DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.806#0087
MINOAN CYPRUS AND THE INSULAR SCRIPTS 73
is only fifty-four, whereas the number of those in the Cypro-Minoan signary, if we may
judge from the parallel Cretan systems of Classes A and B, would have been about
double that number.
The fifteen Cypro-Minoan signs of which we have a record are in any case
only a small fragment of the whole series which we must assume to have existed.
A fuller field for comparison with the signs of the later syllabary of Cyprus is
supplied by the two advanced linear scripts in use in Minoan Crete itself. If to
these be added some linearized versions of signs of the hieroglyphic class which,
though they do not happen to have been included in either the Cretan linear Class A
or B, may very well have survived in the colonial signary of Cyprus, it will be found
that about two-thirds of the later Cypriote characters bear resemblances to Minoan
forms.' It is more convenient, however, to reserve the detailed comparison till we
come to analyse the advanced linear scripts of Crete.
A few general considerations affecting the difficult problems suggested by the Problems
Cypriote scripts may nevertheless not be inopportune. bvffvpriote
In the first place it should not be forgotten that though the Cypriote syllabary scripts,
makes its appearance among the Greek-speaking population of the island at a com-
paratively late date, the fact alone that they used this more cumbrous system of
writing and not the Greco-Phoenician alphabet sufficiently indicates that it had been
a very early possession. The occurrence in the Greek alphabet of certain forms Greek
typologically older than the earliest known examples of the equivalent Phoenician ^°"fa"
characters tends to show that the alphabet had been introduced into Greece before Cyprus
the beginning of the ninth century B.c. We must therefore infer that the Greek diffusion of
settlers in Cyprus had left their mother-country at least as early as the tenth century Phoenician
before our era. Already by the dawn of history an indigenous epic cycle, the Greece.
Cypria, had grown up in the island.
The Greeks of Cyprus spoke, as is well known, an archaic dialect akin to the Archaic
Arcadian, and their prevailing traditions connected them with pre-Dorian Laconia, fstfcsofr"
Argos, and parts of Achaia.^ Their cult of the aniconic Apollo of Amyklaes and his Cypriote
female associates4 is the direct offshoot of that of the Mycenaean civilization, while
in the Lady of Paphos, with her Dove and Pillar Shrine, and Aphrodite Ariadne,
1 To these materials may be added a perforated pendant s. v.; cf. Engel, Kypros, it. 104J.
of green steatite from the isle of Siphnos, of irregular 3 Paus. iii. 19. 2. The cult of the Amyklaean Apollo
form and archaic aspect, presenting six or seven characters passed from the Greek to the Phoenician colonists of
of curiously Cypriote aspect. It apparently represents Cyprus, to whom he was known as Resheph-Mikal. (Cf.
some local variety of ' Minoan' script. (See Cretan Pict., C. I. S., Nos. 90-4.)
&c,p. 18 [287], Fig. 19, p. I9[288J, andp.84[353].) It will * Nonnos, Dionys. sliit. 6, and cf. Enmann, Kypros and
be considered in vol. II of the present work in the section der Ursprung des Aphroditecultus, p. 36. The well-known
dealing with early examples of inscriptions belonging to columnar figure on the Spartan coin (B. M. Cat., Pelopon-
the advanced linear scripts. This object was obtained by nesus, PI, XXIV, 1 and p. 121), formerly identified with
me in 1894, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum at the Amyklaean Apollo, has been shown by Furtwangler
Oxford. (Roesclier's Lexikon, art. Aphrodite, p. 40S) to represent
1 The name of the ' Achaean Shore' clung to the North his consort, the armed Aphrodite. (Cf. Farnell, Culls of
coast of the island (Strabo, xiv. 6. 3), and a priestly caste the Greek States, ii. p. 701.)
in Cyprus preserved the name of 'Axampifmt {Hesych.,
is only fifty-four, whereas the number of those in the Cypro-Minoan signary, if we may
judge from the parallel Cretan systems of Classes A and B, would have been about
double that number.
The fifteen Cypro-Minoan signs of which we have a record are in any case
only a small fragment of the whole series which we must assume to have existed.
A fuller field for comparison with the signs of the later syllabary of Cyprus is
supplied by the two advanced linear scripts in use in Minoan Crete itself. If to
these be added some linearized versions of signs of the hieroglyphic class which,
though they do not happen to have been included in either the Cretan linear Class A
or B, may very well have survived in the colonial signary of Cyprus, it will be found
that about two-thirds of the later Cypriote characters bear resemblances to Minoan
forms.' It is more convenient, however, to reserve the detailed comparison till we
come to analyse the advanced linear scripts of Crete.
A few general considerations affecting the difficult problems suggested by the Problems
Cypriote scripts may nevertheless not be inopportune. bvffvpriote
In the first place it should not be forgotten that though the Cypriote syllabary scripts,
makes its appearance among the Greek-speaking population of the island at a com-
paratively late date, the fact alone that they used this more cumbrous system of
writing and not the Greco-Phoenician alphabet sufficiently indicates that it had been
a very early possession. The occurrence in the Greek alphabet of certain forms Greek
typologically older than the earliest known examples of the equivalent Phoenician ^°"fa"
characters tends to show that the alphabet had been introduced into Greece before Cyprus
the beginning of the ninth century B.c. We must therefore infer that the Greek diffusion of
settlers in Cyprus had left their mother-country at least as early as the tenth century Phoenician
before our era. Already by the dawn of history an indigenous epic cycle, the Greece.
Cypria, had grown up in the island.
The Greeks of Cyprus spoke, as is well known, an archaic dialect akin to the Archaic
Arcadian, and their prevailing traditions connected them with pre-Dorian Laconia, fstfcsofr"
Argos, and parts of Achaia.^ Their cult of the aniconic Apollo of Amyklaes and his Cypriote
female associates4 is the direct offshoot of that of the Mycenaean civilization, while
in the Lady of Paphos, with her Dove and Pillar Shrine, and Aphrodite Ariadne,
1 To these materials may be added a perforated pendant s. v.; cf. Engel, Kypros, it. 104J.
of green steatite from the isle of Siphnos, of irregular 3 Paus. iii. 19. 2. The cult of the Amyklaean Apollo
form and archaic aspect, presenting six or seven characters passed from the Greek to the Phoenician colonists of
of curiously Cypriote aspect. It apparently represents Cyprus, to whom he was known as Resheph-Mikal. (Cf.
some local variety of ' Minoan' script. (See Cretan Pict., C. I. S., Nos. 90-4.)
&c,p. 18 [287], Fig. 19, p. I9[288J, andp.84[353].) It will * Nonnos, Dionys. sliit. 6, and cf. Enmann, Kypros and
be considered in vol. II of the present work in the section der Ursprung des Aphroditecultus, p. 36. The well-known
dealing with early examples of inscriptions belonging to columnar figure on the Spartan coin (B. M. Cat., Pelopon-
the advanced linear scripts. This object was obtained by nesus, PI, XXIV, 1 and p. 121), formerly identified with
me in 1894, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum at the Amyklaean Apollo, has been shown by Furtwangler
Oxford. (Roesclier's Lexikon, art. Aphrodite, p. 40S) to represent
1 The name of the ' Achaean Shore' clung to the North his consort, the armed Aphrodite. (Cf. Farnell, Culls of
coast of the island (Strabo, xiv. 6. 3), and a priestly caste the Greek States, ii. p. 701.)
in Cyprus preserved the name of 'Axampifmt {Hesych.,