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58.
These Phoenicians who came with Cadmus and of whom the Gephyraeans were a part brought with them to Hellas, among many other kinds of learning, the alphabet, which had been unknown before this, I think, to the Greeks. As time went on the sound and the form of the letters were changed.
[2]
At this time the Greeks who were settled around them were for the most part Ionians, and after being taught the letters by the Phoenicians, they used them with a few changes of form. In so doing, they gave to these characters the name of Phoenician, as was quite fair seeing that the Phoenicians had brought them into Greece.1
[3]
The Ionians have also from ancient times called sheets of papyrus skins, since they formerly used the skins of sheep and goats due to the lack of papyrus. Even to this day there are many foreigners who write on such skins.
1 Whether Herodotus' theory of derivation be right or not, there is certainly a similarity in the form and order of early Greek and Phoenician letters.
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
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References (22 total)
- Cross-references to this page
(9):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, PRONOUNS
- Raphael Kühner, Friedrich Blass, Ausführliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache, KG 1.1.1
- Raphael Kühner, Friedrich Blass, Ausführliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache, I. Personalpronomina. Substantivische Personalpronomina (ἀντωνυμίαι αἱ πρωτότυποι).
- Harper's, Alphabet
- Harper's, Palaeography
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), LIBER
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PHOENI´CIA
- Smith's Bio, Cadmus
- Smith's Bio, Home'rus
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(13):
- LSJ, αἴγεος
- LSJ, βύβλος
- LSJ, δι^δασκα?́λ-ιον
- LSJ, διφθέρα
- LSJ, φα^τίζω
- LSJ, φέρω
- LSJ, φοινι_κ-ήϊος
- LSJ, γράφω
- LSJ, γράμμα
- LSJ, μεταρρυθμ-ίζω
- LSJ, οἴεος
- LSJ, ῥυθμός
- LSJ, σπάν-ις
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