Figure 2.4Athenian Agora XXV,Ostraka, no.762.no.198 (Lang 1990, fig. 9):hØððïŒæÆô½`ºìåïíØäïò. K omitted in Alkmeoni
dos. The sherd reads from left to right, then upside down as the sherd is
turned around. The sigma at the end of the patronymic and the form
(alkmeonidos) is wrong (writer thinking of Alkmeonos?).^15 (See figure 2.5.)Figure 2.5Athenian Agora XXV,Ostraka, no.198.By contrast, no. 1065 (Lang 1990, fig. 27), the much quoted couplet
against Xanthippos (‘‘This ostrakon says Xanthippos son of Ariphron
does most wrong of the accursed leaders’’) is an elegiac couplet, and the
small, neat handwriting is that of a confident writer well used to forming
letters and constructing written texts. (See figure 2.6.)
These extreme examples seem to be attempts by men quite unaccus-
tomed to writing the simplest message, and the fact that the grammar is
occasionally awry—some give the patronymic in the nominative, not the
- See Lang 1990, no. 198 for discussion.
Writing, Reading, Public and Private ‘‘Literacies’’ 21