Sophilos' Vase Inscriptions and Cultural Literacy in Archaic Athens

Classical Association of Canada

Sophilos' Vase Inscriptions and Cultural Literacy in Archaic Athens Author(s): Martin F. Kilmer and Robert Develin Source: Phoenix, Vol. 55, No. 1/2 (Spring - Summer, 2001), pp. 9-43 Published by: Classical Association of Canada Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1089022 . Accessed: 06/03/2011 14:55 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cac. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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SOPHILOS' VASE INSCRIPTIONS AND CULTURAL LITERACY IN ARCHAIC ATHENS MARTIN F. KILMER AND ROBERT DEVELIN

I.

INTRODUCTION

IN THIS ARTICLEI EXAMINETHE INSCRIPTIONS on the extant vases and vase fragmentsof the earlyAttic black-figurepainterSophilos,whosefloruitis generally thought to be 590-570 B.C.(580-570, accordingto Boardman1974: 18). My purpose in undertakingthis study was to discoverwhether Sophilos ought to be considered literate, and if so, in what senses of that word. I find that he was a competent and consistent speller; that he knew how to constructsimple sentences; that he was well in tune with his society'smythology;in short, that he was literate both in the literal meaning of that word and in what we might call "culturalliteracy."Sophilos was one of the firstAttic paintersto paint letters on his vases, and he wrote at a time when the Greek alphabetwas probablyless than two hundredyearsold.l Under these circumstances,applyingthe standards of, for example, late twentieth-centurywestern Europe or North America for determinationof "literacy"is anachronistic. Judging early archaic inscriptions This paperis one of a serieswrittenin the contextof a long-termprojectundertakenby the two authors named. In each case, the first-namedauthor is the one most implicatedin the articlein question. Kilmer has consulted Develin at every stage of the preparationof this article, but has written this articlein the firstperson.Only the Conclusionsshouldbe consideredto be of truejoint authorship.I am particularlygratefulto Louis Kelly for his help in the linguisticportionsof this paper;to Eleanor Dickey for useful commentaryon linguistic questions and for putting me into contact with Rudolf Wachter, whom I also thank for comments. To David HarveyandJohn Was, my specialthanks for readingearlydraftsand for supportin manyguises. My thanksalso to the two anonymousreadersfor Phoenix,many of whose suggestionsI have incorporatedinto this finalversion.Any errorsremaining are my own. Epigraphicalnote: Sophilos' archaic letter forms (see Fig. 1) differed significantlyfrom those used in later Ionic script. We have preservedhis spellings in transcriptionto the lower-case system in common use for archaicvase inscriptions(see Immerwahr1990; Jeffery 1990). Sophilos' "heta" lambdaby X, (replacedeventuallyby the rough-breathingmark)is representedby h, his "check-mark" his lambda-shapedgammaby y, his sigma (almost alwaysthree-bar)by a and S, his "plus"-shapedkhi by X, and his pi with one short leg (easily confusedwith the classicalupper-caseform of gamma) by 7. Almost all forms used on the vases are reservedlater for upper-caseletters. We have thus chosen not to "correct"the spelling of words which in Classicaltimes were spelt with geminate consonants: this was not the usual archaicform. "Correction"in publicationsis one of the things which has led to the general-and quite erroneous-perception that the archaicAttic paintersof potteryhad as a rule a shakycontrolon the writing of Greek. For the most part, Sophilosuses letter forms similarto those used by Kleitias,Exekias,and the Amasis Painter. The cataloguenumbersgiven in parenthesesare based on Beazley 1956 and Beazley 1963 (B = ABV, R = ARV). For furtherdetail, see the Appendix,below, 37. 1For furtherdiscussion,see, e.g., Powell 1991; Robb 1994. This topic is controversial.

9 PHOENIX, VOL. 55 (2001) 1-2.

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on the basis of Attic spelling conventions of the Classical period, though less spectacularlyanachronistic,presents some of the same difficulties.The research of Leslie Threatte on phonology (Threatte 1980) has laid the foundations for establishingthe patternsof archaicAttic spelling;and Henry Immerwahr'sAttic Script(1990) presents a substantialbody of transcribedinscriptions, the great majority of them from pottery, including many new readings. Allen's Vox Graeca3(1987), though focused on classicalGreek literarylanguage,gives useful information on the development of the written language and its relations to the spoken language after the period of direct interest here. In many cases, extrapolationbridging to the evidence for the earlierperiod coveredby Threatte has led to unexpectedconclusions. In order to determine the "literacy"of someone in Sophilos' circumstances, we ought to look primarilyat two questions. First, when the painter writes the same word on two (or more) vases, is his spelling consistent? We might call this "internalconsistency."Second, when other vase painterscontemporary or nearlycontemporarywith Sophilos write these words, are their spellings the same as his, or at least close enough that we should most reasonablyassessthem as variants? I have cast my net ratherwide within the range of archaicAttic painted pottery. The degree of consistencyis significantenough overallthat it is clearthat many paintersof archaicAttic potteryhad little difficultyin writing whateverthey chose to write on a vase. Sophilos, as a pioneerin this new venture, might reasonablybe expected to have considerabledifficulty. In fact, as I hope this paper demonstrates,he exhibits a high degree of internal consistency, and his consistencywith other painters of the early Archaic period, and even with paintersdown into the earlyfifth century(at least for most words for which there are later matches), is remarkablyhigh. I emphasize that-with one exception, the "caption"identifying the (funeral)games of Patroklos-Sophilos has so far revealedonly two certain classes of inscriptions:"signatures"-allthose that are consisting of only two or complete or near complete are "painter"-signatures, threewords-and the names of heroes and divinities.This restrictionreducesthe probabilityof matches with other painters. We are fortunatethat some of the most crucialnames-names with spelling that has appearedidiosyncraticin the extremewhen comparedto their classicalversions-prove to have enough exact matchesthat we must acceptthem as normalspellingsfor Sophilos'time. Although we have remnants of many of Sophilos' vases, and several fully or almost fully reconstructible,there are relativelyfew inscribedvases extant in his oeuvre. He is early among black-figurepainters, belonging to the second generationof the style. His predecessorsin the developedmediumwerethe Nettos Painter,2the Gorgon Painter (whose careerbegan while the Nettos painterwas 2The name of the centaurwhom he shows in conflictwith Heraklesin his most famouswork, the Modern scholarshave regularizedthe spelling to amphorain Athens (B4/1), the painterspells N?TOS. conformto laterAttic usage, doublingthe tau. They havenot calledhim the "NessosPainter"-which

SOPHILOS' VASE INSCRIPTIONS

' - rt-, i .-?..*? -

l/ t:;^2a -nos I

11

Fig. 1: Fragmentfrom the ErskineDi(B40/16.1)illustrating Sophilos'normal letter-forms in his signatureandthe name Peleus.Photo:courtesyof BritishMuseum, London,afterWilliams1983,fig.25 (portionsof break"removed" by computerenhancement).

still active,andwho maywell havebeen Sophilos'teacheror at the leastthe senior memberof the workshopin which he startedhis career:see Bakir 1981: 1-3; Beazley 1986: 16), and a few other painterswhose careersare brieflynoted in Beazley'sABV and at greaterlength in his TheDevelopmentofAtticBlack-Figure (Beazley1986: 12-16 and pls. 10-15). BeforeSophilos,Attic paintinggiveslittle in the wayof inscriptionsapartfrom the names of a few divinities and some heroes and their opponents.3 Sophilos may be the first Attic potterypainterto give his name with the verb eypaaoev, meaning "drew"or "painted"(Fig. 1): later Attic orthographywould make this Eypavev; but the spellingwith cris standardfor the time in question(see below, wouldconformto laterspellingin mostof the Greekworld-perhapsto avoidconfusionwith the of theNewYorkNessos."I haveoftenwondered "Painter havenotadopted proto-Attic whyscholars thesensibleexpedient of callingthisearlyblack-figure artisttheNetosPainter,usingthespellingwe knowhimto haveused.Threattereports(1980:540),in discussing andvariants, thename'OSuoaace to the Prometheus occurrence of the spellingNEaooon a Tyrrhenian (B96/13)attributed amphora Painter.Tyrrhenian to be of Atticmanufacture, andthisspelling aregenerally considered amphorai remainsexceptional.The heroOdysseusis foundwith the spellingOXur8u; (retr.,Olyteus)on a vaseby Kleitias(B76/A)fromEgypt,as well as on the FrancoisVase(B76/1),in the fragmentary chariot-race a kantharos scene:Wachter1991:89, no.50. In anotherexample, bythe SoklesPainter, OXuTeuis in attendancefor the armingof Akhilles (B173/1). 3See Immerwahr1990: 20-21 for examples.

PHOENIX

12

32-33). He is thus the first Attic potterypainterknown to have signed his work (Beazley1986: 16).4 He is much more generousin his use of labelledhuman and divine figuresthan was the norm with his predecessors;and he has left us many more inscriptionsthan have they, and he used the inscriptions,it would seem, primarilyin orderto identify these mythologicalfiguresfor his audience. II.

FRAGMENTARY VASES: SIGNATURES

(a) FragmentsfromtheAthensWeddingDinos (B39/15):MythicalWedding We may begin with the painter'ssigned vases, though they are not numbered among his earliest. His fragmentarydinos in Athens has preservedcomplete on cypacasv (Sophilos drew fragmentc the retrogradeverticalinscriptionEo4tiXoq5 of the in this Plate All 1). [this]; sigmas painter-inscriptionare in the form normal for orthogradesigma in later inscriptions(that is to say, their direction reversedfrom that of the standardretrogradesigma:thus their firstdown-strokes slope down towards the left).6 The alpha is of the closed type,7 the nu of the high-swungearlytype;and, in short, all of the lettersareof formsunexceptionable for their period. Sophilos has chosen a prominent position for the inscription. It is written vertically,retrograde,to our right side of the bronze-decorateddoor of a building. 4At least one of his inscribedvases, the Athens Wedding Dinos (B39/15) was dedicatedon the Akropolisat Athens. It was large and ornate(on the same scale as the ErskineDinos), and was most probablymade specificallyfor dedication. If so, it probablycarrieda painted dedicationinscription (Sophilos left no graffito inscriptions),which has not survived. It will certainlybe worth the effort to study the remainsof earlydedicationson pottery-and particularlythose of the sixth century-as a corpus. It can usuallybe determinedwith considerableprobabilitywhich graffitoinscriptionswere done before firing(thus belonging to the manufacturingprocess)and which were incised afterfiring. There is a subset of pots with dedicatoryinscriptions"painted"on them-some found far from their places of manufacture(for example, Ionian pottery found at Graviscaein Etruria: Various 1993), others, such as those from the Akropolisat Athens, verydose to home. Dedicatedmanufacture,often asalapXe "firstfruit,"denotes a specialrelationshipbetweenpotterand/orpainterand the divinityso honoured-or may reflect the intentions of a patron. Such dedicationsmay begin as earlyas the late eighth century.They certainlycontinue to the end of the sixth century.Sophilos'fine dinos was likely the potter/painter'sdedicationon the Akropolisto Athena, patronessof craftsmen(especiallypotters) and patronessof Athens. 5Vowel values in this name are not known; nor can we know whether later Attic usage would have doubled the lambda or not. Beazley (1956: 37) says it is "impossibleto say whether the name S is c6thtXoS, lo4iXoqS,or l64tXXo."These three forms of the name are attested;but they are not the Immerwahr (1990: 21) transcribesthe painter'sname as though it were E6jtkoS, only possibilities. without discussion. So also does Threatte (1980: Index). I retain the archaicspelling, and add no accentbecauseI am not convincedthat we know where the accentought to go. See Pape and Benseler 1959: nos. 1430-78; Kirchner1966: nos. 261, 299. 6Immerwahr(1990: 21) refers to these as "reversed."Either the "direction"of sigma had not as yet been fixed, or Sophilos was interestedin letters for their decorativequalitiesas well as for the additionalmeaning they could give his figures. 7Beazley 1956: 39, no. 15 gives (in a rareslip) the open alphaform.

SOPHILOS'VASEINSCRIPTIONS

13

This building is generallytaken to be the house of the bridegroom(Peleus?),the place towardswhich the procession (the vase's principal subject) moves. This suggestionis supportedby the similarbuilding on the ErskineDinos in London (B40/16.1; Fig. 1), which we shall discuss later (below, 14, 28-30); and, at a slightlylater date, by the building Kleitiasuses on the FrancoisVase (B76/1) for the starting-pointand ending-point of the same scene.8 The borderbelow the buildingis similarto that preservedin fragmentsb, f, andg of the samevase.9Also parallelto the door, and thus flankingthe inscription,area Doric column (painted white, and with what may be intended as a narrowbase-a feature not known in large-scaleDoric architecturein stone of the Archaicand Classicalperiods)to our right and an anta in black,with incision markingits base. The column capital is broad and shallow, set off by a convex necking-bandwhich somewhat recalls the shallowhawk's-beakmouldingsof some capitalsof the so-called "basilica"at Paestum.0lOn fragmentb is found the lower portionof the left anta of the house along with one foot of an individualwho must be facing awayfrom the building. On the analogyof the Erskine Dinos, this would be the bridegroom:the minor detail of horizontalincised lines decoratingthe ankleportionof the boots of both individualsgives some slight furthersupportto this hypothesis. On the Erskine Dinos, unfortunately,only two pairsof male feet arepreservedother than those of the bridegroom:those of Dionysos and the humanforefeetof the centaurKhiron, both of whom arebarefoot. Other fragmentsprovidesome of the guests in processionon their way to the celebration.On fragmentg, the names Acro (Leto) and Xapt9ko (Khariklo)are written orthogradeverticallybefore the two female figures, without interpunct, but with a space left between the words largerthan that between other pairs of letters.The names arewritten free-hand,with irregularlyplacedbases, not along the base-line (usuallyeither not drawn in, or meant to be invisible after firing) used often by laterpainters,and occasionallyused by Sophilos. Leto is the mother of Artemis and Apollo; Khariklo(much less well known to us) the wife of the centaurKhiron. Sophilosuses 9 (qoppa)in a numberof placeswhere laterAttic spellingwould use K (kappa). He uses it, in preservedinscriptions,only precedingk (lambda), as here, on the Athens Dinos fragment from Pharsalos (B39/16), and on the ErskineDinos (Fig. 3). On the other hand, Kleitias,workingmost likely no more than ten yearsafterthis, spells Khariklowith kappas(Wachter1991: 90, no. 82). Kleitiasdoes use qoppaonce on the FrancoisVase, for the dog 9opaX; (Qorakhs, "raven")in the KalydonianBoar scene (Wachter 1991: 87, no. 16). This is a "speakingname":gutturalqoppaperfectsthe imitationof the raven'scry. Kleitias' 8For the many inscriptions on the Erskine Dinos, see Bakir 1981: Al, pls. 1-2, figs. 1-4. Williams (1983: 13-34) gives additional fragmentsand transcriptionsof the inscriptions. For the building on the ErskineDinos, see Williams 1983: figs. 25-26. 9Numberingas in Bakir 1981: pi. 3. 1 See, for example,Lawrence1983: 156, fig. 121.

14

PHOENIX

use here confirms,for me, that he used qoppafor the gutturalstop corresponding to kappa. Sophilos' use of qoppa preceding lambda suggests a strongly gutturalised pronunciation. X following K forces K into the guttural. (For a concrete demonstrationof this, try speaking the words "capital"and "closet"aloud, and feel the positions of those consonantsin your mouth and upper throat.) Jeffery (1990: 33-34) describesqoppa as "thegutturalk before the vowels u and o."This descriptionworkswell with the earlyinscriptions(of the seventh and the earliest sixth centuries)as she reportsthem (1990: 70); and with the single preserveduse of qoppaby Kleitiason the FrancoisVase. Sophilos'preservedinscriptionsnever show 9 immediatelyprecedinga vowel, nor do we have any case, in his oeuvre, of K immediately preceding o or u. We do not know what his choice would have been for this combination.Threatte comments (1980: 21) that "(Qoppa)is regularlyused before o-vowels, even when 1 intervenes."In this context he may see qoppaas a spellingvariant,ratherthan as a letter indicatinga differentsound. It is certainlyalso true that Sophilos' and Kleitias'knowledge of letters is not based solely on the Attic tradition (see Immerwahr1990: 155; Threatte 1980: 21-23). The animalfriezes of both paintershave strong Corinthianties; and the Corinthianpainterscontemporarywith these two Attic painterswere becoming adept at supplyingnames for their mythologicalcharacters.Like Sophilos, these painters regularlyuse qoppa before lambda: see, for example, neptQ9uuevo; (Periklymenos)on the amphorafrom Cerveteri(Paris E640: Amyx 1989: 270, no. 6; Carpenter1991: 269). Sophilos'retrogradedipintoInarpoQ9uSi; atka (see Plate 2) providesanotherparallel.1l Khironmay also have been shown on this dinos, as he is on both the Erskine Dinos and the FranpoisVase. As in both of those, he would apparentlyhavebeen shown separatefrom his wife, not beside her-otherwise we ought to see at least tracesof his figureor of his name on this fragment.Both Leto and Kharildowear complex dresseswith polychromeanimalsreminiscentof the Corinthianpainted creatureswho serve as models for so much in Sophilos' animal parades.12To our right, walking in front of these two figures,is anotherpair of female figures: Ae[!]ETcp (Demeter) is written retrogradetop-to-bottom along the line of her back, letter-basestowardsher (the first two epsilons and the tau partial),haccta (Hestia) orthogradecurvingdownwardbefore the face of the woman in the lead (with closed heta, c in the form later normal for retrogradeinscriptions): the name Hestia clearlygoes with the figurefartherfrom the viewer.The placement of Demeter'sname, written as it is along the back of the nearerfigure,reinforces that. Next to our right is a figure only partiallypreserved,probablyIris. No inscriptionremains;but comparisonof her apparentposition at the head of the 11Threatte (1980: 22) transcribesthis fIaTpoQxu;with Kin placeof 9, and cites it as an exception to Sophilos'usage in Xaptl9o. Immerwahr(1990: 21, no. 62) transcribesthe hero'sname correctly, but does not comment on the qoppa. See below, 20. 12On such dresseswith "story-friezes"and the techniquesneeded to makethem in the absenceof true tapestry,see Barber1992: esp. 112-117.

SOPHILOS'VASEINSCRIPTIONS

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procession,her costume, and her attributesto those of the figurelabelled"Iris"on the Erskine Dinos can leave little doubt. There is the same white flesh, similar short-sleevedand short-skirtedkhitoniskos,13 and the lower end of the herald's staff (complete on the ErskineDinos) which shows the goddess'soffice. For this occasion,she maybe imaginedto act as a sort of travellingbutler,introducingthe divinitiesto the bridegroomas they arrive,as well as announcingthe arrivalof the processionas a whole. On the analogy of both the Erskine Dinos and the parallel scene on the Francois Vase, this fragment ought to represent the leading figures of the wedding procession (those closest to the bridegroom'shouse), although on the Francois Vase Iris walks beside Khiron the centaur, whose human foreparts actuallyslightly precedeher. Kleitiashas not felt bound to follow everydetail of any earlierversion known to us:14for instance, his Iris' short chiton is decorated in a form of plaid ratherthan the solid colour of both Sophilan examples;and KhirontakesPeleus'hand abovean altarwhich Sophiloscertainlydid not include on the ErskineDinos, and cannot be shown to have used here. Fragmentjgives us the head of noac[i5ov] (Poseidon),his name slopingdown retrogradebehind his head, the c partial. Partly obscuredby him and a touch ahead is his wife Av[ItTptpTc] (Amphitrite),written orthogradeto the right from her forehead(v partial).15Though her name is poorly preserved,the reading is highly probable:the couple appeartogether on the ErskineDinos, the goddess's name spelt with initial Av as here, and also on the FrancoisVase, with the same spelling (Wachter 1991: 90, no. 68; 99). On the latter two vases, the divine couple are mounted on a chariot. Here, although it would be consonant with their riding in a chariot that their heads almost touch the upper border of the scene (we can comparethe figures of fragmentc, for whom the reins and whip or goad are partiallypreserved),the heads of others who are not chariot-borne come almost into contactwith that border;and the walkingIris'head must have touched. Fragment d shows a serpentine creaturewho (again on the analogy of the ErskineDinos and-though less completely-the FrancoisVase [Wachter 1991: 89, no. 91; 99]) could be Okeanos.16The drapedmale figurewalking on the far side of the sea-serpentbody, however, has no equivalenton the Erskine Dinos, where the space behind Okeanos'human torso is taken up by two female figures (see below, 30).17 Beazley had alreadysuggested (1986: 27) for the equivalent 13Thoughherethe hem/selvageis markedby shortverticalincisions,ratherthanthe "painted" maeander of thefigureon the ErskineDinos. 14Whether that"model" wasvisual,poetic,or basedmoreon his ownimagination, whateverits originalinspiration.

15Forv in p beforeplosives,seeThreatte1980:595-596.AvIvrptpIT is placeof thelaterstandard thestandard collectionwhich spellingon the manyCorinthian pinakesin the BerlinCharlottenburg presentthesegods(vidi). 16Butsee Beazley1986:27 andbelow,n. 18. 17Theremaybe twowalkingfiguresratherthanone. The darksegmentof clothingon the right, however,looks-even in enlargedcolourphotographs-justlikethe insideof the sleeveto ourleft.

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figures (poorly preserved)on the Franfois Vase that the human-bodiedfigure must be Okeanos, and the serpent/compositecompanion perhapsone of the Tritons.18 This seems also the best interpretationhere, with Okeanos (human in body; nothing remains of his head) in charge of the sea-creature.The fact that the human figurewalks aft of the forepartsof the sea-creaturemakesgood sense. After all, people on Greek vases (and in reallife) herd cattle like this; and literarymetaphorsfor Okeanos and other marinedivinitiesmakethem herdsmen of various underwaterbeasts.19 No part of either name is preserved,leaving speculationlittle to grasp. Stewart'ssuggestion(1983: 59) that this is Okeanos with Hephaistos walking beside, is problematic. Early images of Hephaistos, which generallygo out of theirway to show the deformityof his leg(s), makethis improbable.For Sophilos on the ErskineDinos, as laterfor Kleitias,Hephaistos is too badly crippledto walk or to stand in a chariot,and must ride his mule or donkeyside-saddle.

Fig. 2: Fragmenti of AthensWeddingDinos (B39/15)with inscription namingtheNyssai.Photo:M. Kilmer. Fragmenti preservesone frontalfemalefaceandtwo morefemalefacesat right, turned to our left. The frontal female plays the syrinx. The inscriptionsloping down to the right of the two profileheads (orthograde,though the a is writtenas laterretrogradesigmaswill be) is the wordNuaat (Nyssai;Fig. 2). Stewart(1983: 59) and Beazley (1986: 17) take the two profilewomen as Nyssai, "Dionysos' companions,"so also does Immerwahr(1990: 186). These nymphs of Mount Nyssa, though minor charactersfor us moderns, are also known from myth as nursesof Dionysos.20Despite this simpleinterpretation,the inscriptionhas given (and continues to give) rise to an inordinateamountof difficulty,causedat least The incisedlinewhichmeetsthecurvedbackof theseamonstermakessenseastheunderside of the leftforearm of thesamefigure:thearmis stretched outbeforehim,andhiscloakmusttravelwithit. The cosed handto ourleftis besttakenasa dosedrighthand:theshortstraightlinebelowthebase of thethumbis notpartof thepainter's intention. on the FrancoisVasehas"ahumanbodybut the headandneckof a bull"(Beazley 18Okeanos 1986:27). We mayalsocomparethe figureof Nereus(perhaps rather"aTriton")shownperhaps in combatwith Herakles(?) on Sophilos'column-krater in Athens(B40/24).The bellypatternis somewhat butthissea-monster hasa beardedserpentgrowingfromhisback.Seealsobelow, simpler; 25-26. 19Foran extendedscene enlargingthe metaphor,of Proteus,see Hom. Od.4.400-570. 20See Threatte 1980: 260-261; Immerwahr1990: 21, no. 61. Henrichs(1987: 116, n. 41) follows West (1978: 373-374) in identifying the Nyssai as tree-nymphs. Immerwahr(1990: 186 Add. et corr.)supportsthis. For the Nysai (or Nyssai) as nursesof Dionysos, see Graves1960: 104; for this

SOPHILOS'VASEINSCRIPTIONS

17

in partby scholars'assumptionthat what is difficultto understandin inscriptions is likely to be ancient error. Vanderpool (1953: 322) offered the suggestion that the word should be read as <M>uacL (i.e., Moiotai, Muses) "althoughit involves a rare case of v for p." This reading also requiresan unusual use of upsilon, ratherthan omikron,for the ou of laterAttic.21Sophilosmayuse upsilon to representthe spurious diphthong later written ou in the name FIarpo9Xu; (probablyfor the latergenitive form l-aTpoKoo6;)on the Athens Dinos fragment from Pharsalos(B39/16; see Plate 2). Considerablylater(ca 540), a parallelwhose implicationsare much clearerthan in our text, is the inscriptionon an amphora of Panathenaicshapein London (B307/59): AUVEIKECU . htno; . vtKat ("thehorse of Dy(s)niketos is the winner"),where the final u of the owner'sname is clearly intended to be the Attic ou genitive ending. The preservedtext of Sophilos' inscription, however, makes good sense as it stands. If we were dealing here with a manuscript,ratherthan with an inscriptionon a pot, few scholarswould argue in favour of an emendation which does not improve on the manuscript reading for sense or for context. Most scholarswould be doubly cautiousabout an emendationwhich additionallyrequireschangeswhich go againstthe normal usage of the author(and of the "manuscript"-thatis, the preservedinscriptions) in question. The emendation requiresus to accept that Sophilos here wrote v where he ought to have written lp (here and nowhere else). It requiresus to acceptthat Sophiloshere made a hash of writinga word (Mooaat) which in other places gives him no difficultyat all. This is not reasonable.These women are Nyssai. The syrinx-playerStewarttakes to be the Muse Kalliope,though this requires a somewhat difficult logic. Kleitias names as Kalliope, among the Muses in the wedding procession, the frontal syrinx-player. Because of Kleitias'special treatmentof Kalliope, Stewart(1983: 57-58) takes her to be, for Kleitias,chief of the Muses.22On this basis, the syrinx-playingfemalewhom Sophilosgrouped with the two women clearlynamed as Nysai, Stewartbelieves to be the Muse Kalliope. On the Erskine Dinos, in the first group of Motsa (Muses;Williams 1983: fig. 31) Stewart (1983: 61) once again identifiesthe frontal syrinx-player as Kalliope (with rather more probability, as the painter calls these women Muses). On the Athens fragment, she could be simply a Nyssa playing the syrinx-nymphs, after all, are expected to be musical. Kleitias,however, names of the Hyades.The Nyssaiareto be treatedin theywerelaterto be honouredas the constellation a supplement to LIMC,alongwith "Kentauroi" andassortedothers.On thismatterI alignmyself with Beazley,Stewart,andImmerwahr ratherthanwith Vanderpool and(thoughmoretentatively) Threatte.Eithergroupmakesa formidable ally. 21On u forou, seeThreatte1980: 1990:162.Forthestandard 260-261;Immerwahr orthography of thisperiod,omikronrepresenting whatlaterAtticGreekwritesasthespurious diphthongou, see, forexample,Buck1955[1933]:30. 22So alsoWachter1991: 107-108, of mostof Kleitias'Muses'namesto stressingthe similarity thosein Hesiod.

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Kalliopein a scene in which he writes the names of all nine Muses.23 Sophilos on the ErskineDinos shows two groupsof Muses: one Muse playingthe syrinx, flankedby two others to each side, and a groupof threeMuses walkingbeside the horses that drawHermes and Apollo-eight Muses in all. Each group bearsthe group label Moaat. No individualMuse is named. Since the numberof Muses is not the (later) canonicalnine, and none of them bears an inscribedpersonal name, there seems little reason to transferKleitias'iconographyof Kalliope to the Muses on the Erskine Dinos; and still less to assume that the syrinx-player shown among the Nyssai here is anything other than one of their number. On the analogyof the group of five Muses on the ErskineDinos, we might suggest completionof the fragmentaryvignette herewith two profilefemalesto our left of the syrinxplayer. Sophilos'reuse of the iconographyfor a separatemythological groupwould be well in characterfor him. His placementof the Mooat inscription over the right-side flanking pair on the Erskine Dinos is like the placement of the Nuaal inscriptionhere. Sophilos likes paratacticalarrangements-and he is particularlyfond of "ringingthe changes"on what often seem on first exposure like mere repetitions. One more fragment,c, has a partialinscription.The nearerfigureis a bearded male, the farthera female. Startingjust before her forehead, the letters he are complete (closed heta, as is usual for Sophilos; the horizontalsof the E slant down to the right, another preferredform). Following the E there is only the short lower end of the hasta of a letter, spaced slightly fartherfrom the ends of the bars of the e than the vertical hasta of the e is from the nearervertical of the heta. In a stoichedon inscription,particularlyone on stone, the spacing would be important.Here, with the painterdoing his letteringentirelyfreehand, spacingcannot weigh heavilyin the argument.Immerwahr(1990: 21) takes the remnant as the hasta of a rho,24as does Bakir (1981: 65); and, on the basis of the perceivedparallelwith the Erskine Dinos, makes this hep[a] (Hera) and the male figure Zeus. The pairing is natural;and on the Erskine Dinos Zeus' name is written between goad and reins, which could also be done here, starting just to the right of the break. It should be borne in mind, however, that even should the partial letter be a rho, Hera's is not the only name that could fit. h?pgLe;(Hermes) works as well for the letters, though it is difficult to see how the painter could then follow his common patternfor writing the name of the female figure. Maia, Hermes' mother, would be suitable, and has a nice short name-and that is the pairing on the Francois Vase (Wachter 1991: 89, nos. 92-93). Even with Sophilos' exuberantlettering, it is difficult to make this a P (for example,for Hebe, whom we find on the ErskineDinos though not on the FrancoisVase). We ought not, however,to excludeapriori such relativelyminor 23Wachter1991: 90, nos. 66-67, 70-73, 76-77. On Kleitias'non-canonicalMuse nameSTeostope (Stesikhore),see Stewart1983; Wachter 1991: 107-108. 24This would be the long-stemmed p (rho) used several times in other words on this vase rather than the stemless (or nearly stemless) D-shaped p of Khiron and Hera on the Erskine Dinos.

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figuresas hepas (Herse);25and even hcpaKcK;is possible,though one would like to see an attribute. The hasta could work (its position, ratherfar from the e, gives some slight supportfor this) as that of a ), with Hephaistos the most probablesupplement. It would be surprisingto have the lame Hephaistos in a chariot,26and still more curious to have his lawful wife, Aphrodite, beside him: on both Erskine Dinos and FrancoisVase Aphrodite rides with her lover Ares, not with her husband, though on the FrancoisVase we see only the inscribednames,not the couple:the handle is attachedas though on top of their figures.On the whole, however,the positioning of the fragmentaryname, when comparedwith the rest of Sophilos' name-placements,connects it most probablyto the female figureratherthan the male. Suspensionof judgment might be an appropriateresponseat this stage of the investigation. (b) DinosfromPharsalos(B39/16) Of the second signed vase, the dinos from Pharsalos(B39/16), there survives only a single inscribed fragment which shows an animal frieze on the lip, a patternof tongues separatinglip from body, a small but telling segment of the main pictorialscene, and below that a magnificentlion to one side of a complex floral.27Of the principalscene (Plate 2) there arepreserveda pairof horsesin the foreground;to the far side of them, the heads and forehoovesof a second pair of chariot-horses.In the space before the horsesis written (retrograde,and sloping down towardsthe horses'forelegs),the "painter" inscriptionXo).t0o; l'eypacsgev. The initial a is written in the form which will become standardfor retrograde inscriptions;and what remainsof the cain eypac)a?v,though it is badlydamaged, looks to belong to the same form. Curiously,the initiala, though surelyintended as a three-barsigma,has enough of a bend in its lowerlimb to suggestthe four-bar formwhich becomes standardin Attic inscriptionsonly substantiallylater,within the fifth century.28This peculiarityoccursin others of Sophilos'sigmas, making them look sometimes more like the Corinthiancrookediota than like a sigma. Uncharacteristicof Sophilos is the initial e of eypaaocv which is inserted into the narrowspace between the p and the y as though it were an afterthought;so much so that he has had to fit it above the centre-line of the rest of the letters, taking advantageof the divergenceof the lines of alpha and gamma. Different also from the signatureon our first fragmentarydinos is Sophilos'inclusionhere of the pronoun etc. Inclusion of pc in this phrasewas clearlyoptional; and we 25What scholarwould havebeen so foolhardyas to conjectureNualt with only the firsttwo letters complete, or only the last three? 26See above, 16. 27Bakir1981: A.3, pl. 6. Two furtherfragmentsareidentified(Bakir1981: pi. 7), neitherof them inscribedand neitherjoining. 28Immerwahr1990: xxiii S 4 and 5. On the forms of sigma, see Immerwahr1990: 157-160. Four-barsigma is fairly common in sixth-centuryvase inscriptions,particularlyin early red-figure (Immerwahr1990: 158).

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have no reliableway of recoveringthe motivationfor a painter'schoice between speakingin his own voice (albeitin the third person)or havingthe vase speakfor him, as here:"Sophilosdrew me."29 Below this signature,and roughlyparallelwith it, is the retrogradeinscription lnarpo9Xu; : acka (for &O0a)30("the games [or prizes] of Patroklos"; Plate 2).31 Spellingof the hero'sname with qoppa,fIacpo9Xu;, also occurs,ratherlater, on the SoklesPainter'skantharosB173/1 (vidi).32The shapeof this Berlinkantharos strikes me as quite close to kantharoifrom the workshop of Nikosthenes (for example,one signed by Nikosthenes aspoietes,R132/a, whose date is not likelyto be much earlierthan 520-510). 510 is too late for the Sokles Painter'skantharos; but a date as late as 530-520 seems reasonable. In discussionsof his version of the same funeralgames on the FrancoisVase, Kleitias is sometimes said not to know the Iliadic version of the two-horse chariotrace, which Diomedes won (Wachter 1991: 96-97; for refinements,see Snodgrass1998: 119-121). Given the fact that the remainsof earlyepic other than the canonicalIliad and Odysseyare scant, it may be foolhardyto make such accusations. Major contests, military or sporting, make excellent materialfor poetry with an epic flavour. Why should there not have been other (poetic?) versions of these games extant and known to Kleitias, and to Sophilos before him? Sophilos'inscriptionestablishesthe contextof his chariotrace.He has provided stands for spectators,33who look out in two directions,one grouplooking at the chariot race, the others now looking out across the break to the right of our fragment.One spectatorin the upperseats turnshis head right aroundto look at what is going on behind him-and thus strengthensthe link between the events to either side of the stands.Over the spectatorson the right side the name AXtX,; 29Svenbro (1993 [1988]: 26-63) discusses this phenomenon. I do not find his presentation convincing. 30Threatte1980: 453. The reverseof this spellingvariant,0 written for t, occursfor exampleon the group of ostraka(manywritten by a single hand) nominatingOeCltaoKkeS(Themisthokles)for ostracism:see, for example,Harris1989: fig. 1; Immerwahr1990: no. 579, fig. 155; no. 581, fig. 152. Immerwahr(1990: 21, n. 4) suggests "Tau for theta in &Tkamay be due to the following lambda" (citing Threatte 1980: 453). 31On this inscription,see also n. 11. On the scene and the findspotof the fragmentaryvessel, see Snodgrass1998: 116-118. 32Although Beazley classifiesthe Sokles Painter'swork with the Little Master cups (and Droop cups), he notes that the name Sokles (aspoietes,and spelt SoKXeeq-not with qoppa,but with double epsilon)occurson a red-figureplate (R164/a; ParisCA 2181) from Chiusi "whichrecallsthe Cerberus Painter[Paseas]"(Beazley 1956: 173). Paseasis roughlycontemporarywith Oltos. Beazleynotes that this Sokles need not be the same potter for whom the Sokles Painterworked, but certainlydoes not excludethe possibility,he also notes that the "signature" may not be genuine. 33Thesemayhavebeen referredto as cKpta:cf. Eustathiuson Od.1.132; Sudas.v. TKpcta.Sophilos, unfortunately,does not name them-something Kleitiasmight well havedone had he includedstands on the Franfoisvase.

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and that hero may be present(though (Akhilleus;Plate 2) is writtenretrograde;34 his figure is completelylost) either as an umpire as on the FrancoisVase, or as a participantin whatevercontest was taking place in the missing portion of the dinos next to right of our fragment.The sigma in this word is of the form which was to become standardfor retrograde. I suggest that the stands on this vase fragmentservedmuch the same purposeas the house on the ErskineDinos: that they mark the key place in the racing oval where the race began-and where it ended afterrunningright aroundthe dinos. There is preserved,above the horses at the left side of the fragment, a pair of letters: os. There is also a fragment of a third letter, the top of a vertical hasta which could belong to t, 4, or x (in its then-standardform +). Beazley took it as ), and the group of three letters as the start of a retrogradepoietes signature,for example, Eo4)[tXo;: