General

Abstract

Materiality of ancient text – written, painted, scratched, or carved – is a topic dear to my heart, and I find the visual dimension of ancient writing fascinating for many reasons. Like many Classicists, I also find a great joy in puzzling out the meanings of the lettered lines, arched like dancing serpents, on archaic Greek vases. If one pauses in front of an interesting pot in a museum, it is very easy to forget the time and the rest of the exhibition, as the somersaulting shapes of the continuous script reveal first their letters, then words, rewarding the reader's patience with a short sentence or two: ‘Rejoice! Drink well!’ At times, we have to admit defeat and acknowledge that we are in front of a ‘nonsense’ inscription: that is, an inscription whose lettering creates meanings in a different way – such as a framing device for the visual narrative scene, or devices in the narrative itself, or mimicking foreign sounds or music. Then there is the endlessly amusing world of ancient graffiti – some with acute-angled, nervous letters written in haste; some curvy and elegant, worked out by a skilled and learned hand with plenty of time at its disposal; many accompanied by drawings, some innocuous, some coarse; and all of them, in some way, intent on defying human transience and ephemerality.