, Μελιταῖε (i.e. “Maltese (?) dog”).[[2185]] A charioteer calls to his horses, ἔλα, ἔλα, “Gee up!”[[2186]] Women weeping over a corpse cry, οἴμοι, “Woe is me!”[[2187]] In a representation of Oedipus and the Sphinx on a R.F. vase in Rome the words
, καὶ τρίπουν, occur, evidently with reference to the well-known riddle.[[2188]]
An interesting bit of dialogue appears on a B.F. vase,[[2189]] which represents boys and men watching a swallow, evidently the first of the returning spring; one boy says, ἰδοὺ χελιδών, “See, the swallow”; to which a man replies, νὴ τὸν Ἡρακλέα, “Yes, by Herakles!” Another boy joins in with αὑτηί, “There she is,” and ἔαρ ἤδη, “It is already spring.” Another good instance is on a B.F. vase in the Vatican.[[2190]] On one side we see the proprietor of an olive garden extracting oil from the olives, with the prayer,
ὦ Ζεῦ πάτερ, αἴθε πλούσιος γέν[οιμ’ ἄν, “O Father Zeus, may I be rich!” while on the other he sits over a full vessel, and cries to the purchaser,
, ἤδη μέν, ἤδη πλέο(ν) παρβέβακεν, “Already, already it has gone far beyond my needs.”[[2191]]
To conclude with a few miscellaneous and unique inscriptions, we have firstly, on a vase in the British Museum (E 298), a tripod, on the base of which are the words Ἀκαμαντὶς ἐνίκα φυλή, showing that it is intended for a monument in honour of a choragic victory, with the name of the victorious tribe. On a sepulchral stele on a B.F. funeral amphora at Athens[[2192]] are the words (now nearly obliterated) ἀνδρὸς ἀπ[οφθιμ]ένοιο ῥάκ[ος] κα[κ]ὸν [ἐν]θάδε κεῖμα[ι, “Here lie I, a vile rag of a dead man.” Similarly, on a sepulchral plaque at Athens are the words,
