A ''kalos'' inscription (''καλός'') is a form of epigraph found on

Attic vase Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...

s and graffiti in antiquity, mainly during the Classical period from 550 to 450 BC. The word ''kalos'' (καλός) means "beautiful", and in the inscriptions it had an erotic connotation.

Overview

The ''kalos'' inscription is typically found on vessels used for a

symposium In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...

. The scenes that accompany the inscription vary, and include athletic exercises and myths. Some inscriptions are generic, reading only "the boy is beautiful" (ὁ παῖς καλός). The inscription more often took the form of the beloved's name, in the

nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Eng ...

singular, followed by "kalos" (''X kalos'', i.e. "X is beautiful"). The beloved is most often a male youth, but a few times girls or women were spoken of as ''kalē'' (καλή). In one early cataloging of the inscriptions, among the individuals labeled as beautiful were 30 women and girls, and 528 youths. Male names outnumber female by more than twenty to one. At least some of the women labeled ''kalē'' were ''

hetairai Hetaira (plural hetairai (), also hetaera (plural hetaerae ), ( grc, ἑταίρα, "companion", pl. , la, hetaera, pl. ) was a type of prostitute in ancient Greece, who served as an artist, entertainer and conversationalist in addition to pro ...

'', courtesans or prostitutes. The names designated as ''kalos'' are characteristic of aristocratic citizens. Some ''kalos'' inscriptions are associated with certain vase painters or pottery workshops. The Antimenes Painter, for instance, is named for the ''kalos'' inscription to Antimenes on his pots, and the

Leagros Group The Leagros Group was a group of Attic black-figure vase painters active during the last two decades of the 6th century BC. The name given to the group by modern scholars is a conventional one, derived from a series of name vases. The Leagros Gro ...

pottery workshop is named for the youth Leagros, a widely popular object of ''kalos'' praise. These associations suggest a cult of celebrity or a concerted effort by a given youth's family to increase their son's public standing. The purpose of these inscriptions remains uncertain, and many examples may be declarations of love as part of same-sex courtship in Athens. In some cases, the inscriptions or vessels may have been made to order. ''Kalos'' names are also found as graffiti on walls, the most abundant example being the find on

Thassos Thasos or Thassos ( el, Θάσος, ''Thásos'') is a Greek island in the North Aegean Sea. It is the northernmost major Greek island, and 12th largest by area. The island has an area of and a population of about 13,000. It forms a separate re ...

of 60 ''kalos'' inscriptions carved on rock dating from the 4th century. The non-epigraphic literary evidence consists of two references in

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his ...

. Both of these instances, however, praise the ''

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

'' (the citizenry as a whole) rather than any individual, and suggest the public performance role of the ''kalos'' tag.

Examples

File:Janiform aryballos Louvre CA987.jpg, Janiform aryballos (520–510 BC) with ''kalos'' inscription File:Euphronios krater side A MET L.2006.10.jpg, Death of Sarpedon, with a ''Leagros kalos'' example (

calyx krater A krater or crater ( grc-gre, , ''kratēr'', literally "mixing vessel") was a large two-handled shape of vase in Ancient Greek pottery and metalwork, mostly used for the mixing of wine with water. Form and function At a Greek symposium, k ...

, 520–510 BCClark, Elston, and Hart, ''Understanding Greek Vases,'' p. 7. File:Tondo Minotaur London E4 MAN.jpg,

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "p ...

with generic "the boy is beautiful" inscription (ca. 515 BC) File:Woman laver Met 1986.322.1.jpg, ''Kalē'' woman bathing (ca. 500 BC) File:Metropolitan kylix - Man bargaining for sex.jpg, A sexual solicitation (5th century BC), with generic inscription File:Nike youth Met 28.167.jpg, Nike offering a wreath to an athletic victor (460–450 BC) File:Draped youths MAR Palermo.jpg, Double inscription

References

Sources

*Neil W. Slater. "The Vase as Ventriloquist: Kalos-inscriptions and the Culture of Fame", in ''Signs of Orality: The Oral Tradition and its Influence in the Greek and Roman World'' (ed. E. Anne Mackay). Leiden: Brill, 1999, pp. 143–161. *Kenneth J. Dover. ''Greek Homosexuality''. 2nd edition. London: Duckworth, 1989. *François Lissarrague. ''Publicity and performance. Kalos inscriptions in Attic vase-painting'', In: ''Performance Culture and Athenian Democracy'', Cambridge 1999, pp. 359–373. *H. Alan Shapiro. ''Leagros the Satyr'' in ''Greek Vases: Images, Contexts and Controversies.'', ed. Clemente Marconi, 2004, pp. 1–12.

External links

{{Greek vase painting 6th-century BC inscriptions 5th-century BC inscriptions Ancient Greek pottery Greek inscriptions