, to which
is sometimes added, “(I am) from the games at Athens”; (2) the names of archons, which only occur on the fourth-century examples. They form a unique instance of inscriptions which give direct information as to the date of a vase, and range from 367 to 313 B.C. (see Vol. I. p. [390]).
Sometimes vases (especially in the B.F. period) are covered with meaningless collocations of letters, either separate or in the form of words. Some ingenious explanations of these have been propounded, but none are very satisfactory. They are often found on the class known as “Corintho-Attic” or “Tyrrhenian amphorae,” and it is just possible that in this case they are attempts by an Athenian workman to copy the unfamiliar Corinthian alphabet.
The third class of inscriptions on Attic vases is composed of those which have no direct relation to the vase itself. They include invocations to deities such as were used in making libations, e.g. Διὸς Σωτῆρος, “To Zeus the Saviour”[[2200]]; or, again, the exhortations so frequently found on B.F. kylikes of the “Minor Artists’” school, of which the commonest is χαῖρε καὶ πίει εὖ, “Hail, and drink deep!”[[2201]] or χαῖρε καὶ πίει τήνδε, “Hail, and drink this!”[[2202]] On a number of R.F. kylikes appears the word προσαγορεύω, “I salute you.”[[2203]]
But the most numerous and important inscriptions of this class are those conveniently named by German archaeologists “Lieblingsnamen,” or “Lieblingsinschriften,” for which we have no satisfactory equivalent in English, though “pet-name” and “love-name” have been suggested, and latterly “καλός-name.” The latter title has been adopted from the fact that the usual form which these inscriptions take is that of a proper name in the nominative case, generally masculine, with the word καλός attached. Sometimes, but not so frequently, the name is feminine, with καλή[[2204]]; the superlative form κάλλιστος is also found.[[2205]] In other cases ὁ or ἑ παῖς appears in place of the proper name, or the word δοκεῖ is added, and sometimes also ναί or ναιχί, emphasising the statement. The most remarkable instance is a B.F. jug at Munich, round the shoulder of which is the inscription καλός Νικόλα Δωρόθεος καλὸς κἀμοὶ δοκεῆ, ναί· χἄτερος παῖς καλὸς, Μέμνων κἀμοὶ καλὸς φιλός.[[2206]] It is not quite certain how far the word καλὸς should be interpreted in a physical sense as “handsome” or “fair,” or in an ethical sense as “good” or “noble”; but having regard to the manners and customs of fifth-century Athens,[[2207]] it is more likely that the physical meaning of the word is to be inferred.
These inscriptions are often found on B.F. vases, but far more frequently in the succeeding period, and generally in more or less direct connection with artists’ signatures, from which fact interesting results have been obtained. Special attention has been drawn to them of late years, from the fact that many of the names are those borne by historical personages, such as Miltiades, Megakles, Glaukon, and so on, and attempts have been made to connect them with those characters (see Vol. I. p. [403]).
Klein, the chief writer on this subject, has collected in the second edition of his valuable work no less than 558 instances of these καλὸς-inscriptions,[[2208]] as against 424 signatures of artists; and there are besides these the numerous instances in which no proper name is given.
The chief question which calls for consideration in regard to these inscriptions is their purport, and the reason why they occur exclusively on vases, and of these exclusively on Attic vases covering a period of not more than one hundred years. The custom was not, of course, an unfamiliar one at Athens, as two references in Aristophanes indicate. In the Acharnians[[2209]] he describes the Thracian Sitalkes as being such a “lover” of the Athenians that he wrote on the walls, “The Athenians are fair”; and, again, the slave Xanthias, in the Wasps, speaking of his master’s litigious proclivities, says that if ever he saw Δῆμος καλός written on a door he promptly wrote by the side κημὸς καλός.[[2210]] But the most interesting and apposite instance recorded is that of Pheidias, who scratched on the finger of his statue of the Olympian Zeus, Παντάρκης καλός.[[2211]] Generally speaking, the word was no doubt intended to refer to the personal beauty of boys (as indicated by the use of ὁ παῖς), or at any rate of young athletes, and was applied to popular favourites of the day,[[2212]] whose occupations in the gymnasium, at the banquet, and elsewhere were matters of every-day talk.