in one instance (
= Μ<π>όψος).
Kretschmer has compiled a list of twelve vases with inscriptions in this alphabet, to which one or two may be added, but for a fuller treatment of the questions involved in studying this group the reader is referred to Chapter [VII]. This, however, may be a more suitable place for a few remarks relating to the inscriptions alone.
In one or two instances the dialect alone is peculiarly Chalcidian, as the characteristic letters happen to be wanting. In some instances, as Kretschmer points out, the Aeolic fondness for the vowel υ is to be traced, as in
, for Κύκνος, which finds parallels in the Chalcidian colony of Cumae, and probably influenced the Latin language through that means. Hence, too, the preference for the Q sound of the Ϙ, as in English and other languages when υ is preceded by a guttural. On the British Museum Geryon vase (B 155) there is a curious mixture of dialect in the forms Γαρυόνης, Νηίδες.
It must be borne in mind, in speaking of the Chalcidian alphabet, that it really extended over a wide area, including not only Chalkis in Euboea, but Chalkidike in Northern Greece, and the colonies on the coast of Italy, such as Cumae, and this may partly account for the mixed character of the dialect on some of these Chalcidian vases. But although an attempt has been made to connect them with Cumae, it cannot be said at present that any certainty has been attained as to the place of their manufacture.
Though not belonging to the Chalcidian group, there is a vase which must be mentioned here, on account of its inscription, which is partly in the alphabet of the Chalcidian colonies. The vase is of the “Proto-Corinthian” class (see Vol. I. p. [308]), and dates about 700–650 B.C.; it bears the name of the maker, Pyrrhos[[2136]]:
