BOUGEAREL Alain wrote:
Nota bene
The number 56 in classical antiquity relaated to "divination" :
Two kinds of dice were used in classical antiquity: dice proper (kuboi, tessarae), which are virtually identical to six-sided modern dice, and knucklebones (astragali, tali), which have four sides (Halliday 205-15, esp. 213-15; David 1-7; Ore 193). For divination, five astragali were rolled, and the resulting combination was looked up on a four-sided pillar, many examples of which survive in more or less fragmentary form (e.g., Sterrett "Epig.", "Wolfe"; Kaibel). It so happens that the number of possible five-astragali throws is 56, exactly the number of Minor Arcana, and that the throws were listed on the tablets in four "suits" (two of 15 throws, two of 13; see Halliday 213n3).
(
http://wisdomofhypatia.com/OM/BA/PT/Mintro.html)
I presume the Halliday reference is to --
W R Halliday : Greek Divination*
https://archive.org/details/cu31924058563259
I found the full reference in this essay by Charles Picard:
Les antécédents des « Astragalizontes » polyclétéens, et la consultation par les dés
http://www.persee.fr/doc/reg_0035-2039_ ... 2_195_6944
SteveM
*quote p213
From Asia
Minor we have inscriptions which contain a
list of the possible throws and their interpreta-
tion. The system in the different inscriptions
is identical, all are written in bad metre and
indifferent Greek, the names of the throws are
constant in the various fragments, and the
variants in the text itself are surprisingly few.
There is a fragment of a system of astragalo-
mancy with seven astragali from Termessos,^
but the normal code is constructed for five
astragali. Of this code we have fragments
from Kosagatch, Tefeny, Yarishli, Sagalassos,
Termessos, Ordekji, Indjik, and Adalia.^ The
astragalos has only four numbered sides with
the values i, 3, 4, and 6. The totals, therefore,
range from 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5 ^o 6 + 6 + 6 + 6
+ 6 = 30. Some of the intervening numbers,
e.g. 6 or 29, cannot be made out of combina-
tions of I, 3, 4, and 6, but on the other hand
many of the possible totals can be made by
various combinations..., In all 56 throws
are possible, and of these all except the 12th,
though some of them only in fragments, can be
obtained from the various stones.^ The inscrip-
tions seem to have been cut in columns, on the
sides of a four-sided pillar. They give in the
case of each throw the combination of figures
and the total, followed by the name of the
power to whom the throw belongs. The second
line in some of the inscriptions consists of an
attempt to force the numbers of the throw into
metre. The meaning of the whole is given in
three hexameters of very inferior quality. The
second throw, for example, is : —
see book for the greek text