1942. To give detailed references throughout may be considered superfluous, the order of subjects followed being that of the preceding chapters, to which reference may in all cases be made without difficulty by the reader.
1944. See J.H.S. xiii. p. 19.
1945. See J.H.S. loc. cit.
1946. Él. Cér. iii. pl. 32 B.
1947. Cf. the type created by Skopas in the fourth century.
1948. An exception is Él. Cér. i. pl. 62, where he is bearded (on a B.F. vase).
1950. Exceptions are B.M. D 4; Él. Cér. i. pls. 46 A, 47, 63.
1951. Cf. for the two together on a vase, B.M. E 228.
1952. For an attempted distinction of the various Satyr-types, see Loeschcke in Ath. Mitth. 1894, p. 521 ff.
1953. See J.H.S. xviii. p. 296.
1954. Cf. the Greek heroes on B.F. vases (B.M. B 240, B 543).
1955. See B.M. E 477 and Weicker, Seelenvogel, passim.
1956. See also Roscher, iii. p. 330.
1957. Only on B.M. F 271 and Naples 3237; elsewhere unwinged.
1959. See J.H.S. ix. p. 47 ff.
1960. Note that the vase-painters are careful never to represent him wearing the skin when contending with the lion.
1961. E.g. Reinach, ii. 80.
1962. Munich 125.
1963. See Six, De Gorgone.
1965. B.M. B 4.
1966. See Weicker’s Seelenvogel, passim.
1967. See the article Gryps in Roscher’s Lexikon, vol. i.
1968. E.g. B.M. E 198.
1969. See Körte in Jahrbuch, 1893, p. 61 ff.; also Figs. 105, 134.
1971. E.g. B.M. E 270; Hartwig, Meistersch. pls. 65–6.
1972. Él. Cér. ii. 16 and iv. 90–93; B.M. E 308.
1973. E.g. B.M. B 59, B 10314.
1974. See Helbig, Hom. Epos2, pp. 284 ff., 342.
1976. As on the Exekias amphora, B.M. B 209: see J.H.S. iv. p. 82.
1977. E.g. B.M. E 263, E 469.
1978. Cf. B.M. Cat. of Bronzes, 2823–24.
1979. On this subject generally see T. Ely in Archaeologia, li. p. 477 ff.
1980. Xen. Hell. iv. 4, 10, vii. 5, 20; Paus. iv. 28, 5; Plut. Apophth. Lacon. 234 D; Vit. Demosth. 20; Bacchyl. frag. 41 (Bergk).
1981. B.M. B 574: cf. B 608 and Urlichs, Beiträge, pl. 14.
1982. Berlin 1698, 1852; Munich 1121; Reinach, i. 453; Inghirami, Vasi Fitt. pl. 109, 2.
1983. B.M. E 575.
1984. Cambridge 70.
1985. Jahrbuch, 1895, pp. 191, 198.
1986. Reinach, i. 77; Vienna 332.
1987. Reinach, i. 508, 6; ii. 94, 270.
1988. Ibid. i. 126, 181.
1990. Reinach, i. 181; Berlin 1701.
1991. Berlin 3988, 3992; B.M. B 364; Reinach, ii. 63.
1993. Cf. B.M. E 167–68, 295, etc.
1995. See especially the Meidias vase and the Python krater (B.M. E 224, F 149).
1996. See Plate LI.; also Furtwaengler and Reichhold, pl. 3; $1$2 1883, pl. 3; 1885, pl. 5, fig. 3; Röm. Mitth. 1890, pl. 11 (on head-band).
1997. Auscult. Mirab. 96.
1998. Kavvadias, Fouilles de Lycosura, pl. 4.
1999. Argonautica, i. 729 ff.
2000. Jahrbuch, 1896, p. 248 ff.
2001. See on this subject throughout Mon. Grecs, 1895–97, p. 7 ff.
2002. Cf. a funerary plaque in the Louvre, where the male mourners, no doubt intentionally, have the oval form of eye; also Louvre F 256 (figure of Aeneas).
2003. For other instances M. Girard (Mon. Grecs, loc. cit.) refers to Louvre E 753, 754; E 643, 808; Jahrbuch, 1893, pl. 1; see also B.M. E 440 (R.F. period).
2004. Ant. Denkm. i. pl. 57.
2005. Anzeiger, 1895, p. 35, fig. 9: cf. Louvre E 612 bis, and Ant. Denkm. ii. 24, 15.
2006. See also Mon. Grecs, 1895–97, p. 16.
2007. Furtwaengler and Reichhold, Gr. Vasenm. p. 8.
2008. E.g. B.M. E 773, 774, 779, 780.
2009. See on the subject P. Gardner in J.H.S. xix. p. 254.
2010. See on this motive and other heraldic groups, Jahrbuch, 1904, p. 27 ff.
2011. B 18 in B.M.: cf. also the fragment from Naukratis, B 10317.
2012. This principle in its most developed form may be observed on the Chalcidian and Tyrrhenian amphorae: see Vol. I. p. 321 ff.
2013. B.M. B 147.
2014. Ibid. B 313.
2015. B.M. B 589–91.
2016. E.g. B.M. B 264, B 428, etc.
2017. Cf. B.M. E 164 ff.
2018. See Winter, Jüngere Attische Vasen, p. 69; Röm. Mitth. 1897, p. 102; also Plate XLV.
2019. This subject has hitherto received little or no general scientific treatment from archaeologists. Riegl’s Stilfragen (1893) contains an interesting study of vegetable ornament on Greek vases; but the plates of Brunn and Lau’s Gr. Vasen, though intended to illustrate the system of ornamentation, are not very instructive.
2021. This is also found on a B.F. vase in the British Museum (B 330): see Hartwig, Meistersch. p. 220; also B.M. E 84; Thiersch, Hell. Vasen, pl. 5; Arch. Zeit. 1873, pl. 9.
2022. The Pamphaios hydria in the British Museum (B 300) has bits of red-on-black maeander down the sides of the design on the shoulder.
2023. See examples from Cyprus and Rhodes in Cases 24, 25, 28, Second Vase Room, B.M.
2024. E.g. B.M. B 205, 474, 476, 620, D 15, E 151, F 178.
2025. It appears, however, to be of Mycenaean origin: cf. the B.M. vases A 253, 323, 324, and Excavations in Cyprus, p. 6, fig. 6, from Ialysos and Cyprus, decorated in this fashion with vertical concentric circles.
2026. Riegl, p. 155.
2027. E.g. B.M. B 209, B 210.
2028. E.g. B.M. E 564.
2029. For its use on a B.F. kylix see B.M. B 382 (probably Ionic work).
2030. Munich 810, 849 = Brunn-Lau, Gr. Vasen, pls. 35–6: cf. B.M. F 278.
2031. Examples may be seen in Plates XXIII., XXVIII.-XXXIII.
2032. B.M. B 148–49, 151, 153; J.H.S. xix. p. 163.
2033. E.g. B.M. B 212, B 593, B 677, B 679: see also Jahrbuch, 1899, p. 161.
2034. See Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1898, p. 298.
2035. E.g. B.M. B 63 (Plate LVIII.).
2036. E.g. B.M. B 364.
2037. As on the Python krater, B.M. F 149.
2038. See Jahrbuch, 1895, p. 44, note 15.
2039. Stilfragen, passim, especially p. 48 ff. and p. 178.
2040. See Riegl, p. 115 ff., and Houssay in Rev. Arch. xxx. (1897), p. 91 ff.
2041. For the Egyptian types of lotos-flower and bud see Riegl, p. 48 ff.
2042. Riegl, p. 155: see also an early Boeotian example in the B.M. (A 564 = Riegl, p. 173).
2043. Thiersch, Tyrrhen. Amphoren, p. 70, points out that the form of lotos-flower with two large points is Peloponnesian (Corinthian, etc.) and Ionic; the form found in Attic, Boeotian, and Proto-Corinthian fabrics has three principal points.
2044. See generally Riegl, p. 155 ff.
2045. E.g. B.M. E 169.
2046. The varieties of this pattern should be carefully distinguished. Corinthian vases have a composition of lotos-flowers only; Chalcidian, palmettes only (cf. Vienna 219; B.M. B 34). In the “Tyrrhenian” amphorae, and subsequently in Attic red-bodied amphorae, the two principles are seen to be united, and palmettes alternate with lotos-flowers. See also Fig. 161.
2047. Cf. also an elegant oinochoë with white ground in the British Museum (B 631). On a similar jug at Munich (334 = Brunn-Lau, Gr. Vasen, pl. 22) the palmettes are enclosed in heart-shaped borders. For other vases which, like these, have palmettes for their sole decoration, see British Museum, Second Vase Room, Case 28, and Laborde, Vases de Lamberg, ii. pl. 41.
2049. They are distinguished by German writers as “Blattrosette” and “Punktrosette.”
2050. Cf. Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, Myken. Vasen, pls. 4, 25, 28, 37, 38; J.H.S. xxiii. pl. 5 (Crete).
2052. See Riegl, op. cit. p. 197. He points out that the rosette, although Assyrian in origin, is not here used in a strictly Assyrian fashion.
2053. E.g. B.M. B 51, B 197 ff.: cf. also the Proto-Attic vase, Ant. Denkm. i. 57.
2054. See what has already been said on this subject in Vol. I. Chapter VII. p. 282: cf. also Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, vii. p. 165.
2055. Cf. a similar pattern on the Daphnae situlae (B.M. B 105–6).
2056. See generally Wilisch, Altkor. Thonindustrie, p. 41 ff., for Corinthian ornamentation.
2057. See on the ornamentation of the former Thiersch, Tyrrhen. Amphoren, p. 69 ff.; on the latter Riegl, p. 187.
Importance of inscriptions on vases—Incised inscriptions—Names and prices incised underneath vases—Owners’ names and dedications—Painted inscriptions—Early Greek alphabets—Painted inscriptions on early vases—Corinthian, Ionic, Boeotian, and Chalcidian inscriptions—Inscriptions on Athenian vases—Dialect—Artists’ signatures—Inscriptions relating to the subjects—Exclamations—Καλός-names—The Attic alphabet and orthography—Chronology of Attic inscriptions—South Italian vases with inscriptions.
The practice of inscribing works of art with the names of persons and objects represented was one of some antiquity in Greece. The earliest instance of which we have historical record is the chest of Kypselos, which dated from the beginning of the sixth century B.C., and concerning which Pausanias[2058] tells us that “the majority of the figures on the chest have inscriptions written in the archaic characters; and some of them read straight, but other letters have the appearance called by the Greeks ‘backwards-and-forwards’ (βουστροφηδόν), which is like this: at the end of the verse the second line turns round again like a runner half through his course. And any way the inscriptions on the chest are written in a tortuous and hardly decipherable fashion.” There is, however, no mention of inscribed vases until a much later date; Athenaeus speaks of a cup with the name of Zeus Soter upon it, also of γραμματικὰ ἐκπώματα, or cups with letters on them.[2059]
Inscriptions on Greek vases are found in comparatively early times, even prior to the date to which the chest of Kypselos is attributed. This question will receive more attention subsequently; meanwhile, we may point out some of the ways in which they have proved important in the study of archaeology. In the first place, they were originally among the principal, perhaps the strongest, arguments in the hands of Winckelmann, Sir W. Hamilton, and the other upholders of the true origin of Greek vases against Gori and the other “Etruscans” (see Vol. I. p. 19). They are, in fact, if such were required, an incontestable proof of Greek manufacture. Secondly, in more modern times, they have been of inestimable value in enabling scholars to classify the early vases according to their different fabrics. The alphabets of the different cities and states being established by inscriptions obtained from trustworthy sources or found in situ, it was an easy matter to apply this knowledge to the vases. In Chapters VII.-VIII. numerous instances have been given of the value of this evidence (see also below, p. 247 ff.), perhaps the best being that of the Chalcidian class, for which the inscriptions have been a more important criterion even than style. Thirdly, the inscriptions are sometimes of considerable philological value. Those on Attic vases may fairly be said to represent the vernacular of the day; and thus we learn that the Greeks of the Peisistratid age spoke of Ὀλυττεύς, not Ὀδυσσεύς, and of Θῆσυς, not Θησεύς; that they used such forms as υἱύς for υἱός,[2060] and πίει for πίε (see below, p. 255). Traces of foreign influence in the inscriptions, as in the frequently occurring Doric forms, imply that many of the vase-painters were foreigners, probably of the metic class. We shall also see that one class of inscriptions gives some interesting information on the subject of the names and prices of vases in antiquity.
The whole subject has been treated exhaustively—especially from a philological point of view—in a valuable treatise by P. Kretschmer,[2061] to which we shall have occasion to make constant reference in the following pages. He classifies them under two main headings: (a) inscriptions incised with a sharp tool in the hard clay; (b) inscriptions painted with the brush after the final baking. They are also found in very rare instances impressed in the soft clay and varnished over.[2062] In later times inscriptions in relief are actually found, sometimes painted with thick white pigment, sometimes gilded.[2063] On the so-called Megarian bowls and on the Arretine and other wares of the Roman period they are stamped from the moulds. Lastly, there are the stamps imprinted on the handles of wine-amphorae, which have been discussed in Chapter IV.
The incised inscriptions are of three kinds: (1) those executed by the maker of the vase; (2) those scratched under the foot; (3) those incised by the owner. As these represent a much smaller class than the painted ones, they shall be dealt with first.
(1) Inscriptions incised by the maker before the final baking. These are found on the handles and feet, round the edge of a design, or interspersed therewith like the painted inscriptions. Generally they represent the signature of the potter, as in the case of the early Boeotian vase signed by Gamedes,[2064] the vases of the fifth-century artist Hieron,[2065] and those of Assteas, Python, and Lasimos in Southern Italy.[2066] On the vases of the latter class explanatory inscriptions seldom occur, but when they do (as on the vases of Assteas) they are always incised. Of their palaeographical peculiarities we will speak later. On a vase in the South Kensington Museum[2067] the words Βραχᾶς καλός are incised and painted red, and on the pottery found on the site of the Kabeirion at Thebes the same process is often adopted, except that the paint used is white.[2068]
(2) Of inscriptions scratched under the foot a considerable number remain, especially on B.F. vases. They are often difficult to decipher, being in the form of monograms, and frequently appear to be meaningless. In many cases they may have been private marks of the potter or his workmen; others, again, are evidently private memoranda made by the workman, relating to the number of forms of vases in his batch, or by the merchant respecting the price to be paid. Commonly they take the form of names of vases,[2069] such as ΗVΔΡΙ for ὑδρία (hydria), ΛΗΚ or ΛΗΚV for λήκυθος (lekythos), ΣΚV for σκύφος (skyphos),[2070] and so on. Many of the inscriptions give the words in full, with numbers and prices, and we may obtain from them some curious information.
Among the more elaborate examples given by Schöne in his valuable monograph is one from a krater in the Louvre[2071]:
| ΚΡΑΤΕΡΕΣ : ΠI | κρατῆρες ἑξ |
| ΤΙΜΕ : ͰͰͰͰ ΟΞΙΔΕΣ : [Π]ΙΙΙ | τιμὴ τέσσαρες ὀξίδες ὀκτώ |
| ΒΑΘΕΑ : ΔΔͰΙ | βαθέα εἰκόσι (at 1 dr. 1 ob.) |
That is, six kraters, value four drachmae; eight oxides; twenty bathea (an unknown form), one drachma one obol. The bathea were probably deep cups or ladles; the oxides (lit. vinegar-cups) were small vessels, probably answering to our wine-glasses.
Another instance given by Schöne[2072] is:
| ΛΗΚΥΘΙΑ Δ | ληκύθια δέκα |
| ΟΙΝΟΧΟΑΙ ΙΙ | οἰνοχοαὶ δύο |
or ten lekythi and two oinochoae.
Another good example is on a krater in the British Museum (E 504):
| ΚΡΑΤΕΡΕ [Π]Ι : ͰͰͰͰ | κρατῆρε(ς) ἑξ τέσσαρες |
| ΠΕΛΛΙΝΙΑ : ΔΙΙ : ΙΙΙ | πελλίνια[2073] δώδεκα τρεῖς |
| ΟΞΙΔΕΣ : ΔΔ : ΙΙΙ | ὀξίδες εἰκόσι τρεῖς |
| ΟΞΥΒΑΦΑ : ΔΔͰI | ὀξύβαφα εἰκόσι (at 1 dr. 1 ob.) |
i.e. six kraters at four drachmae, twelve cups at three obols, twenty oxides at three obols, twenty oxybapha at one drachma one obol.
Another in Vienna[2074]:
| ΚΡΑΤΕΡΕ[Σ] : [Π]Ι : ΤΙΜΕ : ͰͰͰͰ | κρατῆρες ἑξ τιμὴ τέσσαρες (4 dr.) |
| ΒΑΘΕΑ : ΔΔ : ΤΙΜΕ : ͰΙ | βαθέα εἰκοσι τιμὴ ͰΙ (1 dr. 1 ob.) |
| ..ΟΞΙΔΕ[Σ] : Δ | ὀξιδες δέκα |
is to the same effect as the two preceding. On a hydria at Petersburg[2075] we find: