DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0094
[354] -PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 85
language other than Greek. That we have to deal with a syllabary seems
to be clear from the small number of characters contained in the several
groups. The close correspondence of this whole series of signs with the
Cypriote has already been sufficiently demonstrated. But the very fact that
the Cypriote syllabary seems to have been derived from this earlier Aegean
and ' Mycenaean' script, or perhaps some parallel Asianic branch, reacts against
the Hellenic character of the original. For the Cypriote characters were
never originally framed for Greek use. The Greek of the Cypriote
inscriptions always seems to be clothed in a foreign dress ill-fitting at
the best.
There is indeed the strongest presumption for believing that in Crete at
least the race amongst whom the earlier Aegean characters were originally
rife was of non-Hellenic stock. It was clearly recognized by the Greeks
themselves that the original inhabitants of Crete were ' barbarian' or un-
Greek. Herodotos, who brings the Lykians as well as the Kaunians of Karia
from Crete, expressly says that the whole of Crete was once occupied by
' barbarians.'3S* But the most authentic evidence of this non-Hellenic origin
is the name of Eteokretes or ' true Cretans' applied by the Dorian colonists
of the island to the representatives of the indigenous stock, who long
continued to live on in the fastnesses of Ida and Dikta. It would even
appear that the language of these Cretan aborigines maintained itself in the
extreme East of the island to the borders of the historic period. The evidence
of this is supplied by an inscription recently found among the ruins of
Praesos89 and now preserved in the Museum of the Syllogos at Candia.
This inscription, though written in archaic Greek characters, is composed
in a non-Greek language, in this respect recalling the two Lemnian in-
scriptions, from which however it differs in epigraphy and apparently in
language. The following facsimile is from a photograph kindly made for me
by Professor Halbherr.
The Praesian stone contains letter-forms in some respects diverging from
those of the archaic Greek inscriptions of the island, and in the types of iota
and pi that are there presented as well as in the early use of S shows a
greater approach to Phoenician models. In the concluding letters which form
the word Anait there seems indeed to be a direct reference to the Semitic
Anat or Anaitis, ' the Persian Artemis,' whose image appears on one of the
shields found in the cave of the Idaean Zeus.39a That at the period when
the Praesian inscription was written the indigenous element in the island
may have been still largely under Phoenician influence is probable enough,
but the inscription itself does not seem to be Semitic.
We may fairly conclude that the language here found represents that of
the Eteoeretans of whom, as we know, Praesos was a principal stronghold,
and it is reasonable to suppose that this was the original language of the
3Sa i. 173 tV yap Kp-hrqv fl%ov ri iraXaibv vol. iii.), p. 451 seqq.
iraaav ftappapoi. 39a P. Halbherr e P. Orsi, AntichilA dell'
39 Comparetti, Le leggi di Gortyna e le allre Antro di Zens Idea, p. 106 seqq., and Atlas
Iscrizioni arcaiche Oretesi, 1893 {Mon, Ant. PI. II.; and cf. Comparetti, loe. cit. p. 452.
language other than Greek. That we have to deal with a syllabary seems
to be clear from the small number of characters contained in the several
groups. The close correspondence of this whole series of signs with the
Cypriote has already been sufficiently demonstrated. But the very fact that
the Cypriote syllabary seems to have been derived from this earlier Aegean
and ' Mycenaean' script, or perhaps some parallel Asianic branch, reacts against
the Hellenic character of the original. For the Cypriote characters were
never originally framed for Greek use. The Greek of the Cypriote
inscriptions always seems to be clothed in a foreign dress ill-fitting at
the best.
There is indeed the strongest presumption for believing that in Crete at
least the race amongst whom the earlier Aegean characters were originally
rife was of non-Hellenic stock. It was clearly recognized by the Greeks
themselves that the original inhabitants of Crete were ' barbarian' or un-
Greek. Herodotos, who brings the Lykians as well as the Kaunians of Karia
from Crete, expressly says that the whole of Crete was once occupied by
' barbarians.'3S* But the most authentic evidence of this non-Hellenic origin
is the name of Eteokretes or ' true Cretans' applied by the Dorian colonists
of the island to the representatives of the indigenous stock, who long
continued to live on in the fastnesses of Ida and Dikta. It would even
appear that the language of these Cretan aborigines maintained itself in the
extreme East of the island to the borders of the historic period. The evidence
of this is supplied by an inscription recently found among the ruins of
Praesos89 and now preserved in the Museum of the Syllogos at Candia.
This inscription, though written in archaic Greek characters, is composed
in a non-Greek language, in this respect recalling the two Lemnian in-
scriptions, from which however it differs in epigraphy and apparently in
language. The following facsimile is from a photograph kindly made for me
by Professor Halbherr.
The Praesian stone contains letter-forms in some respects diverging from
those of the archaic Greek inscriptions of the island, and in the types of iota
and pi that are there presented as well as in the early use of S shows a
greater approach to Phoenician models. In the concluding letters which form
the word Anait there seems indeed to be a direct reference to the Semitic
Anat or Anaitis, ' the Persian Artemis,' whose image appears on one of the
shields found in the cave of the Idaean Zeus.39a That at the period when
the Praesian inscription was written the indigenous element in the island
may have been still largely under Phoenician influence is probable enough,
but the inscription itself does not seem to be Semitic.
We may fairly conclude that the language here found represents that of
the Eteoeretans of whom, as we know, Praesos was a principal stronghold,
and it is reasonable to suppose that this was the original language of the
3Sa i. 173 tV yap Kp-hrqv fl%ov ri iraXaibv vol. iii.), p. 451 seqq.
iraaav ftappapoi. 39a P. Halbherr e P. Orsi, AntichilA dell'
39 Comparetti, Le leggi di Gortyna e le allre Antro di Zens Idea, p. 106 seqq., and Atlas
Iscrizioni arcaiche Oretesi, 1893 {Mon, Ant. PI. II.; and cf. Comparetti, loe. cit. p. 452.