Early metrical inscriptions: aesthetics of sound and vision 

 A peculiarity of many early Greek inscriptions is their metrical form. Since the context of several of these short texts is an elite one, often with strong links to the symposium, this has led some to postulate that the use of the poetic verse in writing must be connected to the recording of poetry in symposiastic settings, and even that the alphabet itself was invented to record hexameters and Homer himself. Other theories have concentrated on the magical aspect of writing and the use of poetry as curse rhyme, since some of these objects bear the threat of punishment for their stealing. While these explanations indeed highlight features we find everywhere in inscriptions in the Mediterranean world, none of these explanations works for the material as a whole. Since metrical texts are so common, and do not necessarily relate to the world of poetry or curses, I suggest an alternative interpretation. Through a cursory analysis of ancient and modern systems of education, studies in cognitive neuroscience and a focus on the material evidence, I try to reconstruct the reasons behind such a choice, with a particular focus on sound and aesthetic placement of these ‘scratches’ upon objects.