[Meaning he/she/it] uses a metaphor(?).[1] From pieces in board games (pessoi), that is from cubes (?dice).
Also [sc. attested is] o( drape/ths ["the runaway [slave]"], [meaning] the one running away [a)podrw=n] from slavery. The one playing [petteu/wn] 'run' [dra=n], that is escaping.[2]
Petteuei: metapherei. apo tôn pettôn, toutesti tôn kubôn. kai ho drapetês, ho apodrôn tês douleias. ho to dran petteuôn, ho esti pheugôn.
For pessoi as game pieces in cubic shape, see
pi 1384.
[1] Same headword -- evidently quoted from somewhere -- in other lexica, with same or similar glossing; references at
Photius pi824 Theodoridis. The gloss
metafe/rei is translated here as 'uses a metaphor' but might (DW) simply mean moves/transfers. Either way, there may be some connection with
Philo Judaeus (of Alexandria),
Life of Moses 1.31, given in LSJ s.v.
pesseu/w as '
tu/xh a)/nw kai\ ka/tw ta\ a)nqrw/peia petteu/ei' ("fortune plays human affairs backwards and forwards"), but in
Philo actually a phrase in the genitive with the participle
petteuou/shs. This would be an allusion to the ancient war game, perhaps known as Petteia (
pi 1384), in which pieces were moved both forward and backward (unlike tabla and other backgammon-games). In the very next entry, however, we have playing Petteia equated with playing tabla (
pi 1392).
[2] Quoted from
delta 1503, q.v.; this etymology is fanciful and implausible.
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