DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5009#0374
348 HANDBOOK OF ARCHEOLOGY.
which were said to have been introduced by Cadmus from Phoenicia.
At a later period Palamedes is supposed to have added the four
double letters, ® H (1? X, representing TH, K2, III, KI; to these
twenty Simonides is stated (o have made the further addition of
ZH*0;* before the adoption of which two omicrons (O O) were
used instead of O, and two epsilons (KE) for II, and as this alphabet
came generally into use at Athens after the archonship of Euclides,
403 B.C., it follows as a necessary result that an inscription in which
one or several of these letters are found, must bo, with every
certainty, considered as posterior to Euclides, and to the year
403 b.c. The first twenty letters of the Greek alphabet are to be
met with iu earlier inscriptions. The digamma, or double gamma,
corresponding to the Vau of the Hebrew, and the F of the Latin
alphabet, is found in some early inscriptions—it is seen on the Elean
tablet. It prevailed more particularly in the Gilolic dialect of the
Greek tongue. The koppa p, derived from the Phoenician koph,
is found in many of the older Greek inscriptions, and on the coins of
Croton and Corinth. It was only used when the following vowel
was O. The O appears rarely before the 403 B.C. The long O, on
the early inscriptions, was represented by an O with a dot in the
centre, as in a Greek inscription found at Aboosimbel, dating from
the reign of Psammitichtis, b.c 600. The size and form of these
letters thus furnish important data for determining the approximate
period of an inscription. The direction of the lines of an inscription
is also an indication of the period. The Greeks, following the
mode used by Eastern nations of Semitic origin (the languages of the
Aryan race are read from left to right), at first wrote from right to
left; no monument, however, has come down to us that can with
certainty be attributed to the period in which this method was ex-
clusively in use. Inscriptions of a single lino are, it is true, written
in this manner, as, for instance, the inscription found by Colonel
* This is the usually accepted tradition with regard to the origin of Greek
letters. Mr. Ohampollion (Palseographie Universelle) is of opinion that the
Greeks already possessed an alphabet before the arrival of Cadmus; that Cadmus
taught them certain letters or signs of sounds, which their alphabet did not
previously contain, and that these new letters, adopted by the Greeks, were
introduced in time into general use. But the distinction between the two alphabets
was not lost by this adoption; the learned Greeks still distinguished between the
ancient national alphabet, the Pdasgio, and the new alphabet, augmented by the
Phoenician letters, which assumed tbe name of the Phoenician or Cadmian alphabet.
The Pelasgic or primitive alphabet was composed of sixteen letters, representing
only the simple and primitive sounds. To Cadmus, the Greek alphabet was
indebted for four new signs, nearly all aspirated, Z, 0, *, x; the sounds of which
exist in the Phoenician alphabet, these signs becoming necessary for the few
Phoenician words which the Greeks adopted.
which were said to have been introduced by Cadmus from Phoenicia.
At a later period Palamedes is supposed to have added the four
double letters, ® H (1? X, representing TH, K2, III, KI; to these
twenty Simonides is stated (o have made the further addition of
ZH*0;* before the adoption of which two omicrons (O O) were
used instead of O, and two epsilons (KE) for II, and as this alphabet
came generally into use at Athens after the archonship of Euclides,
403 B.C., it follows as a necessary result that an inscription in which
one or several of these letters are found, must bo, with every
certainty, considered as posterior to Euclides, and to the year
403 b.c. The first twenty letters of the Greek alphabet are to be
met with iu earlier inscriptions. The digamma, or double gamma,
corresponding to the Vau of the Hebrew, and the F of the Latin
alphabet, is found in some early inscriptions—it is seen on the Elean
tablet. It prevailed more particularly in the Gilolic dialect of the
Greek tongue. The koppa p, derived from the Phoenician koph,
is found in many of the older Greek inscriptions, and on the coins of
Croton and Corinth. It was only used when the following vowel
was O. The O appears rarely before the 403 B.C. The long O, on
the early inscriptions, was represented by an O with a dot in the
centre, as in a Greek inscription found at Aboosimbel, dating from
the reign of Psammitichtis, b.c 600. The size and form of these
letters thus furnish important data for determining the approximate
period of an inscription. The direction of the lines of an inscription
is also an indication of the period. The Greeks, following the
mode used by Eastern nations of Semitic origin (the languages of the
Aryan race are read from left to right), at first wrote from right to
left; no monument, however, has come down to us that can with
certainty be attributed to the period in which this method was ex-
clusively in use. Inscriptions of a single lino are, it is true, written
in this manner, as, for instance, the inscription found by Colonel
* This is the usually accepted tradition with regard to the origin of Greek
letters. Mr. Ohampollion (Palseographie Universelle) is of opinion that the
Greeks already possessed an alphabet before the arrival of Cadmus; that Cadmus
taught them certain letters or signs of sounds, which their alphabet did not
previously contain, and that these new letters, adopted by the Greeks, were
introduced in time into general use. But the distinction between the two alphabets
was not lost by this adoption; the learned Greeks still distinguished between the
ancient national alphabet, the Pdasgio, and the new alphabet, augmented by the
Phoenician letters, which assumed tbe name of the Phoenician or Cadmian alphabet.
The Pelasgic or primitive alphabet was composed of sixteen letters, representing
only the simple and primitive sounds. To Cadmus, the Greek alphabet was
indebted for four new signs, nearly all aspirated, Z, 0, *, x; the sounds of which
exist in the Phoenician alphabet, these signs becoming necessary for the few
Phoenician words which the Greeks adopted.