Prona'pides
Προναπίδης, (a various reading is
Προνοπίδης), an Athenian, is said to have been the teacher of Homer. (Tzetzes,
Chil. 5.634.)
He is enumerated among those who used the Pelasgic letters, before the introduction of the Phoenician, and is characterised as a graceful composer of song. (
Diod. 3.66.) Tatian (
Orat. ad Graec. 100.62) mentions, among the early Greek writers, one Prosnautides, an Athenian, whom Worth, in his edition of Tatian, plausibly conjectures to be Pronapides.
According to the Scholiast on Theodosius the Grammarian, Pronapides invented the mode of writing from left to right now in use, as contradistinguished from the
σπυριδὸν, the
βουστροφηδὸν, and other methods.
Further Information
Bekker,
Anecd. Graec. 786. 1; Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 217.
[
W.M.G]