Book Title: Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind
Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications
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THE GREEK ALPHABET AND ITS OFFSHOOTS 451 Orpheus, Musaios, Linos, Epicharmos, Cecrops, Simonides, and especially to Cadmos of Thebes. He lived for a long time in Phænicia and on his return brought back the alphabet, or rather, according to one tradition, introduced 16 letters (1313 B.C., as computed by Eratosthenes). Palamedes during the Trojan war (about 1183 s.c.) added the letters th, x, ph and kh, and Simonides the letters , long eps, and long o. The letters of the Greek alphabet were called Kadmeia grammata (Hero V, 59) or else Kadmou typoi or Kadmou grammata. Herodotus (V, 38) also calls the letters Phoinikčia grammata. The same phrase occurs in an inscription of Teos dated about 475 B.C. (Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Græcarum, 38, 37; information by Dr. M. N. Tod).
Indeed, Greck tradition, with very few exceptions, takes the view that the Greeks learned the art of writing from the Phænicians, and the
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opinion now commonly held by all serious scholars is in agreement with that tradition. The main facts, ignored by any theory that would deny the Phoenician or, say, North Semitic origin of the Greek alphabet are: (1) the shapes of nearly all the early Greek letters and the early Etruscan letters (the Etruscan alphaber being a derivation from the Greek) clearly recall their Semitic origin; (2) the order of the Greek letters corresponds, with a few understandable exceptions, to the order of the Semitic letters; and above all (3) the names of the letters: whereas the Greek names are meaningless in Greek, the Semitic names of the letters are, as we have already seen, words in the Semitic languages.
A very difficult problem is that of the date when the Greek alphabet came into being. There are many conflicting opinions. Between the two
