The good, the bad, and the misleading. A network of names on (mainly) Athenian vases

Conference item

The earliest Greek inscriptions are incised graffiti on geometric pottery from around the middle of the 8th century. They were usually inscribed by their owners some time after the purchase. A late geometric oinochoe found in Athens1 was presented as a prize in a dancing competition and bears the incised inscription HOΣ ΝYΝ OΡΧΕΣΤÔΝ ΠΆΝΤΟΝ AΤΑΛΌΤΑΤΑ ΠΑΊΖΕΙ, ΤÔ ΤΌΔΕ ΚΛ[.]ΜΙΝ[...], “Whoever of all these dancers now plays most delicately, to him this ...” on the black shoulder. Other vases name their owners, one of whom was clearly worried to lose a prize possession since he wrote “I am the cup of Hakesandros … whoever steals me … will lose his eyesight” on a late geometric cup excavated in Methone2. Sir John Boardman donated an Attic late geometric fragment from Al Mina with an incised graffito …]ναβεο[… to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford3. A late geometric Euboean skyphos, found in Pithekoussai4 and usually dated 740/720, preseves the first reference to the works of Homer: “ΝΈΣΤΟΡΟΣ [....] ΕΠΟΤ[ΟΝ] ΠΟΤΉΡΙΟ[Ν] OΣ Δ’ AΝ ΤΟYΔΕ Π[ΊΗΣΙ] ΠΟΤΗΡΊ[ΟΥ] ΑYΤΊΚΑ ΚHΝΟΝ HIΜΕΡ[ΟΣ ΑIΡ]ΉΣΕΙ ΚΑΛΛΙΣΤ[ΕΦΆΝ]ΟΥ ἈΦΡΟΔΊΤΗΣ”.

Authors: Mannack, T

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Archaeopress
• Host title: Greek Art in Motion: Studies in honour of Sir John Boardman on the occasion of his 90th Birthday
• Journal: There and Back Again: Greek Art in Motion
• Pages: 31-36
• Publication date: 2019-02-13
• Acceptance date: 2018-07-19
• ISBN: 9781789690231