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The Cup of Acesander (also found as Hakesandros or Hakesander) is a drinking cup from ancient Methone, a city in Macedonia (corresponding to modern Methoni, Pieria), that contains one of the earliest found legible inscriptions in the Greek alphabet. Dated from the first half of the eighth century BC (c. 750–720), the pot was made for use at symposia and was discovered during the archaeological excavations of 2003–04. The inscription, written in the Euboean alphabet, functions as an ownership tag and includes a short humorous curse in iambic verse that warns drinkers againsts stealing the cup. Along with similar inscriptions of the same period, the text is seen as an early indication of literacy and poetic writing in ancient Greece. The cup has been important for the study of the early Greek alphabet and epigraphy.

Artifact

The cup of Acesander, identified as a skyphos, was discovered along with several other inscribed drinking vessels in a seald deposit in Methoni, Pieria. A contemporary of the earlier discovered and better preserved Nestor's Cup, the vessel is securely dated to the first half of the eighth century BC. Nelson (2023) writes that the discovery of Acesander's cup confirms that poetry was written by the mid-eighth century BC; Lopez-Ruiz (2022) dates the cup between 750–735 BC. Janko (2015) places Acesander's cup among the other early Greek alphabet writings in 730 BC or earlier, while Tzifopoulos (2023) dates it between circa 730–720 BC. The existence of pottery with Euboean script in Methone from this particular date appears to support Plutarch's accounts of the city being founded by Eretrian settlers in the first half of the eighth century BC.

Inscription

The inscription on Acesander's cup parallels that of several contemporary drinking vessels including the Nestor's Cup, both of which testify to an early poetic culture that accompanied the ritualized drinking of wine. The cup of Acesander showcases a carefully written inscription running around the vessel along a decorative band that was created by a skilled inscriber. This early epigraphic evidence points to the beginnings of literacy in ancient Greece, as the alphabet, epigraphic formulas, and techniques, not strictly confined to a bureaucratic environment, gradually begin to extend to aspects of everyday life, most notably in sympotic contexts, and are shared by individuals of different social and economic backgrounds. The inscription appears to follow an iambic rhythm (υ – υ – υ –). It consists of a short iambic dimeter ot trimeter, possibly the earliest recorded example of this kind, that follows the initial ownership tag in prose. The language indicates that the text was composed in a playful tone and that the cup was meant to be used in a sympotic context. The cup follows the conventional formula of a witty ownership tag, here taking the form of a good-humored curse, which became a common epigraphic trope in ancient Greek pottery, particularly on vessels meant to be used in a friendly circle of symposiasts.

Although preserved in fragments, the text has been approximately reconstructed following the language of similar vessels of the same period. Comparative interpretation of sympotic inscriptions indicates that Acesander's cup is not an isolated example, but part of an epigraphic tradition with wide diffusion in space and time. A probable restoration of the owndership tag includes Ηακεσάνδρο εμ "I am Hakesaner's ". The final verb, which is securely restored as στερήσαι ("will be deprived", the third singluar future form of στεροῦμαι), is preceded by the word ατον or ]άτων, which is commonly reconstructed as άτων "eyes" or άτων "money". Subsequently, the verse can be approximately reconstructed as: ]είτετο με κάτων στερήσαι. A different proposal follows that, if Acesander happened to be a medic, as his name may suggest, the cup may have promised to relieve the drinker from his pains; πημ]άτων. The script can be identified as Euboean and bears most common features with the Eretrian. These features include the letter Mu (Μ μ) which is written with five, instead of the standard four, strokes and the letter Delta (Δ δ) which is rounded above and has an angle below, both features also appearing on the Nestor's Cup from Pithekoussai. Rare in Euboean is the Alpha that is rounded on the right side, although it does appear in Ereteria.

See also

• Akanthos curse tablet
• Derveni papyrus
• Dipylon inscription
• Pydna curse tablets

Footnotes

1. Cazzato, Prodi & Obbink 2016, p. 4; Day 2019, pp. 234–235 notes that only the final five letters appear to dip beneath the straight line; either a misculculation of space by the writer or an intentional choice to indicate where one should begin reading.
2. The word was engraved as ]ΑΤΟΝ; Tzifopoulos 2023, p. 495 provides the spelling with omicron (ο) as it is originally found on the cup, while Janko 2015, p. 3 renders it with an omega (ω) as it would be expected in genitive plural according to Greek grammatical rules.
3. Hakesander translates as "healer of men"; in antiquity such professions tended to be hereditary.

1. Tzifopoulos 2023, pp. 495–496.
2. ^ Tzifopoulos 2023, p. 495.
3. Cazzato, Prodi & Obbink 2016, p. 4; Janko 2015, p. 1
4. Nelson 2023, p. 62.
5. Lopez-Ruiz 2022, p. 233.
6. ^ Janko 2015, p. 1.
7. Tzifopoulos 2023, p. 492.
8. Cazzato, Prodi & Obbink 2016, pp. 4–5.
9. Oikonomaki 2017, pp. 267–268; Wecowski 2017, p. 317
10. Oikonomaki 2017, p. 268; Tzifopoulos 2023, p. 496
11. Tzifopoulos 2023, p. 495; Janko 2015, p. 3
12. Tzifopoulos 2023, p. 495; Cazzato, Prodi & Obbink 2016, pp. 4–5
13. Cazzato, Prodi & Obbink 2016, p. 5; Wecowski 2017, pp. 317–318
14. Cazzato, Prodi & Obbink 2016, p. 4.
15. Tzifopoulos 2023, pp. 496.
16. Day 2019, p. 233; Tzifopoulos 2023, p. 495
17. Oikonomaki 2017, p. 265.
18. Day 2019, p. 233.
19. ^ Janko 2015, p. 3.
20. Janko 2015, p. 2.

Sources

• Cazzato, Vanessa; Prodi, Enrico Emanuele; Obbink, Dirk (2016). The Cup of Song: Studies on Poetry and the Symposion. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199687688.
• Clay, Jenny Strauss; Malkin, Irad; Tzifopoulos, Yannis Z. (2017). Panhellenes at Methone: Graphê in Late Geometric and Protoarchaic Methone, Macedonia (ca 700 BCE). De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110515695.
  • Oikonomaki, Niki. "Local 'Literacies' in the Making: Early Alphabetic Writing and Modern Literacy Theories". In Clay, Malkin & Tzifopoulos (2017).
  • Wecowski, Marek. "Wine and the Early History of the Greek Alphabet. Early Greek Vase-Inscriptions and the Symposion". In Clay, Malkin & Tzifopoulos (2017).
• Day, Joseph (2019). "The Origins of Greek Epigram: The Unity of Inscription and Objects". In Henriksen, Christer (ed.). A Companion to Ancient Epigram. Wiley. ISBN 9781118841723.
• Janko, Richard (2015). "From Gabii and Gordion to Eretria and Methone: The Rise of the Greek Alphabet". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. 58 (1): 1–32. doi:10.1111/j.2041-5370.2015.12000.x. hdl:2027.42/111984. ISSN 2041-5370.
• Lopez-Ruiz, Carolina (2022). Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674269958.
• Morris, Sarah P.; Papadopoulos, John K. (2023). Ancient Methone, 2003-2013: Excavations by Matthaios Bessios, Athena Athanassiadou, and Konstantinos Noulas. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. ISBN 9781950446339.
  • Tzifopoulos, Yiannis. "Inscriptions, Graffiti/Dipinti, and (Trade)Marks at Methone (ca.700 BC)". In Morris & Papadopoulos (2023).
• Nelson, Thomas J. (2023). Markers of Allusion in Archaic Greek Poetry. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316514375.

• Archaeological artifacts
• Earliest known manuscripts by language
• Greek language
• Individual ancient Greek vases
• Greek inscriptions
• Archaeological discoveries in Macedonia (Greece)
• Individual drinking vessels