deer antlers, pebbles, pottery, walnut shells, beaver and marmot teeth. Later (in ancient Greece and Rome) bones were usually made of ivory or other animal bones, as well as bronze, agate, rock crystal, onyx, black amber, alabaster, marble, porcelain, etc.
Cubic-shaped bones with markings almost identical to modern ones have been found in archaeological excavations in China (dating back to 600 BC) and in Egyptian tombs dating back to about 2000 BC.
During the Middle Ages, dice were almost invariably under official prohibition: Otto the Great in 952 forbade the clergy to play dice, Henry II of England in 1188 forbade the Crusaders; prohibition acts were issued repeatedly during the 13th-14th centuries. See also legislation. The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron gives the following information about the history of dice in the Middle Ages: "From the decree of Louis the Saint, 1255, it is evident that in France there were special workshops and a fairly numerous class of artisans for the dressing of dice. Edicts of 1291, 1319 and 1369 forbid the game of dice, but it apparently did not work, because in 1396 there was a decree against the spread of fake dice (des pipes) (which, apparently, existed in abundance: so, the poet Francois Villon in his "Great Will" bequeaths to a friend cheat dice, unevenly filled from the inside with lead - sost.). Besides the game for money, where the winner had the greatest number of points, there were many other games, which belonged to the dice: John Salisbury counts ten such games (trik-trak, etc. - sost.). In the new history dice lose their popularity considerably, although during the Thirty Years' War the Landsknechts were very fond of them".
Prohibitions did not prevent dice games from remaining a favorite pastime in castles and town houses: they were usually played with three dice (according to Isidore of Seville, three dice denote the present, past and future), which were thrown on a wooden or marble board. There were also used dice without marks on the edges, which were thrown on a board divided into six sectors: each sector corresponded to points (from 1 to 6). Especially often dice were played (and fortune-telling) at Christmas and New Year (French Christmas "goose game" - on a special board with a picture of a goose).
Attempts of medieval ideology to interpret dice games in the spirit of Christian symbolism also bear the stamp of ambivalence. In "Ludus clericalis" (or "Ludus regularis"), invented by Bishop Vibald of Cambrai (10th century) in order to wean monks from gambling with money, the combinations of values on the dice denote Christian virtues: 1.1.1 - love, 1.1.2 - faith, 1.2.4 - chastity, and so on. The monk who "won" the highest virtues was endowed with the right to teach them to the other monks. Bishop Herbert, later Pope Sylvester II, invented rhythmomachia, a game similar to chess, in which instead of pieces, dice with points were played. At the same time, in a number of texts (including the French fable "On the Game of Dice", XIII century) the invention of dice is attributed to the devil, who with their help wins souls. According to the above-mentioned fable, the points on the sides of the dice symbolize the "evil intentions" of the devil against this or that character of the Christian pantheon: a one is marked by the devil against God, a two - against God and the Virgin Mary, a three against the Trinity, etc. However, playing dice can also serve to save the soul: St. Peter, descending into hell, takes dice with him to beat the juggler, guarding sinners, and thus save their souls (fable "About St. Peter and the Juggler").
Numerous archaeological finds in a vast territory, including both the Slavic ancestral homeland (Poland, spurs of the Carpathians and Beskid, Volyn) and areas of later Slavic settlement (Novgorod, Eastern Ukraine) testify to the use of games with animal bones (games in "ankles", "kostygi", "kozuli") in the Slavs and in pagan Russia. Bones retained their popularity in the lower strata of society even after the Christianization of the Slavs, as evidenced by the angry denunciations of bones by Christian preachers: "And about turekh, and about lodyga, and about carolers, and about the lawless life you, priests, take away your children" ("Instruction of St. Elijah", XII c.). In the XVI-XVII centuries in Russia, the simplest variant of the dice game - zern. Small dice with white and black sides were thrown on the table. The winner was the one who had them fall on the agreed side. Playing zerny, as well as playing cards, was considered reprehensible, players were punished. However, in 1667, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, zerny and cards in Siberia were given on a contract (however, a year later this decree was canceled). The game was played mainly in taverns and taverns, where secret tavern baths were set aside for this purpose. There were professional zerny players and cheats. In the XIX - early XX centuries, dice games (lodygi, ankles) were recorded by ethnographers in the regions of the Russian North. They were played mainly during the saints' day; dice were painted in different colors (red, black, yellow); passed from player to player as payment for a loss, they could exist for tens of years (dice were also used to pay for saints' card games).
In ostrogi they played with a pair of bone cubes with points on the edges ("bulls"). Each combination of points had its own name, for example: 1-1 - gol, 1-2 - troika, 2-2 - chikva, 2-3 - rooster, 5-6 - with pud, 6-6 - polnyak. Bones, as well as colored and marked boards served among Russian peasants for casting lots when dividing land, determining superiority in agricultural work, or settling lawsuits. See Toss.
Hexagonal dice (cubes) came to Russia, to all appearances, from the East and brought with them the Turkic name of dice - zary (from the Arabic name of the dice game: az zahr - see etymology to the article gambling). Of the Russian village variants of the dice game described by ethnographers, the two best known are: rolling bulls and lodygi.
Dice games, despite the commonality of the basic game action for all of them (throwing dice), are characterized by great diversity. They differ from each other game inventory (from a single bone to any large number of them, involving chips, tables and so on. ), the nature of the passage of time (some are instantaneous, one-step - in them everything is decided by a single throw, others are long, multi-step), the game goal (to gain maximum/minimum points, certain combinations of values, throw a number of values in a certain order, to get rid of the dice or, on the contrary, to concentrate them at oneself), the number of players, the type of their interaction (in some games, the banker opposes the other players - ponteurs, in others all players are equal), the type of competition (in some games the "principle of competition" reigns - who is faster, better, etc.), the type of competition (in some games the "principle of competition" reigns - who is faster, better, etc.). п., in others the "betting principle" reigns - who will guess the combination, value, sum of points, etc.).
One of the simplest and historically earliest criteria for victory at dice is the number of points rolled. See, for example, the legend of the medieval saint Bernard of Clairvaux. This criterion has been retained in a number of modern games in which players aim to score maximum points ("Pig" (3), "Chicago", "Put the Dead Away Dead", "Ship, Captain, Navigator and Crew"). In other games ("General", "Indian Dice", "Liar", Bayburt) winning depends on the best, "lucky combination of the faces that fall out. Many games (Grand Azar, "Under and Over Seven", "Crown and Anchor") are based on the principle of betting and resemble roulette. The falling out of the right ("lucky") points can be projected on the time axis: the sequence of the falling out combinations matters (Azar, Craps). In some games the coincidence of the dropped numbers with the numbers on a certain table ("Martinetti") or with the conditional numbers assigned to each player ("Help Your Neighbor") is important. A special class consists of games in which the role of dice becomes secondary: dice are used in combination with other special accessories: chips, checkers, moved on a special board in accordance with the dice. Such games are backgammon and all its varieties - short backgammon, long backgammon, gulbar, khachapuri, as well as various bingo with dice and children's games in which the advancement of a chip is connected with the number of points dropped on the dice. There are games that testify to the remarkable property of dice to combine the functions of different game objects: in the game "Aces" they are both dice showing points and chips redistributed between the players in the process of the game.
All the grooms, many buoyancy husbands, there the goddess saw; (105) playing dice, they sat in front of the entrance on the skins of the bulls killed by them, and heralds, establishing the table, together with slaves nimble ran: they poured water and wine into the feast craters, and those, nostrovia sponge washed tables, they moved them and, different meat (110) A lot of sliced, it spread. The goddess Athena before the others Telemachus the godly saw. Saddened by Heart, in the circle of suitors he sat, thinking of one thing: Where is the noble father and how, returning to his fatherland, he disperses predators all over his dwelling (Homer. Odyssey).
- A cup of wine? White, red? Which country's wine do you prefer at this time of day?
- Humbly. I don't drink.
- You shouldn't! Would you like a game of dice? Or do you prefer other games?
- I don't play," said the barman, already tired.
- There is something evil in men who avoid wine, games, the company of pretty women, and table conversation. Such men are either gravely ill, or secretly hate those around them
(Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita).
The horseman rode up to the southern gate of Yershalayim. Under the arch of the gate the restless flames of torches danced and leaped. The guard soldiers from the second centurion of the Lightning Legion were sitting on stone benches playing dice. The soldiers jumped up from their seats when they saw the military man riding in, waved at them, and rode into the city.
(Bulgakov . The Master and Margarita).
The oldest extant bones (3 thousand BC), found in the royal tomb in the Sumerian city of Ur (of ivory and lapis lazuli), have the shape of a four-sided pyramid; on each bone, two corners (the tops of the pyramid) of the four are marked with special decorations. Cubic bones with markings almost identical to modern ones have been found in Egyptian (20th century BC) and Chinese (6th century BC) burials. The dots on the faces of ancient bones were often depicted in the form of a stylized "bird's eye".
For home, amateur play in Europe and America use so-called imperfect dice (with rounded corners) machine-made; for play in casinos and gambling houses - so-called perfect dice, handmade with a high degree of accuracy (correspond to standard dimensions with an acceptable deviation of no more than 0.013 mm). Since ancient times, cheat bones (found during excavations in the tombs of ancient Egypt, in prehistoric burials in North and South America) have also become widespread. Any dice that does not have an ideal cubic shape, changes the nature of the game, because the fallout of different faces is not equal probability. Irregularly shaped dice are the most common type of cheat dice. In total, three types of cheat dice can be distinguished: dice with beveled planes, dice with displaced center of gravity (weighted from the inside on one side), and dice with wrong markings that cannot throw some sums of points (for example, 2 dice with markings 3-3-4-4-5-5-5 and 1-1-5-5-6-6 will never throw 2, 3, 7 or 12). See also Zara, Transfer Zara, Round (2), Magnetic Zara, Ikki-bir. The general name "dice" combines dice (or zary), domino dice, astragals, dough, alchiks, and ashichki.
