Evans, Arthur J.: Scripta minoa: the written documents of minoan Crete with special reference to the archives of Knossos (Band 1): The hieroglyphic and primitive linear classes (Oxford, 1909)

Were the
Cypro-
Minoan
settlers
Greek ?

Cypriote

syllabary
originally
devised for
anon-
Hellenic
speech.

Epic

tradition
favours late
date for
Greek

74 SCRIPTA MINOA

whose sacred Grove was at Amathus, we see a very near relationship to the Mother
Goddess of Knossos and Minoan Crete.

From all this it is evident that the culture brought with them into Cyprus
by the Greek settlers was that of an element which had been long under Minoan
or Mycenaean influence. We are bound therefore to face the possibility that they
represented this culture in its undiluted quality, and that the Cypro-Minoan relics
found in the tombs at Old Salamis and elsewhere belonged to colonists who were
already Greek-speaking.

Such a conclusion, indeed, would carry us far, since it might fairly be taken
to show that at least the Mainland representatives of Minoan culture, as seen at
Tiryns and Mycenae itself, used the Greek language. In that case the script that
the immigrants from the Peloponnese brought over with them to Cyprus, and of
which we have a record in the clay balls and ring, would demonstrate the adaptation
of the Minoan signs to the Greek language as early as the thirteenth or fourteenth
century before our era, and, by implication, at a still remoter date. A reasonable
deduction from this conclusion would be that the later Cypriote syllabary represents
the direct outgrowth of this early system rather than some later attempt to harmonize
Greek sounds with alien characters.

Much, no doubt, in ancient tradition would be explained by the hypothesis that
the Mainland representatives of Minoan culture who have left their remains at Tiryns
and Mycenae, though in their origin belonging to the same ancient stock as the
Minoan population of Crete, had taken over the Greek speech at a comparatively
early date from the mass of a subject population. That they were themselves, from
the beginning, a comparative minority surrounded by hostile elements is sufficiently
shown by the extensive fortifications of their towns, in striking contrast to the open
cities of contemporary Crete. Their position was in fact analogous to that in which
the later Minoan colonists included under the Philistine name found themselves
in their new seats on the Canaanite coast. These latter came, no doubt, to a large
extent, speaking a 'Minoan' language, but, though they did much to maintain their
superior culture, a few generations sufficed to completely Semitize their speech.

It must in any case be recognized that the Cypriote syllabary itself has every
appearance of having been originally devised for a non-Hellenic language, and that
its adaptation to the Greek, at whatever date it took place, was of a cumbrous and
inadequate nature.

There is nothing, however, either in the traditions of the Cypriote Greeks or
in the character of their indigenous script, that compels us to carry the Hellenic
colonization of the island as far back as the flourishing days of the Minoan
Palaces.

Epic tradition itself seems rather to favour a comparatively late prehistoric date for
the Greek colonization of Cyprus. It is true that by the Homeric Age the fame of the
Cyprian Goddess and her shrine had had time to establish itself in Greece. It is to be
observed, however, that though in later days the Kinyrads, or priestly and royal race