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. These names may have been placed on the vases with the view of attracting the public to purchase them, or may even have been the subject of special orders from customers. Some light seems to be thrown on the matter by a cup signed by the painter Phintias,[2213] which represents a young man, purse in hand, making purchases of vases in a potter’s workshop. This vase has the inscription Χαιρίας καλός, but whether it is intended as a representation of Chairias or his admirer it is impossible to say. The names, however, are not always those of every-day life. They may have relation to the figures on the vase, as [ΗΕΚΤΟΡ ΚΑΛΟΣ].[2214]