The painted inscriptions on vases first appear, as already noted, about the beginning of the seventh century B.C. The earlier fabrics—Mycenaean, Cretan, and Cycladic—generally belong to an epoch when writing, if not unknown, was at any rate little practised[2109]; nor have any inscriptions been found on the Dipylon or Geometrical vases, except the incised one which we have already discussed. The oldest known painted inscriptions are found on a Proto-Corinthian lekythos (see p. 254), the Euphorbos pinax from Kameiros (B.M. A 749), and the krater signed by Aristonoös, which is perhaps of Ionic origin, strongly influenced by Mycenaean art. SCHEME OF ALPHABETS USED ON GREEK VASES [Illustration: FIG. 173.] With the great impulse given to vase-painting at the beginning of the sixth century by the development of the art in Corinth, Chalkis, and Athens (especially in Corinth), the number of inscribed vases rapidly increases. Among the earliest examples are those remarkable painted pinakes found at Corinth (Vol. I. p. 316), nearly all of which have dedicatory inscriptions, while in most cases the names are given of the deities, Poseidon and Amphitrite, to whom they were dedicated, and whose figures appear on them. They may be dated 600–550 B.C. The custom of inscribing names on works of art is illustrated by other products of this period, as we have already noted in the case of the chest of Kypselos; and they occur on the early bronze reliefs from Olympia,[2110] the Samothrace relief in the Louvre,[2111] the archaic reliefs at Delphi, and the newly found painted metopes at Thermon,[2112] as well as later on the paintings of Polygnotos. On the Euphorbos pinax already mentioned[2113] appear the names of Menelaos ([ΜΕΝΕΛΑΣ]), Hector ([ΡΟΤΚΕ]), and Euphorbos ([ΙΥΦΟΡΒΟΣ]). Although found in Rhodes, it is proved to be of Argive origin by the characteristic form [Λ] of the Λ in Menelaos.[2114] Although its date cannot be exactly ascertained, it is probably about 620–600 B.C. It is a vase important in more than one respect, as it may be said to foreshadow the beginnings of the black-figure style. The vase of Aristonoös[2115] was found at Cervetri, and bears the artist’s signature, [ΝΕΣΙΟΠΕΣΟΦΟΝΟΤΣΙΡΑ], Ἀριστόνο<φ>ος ἐποί[η]σεν, in an alphabet from which, unfortunately, all characteristic letters are wanting, so that its origin is uncertain. It is, however, as we have said, probably a seventh-century product of an Ionian fabric, on the coast of Asia Minor. The 14[13]halved circle has been taken by several scholars[2116] to denote [F] as in the Phrygian alphabet, but Kretschmer (p. 11) prefers to read it as ϑ 14[13]halved circle = 14[13]quartered circle We have, however, already seen that it is most probably a superfluous letter.