The headword here, a)/stria, may here stand in error for a)stri/a, the unattested nominative singular of a)stri/as, read by Eustathius in Suetonius (*peri\ paidi/wn 1.18, ed. Taillardat pp. 66, 155), or else is an error for a)/strias (the accusative plural of a)/stris), to be restored in the verse of Callimachus quoted here (Hecale fr. 276 Pfeiffer).
This abbreviated form of the normal word, astragalos (alpha 4250), may have been used to associate knucklebones with the Greek word for "star" (see tau 7, notes [7] and [8]), but it seems normal to Aelius (Peri pathon 3.2) and Hesychius (cf. schol. Plato, Lysis 206C). This gift is attested as one offered to boys for sexual favors; cf. Callimachus fragmenta incertae sedis 676 Pfeiffer ("I will straightaway give you, dear lad, five newly cleaned knucklebones [also a)/strias] of an African deer").