Terracotta Figurine of Greek Girls Playing a Game in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 2007

Terracotta Figurines, Girls Playing Ephedrismos
c. 300 B.C.E.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Rogers Fund, 1907, 07.286.4
Ex Collection John Marshall, Athens
In Coming of Age in Ancient Greece, cat. 83

These two young girls are playing ephedrismos. The game entailed competing to see which of two players could knock over a stone placed upright on the ground by throwing other stones at it. The player who loses then has to run around carrying the winner on his/her back until the losing player touches the stone. The forward leg right leg of the carrier and the backswung leg of the left rider suggest the speed at which ephedrismos was commonly played.
In this pair, the winning girl is especially easy to identify because she wears a stephane, or crown, on her head, while the carrier sports a humbler floral wreath. The presence of these attributes again seems to suggest the competiveness of ancient Greek society.

Text (and more detailed information about children and games in ancient Greece) from: hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/exhibitions/coa/re_high_games.html