the Platanistas was to the Spartans, or even what the Isthmian and Nemean games were to the whole of Greece. Footnote 503: Palamedes, iii. 4. p. 207. Alex. ab Alex. iii. 21. The Phæninda[504] is supposed to have received its name either from its inventor, Phænides (called Phænestios in Athenæus[505] and the Etymologicon Magnum), or from the verb Φενακίζειν[506] “to deceive,” because, making as though they would throw at one person, they immediately sent it at another, thus deluding the expectation of the former. It appears at first to have been played with the small ball called Harpaston, though the game with the large soft one may afterwards perhaps have also been called Phæninda. The variety named Aporraxis consisted in throwing the ball with some force against the ground and repelling it constantly as it rebounded; he who did this most frequently, winning. In the game called Ourania, the player, bending back his body, flung up the ball with all his might into the air; on which there arose a contention among his companions who should first catch it in its descent, as Homer appears to intimate in his description of the Phæacian sport. They likewise played at ball in the modern fashion against a wall, in which the person who kept it up longest, won, and was called king; the one who lost, obtained the name of ass, and was constrained by the laws of the game to perform any task set him by the king.[507] Footnote 504: Cf. Souter. Palam. iii. 3. p. 201. Footnote 505: Deipnosoph. i. 26. Footnote 506: Cf. Schweigh. ad Athen. t. vi. p. 248. seq. Footnote 507: Poll. ix. 106. A game generally played in the gymnasia was the Skaperda. In this a post was set up with a hole near the top and a rope passed through it. Two young men then seized each one end of the rope, and turning their back to the post exerted their utmost strength to draw their antagonist up the beam. He who raised his opponent highest won. Sometimes they tried their strength by binding themselves together, back to back, and pulling different ways. The Himanteligmos, “pricking the garter,” in Ireland “pricking the loop,” was really an ingenious amusement. It consisted in doubling a thong, and twisting it into numerous labyrinthine folds, which done, the other party put the end of a peg into the midst in search of the point of duplication. If he missed the mark the thong unwound without entangling the peg; but if he dropped it into the right ring his peg was caught and the game won. Hemsterhuis[508] supposes the Gordian knot to have been nothing but a variety of the Himanteligmos. He conjectures that the boys of Abdera were fond of this game, on which account the sophisms of Democritus were called ἱμαντελικτεαὶ, and hence probably a sophist, as one who twists words together, to _lash_ others, was called Himantelicteus. Footnote 508: Ad Poll. t. vi. p. 1186. sqq. Cf. Plut. Symp. i. 1.