form of Attic and other alphabets is more usual, until replaced in the fifth century by Σ. Of the specially Ionic letters, Η (= eta) is found generally at an early date, as at Teos (540–400 B.C.), and also Ω. At Corinth the koppa Ϙ for Κ is in use from the earliest times down to the days of the Achaean League, and does not therefore afford evidence of date by itself, but only of a local peculiarity, being equally universal on vases. The digamma is only found on coins of Elis and Crete, whereas it often occurs on early Greek vases.[[2106]]
It may also be of interest to note that the
form for the rough breathing occurs on the helmet of Hiero in the British Museum,[[2107]] which can be dated 480–470 B.C., and that the use of Η for eta and of the four-lined
at Athens previous to the archonship of Eukleides can be deduced from the well-known fragment of Euripides[[2108]] in which the letters forming the name
are carefully described.
In the following pages illustrations of the points above noted will be fully detailed where occurring on the vases. The annexed scheme of alphabets used on vases (Fig. [173]) will serve to give a general idea of the variations of form in different fabrics.
The painted inscriptions on vases first appear, as already noted, about the beginning of the seventh century B.C. The earlier fabrics—Mycenaean, Cretan, and Cycladic—generally belong to an epoch when writing, if not unknown, was at any rate little practised[[2109]]; nor have any inscriptions been found on the Dipylon or Geometrical vases, except the incised one which we have already discussed. The oldest known painted inscriptions are found on a Proto-Corinthian lekythos (see p. [254]), the Euphorbos pinax from Kameiros (B.M. A 749), and the krater signed by Aristonoös, which is perhaps of Ionic origin, strongly influenced by Mycenaean art.