Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet

by Barry B. Powell

• ISBN13: 9780521589079
• ISBN10: 052158907X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-10-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Who invented the Greek alphabet and why? The purpose of this challenging book is to inquire systematically into the historical causes that underlay the radical shift from earlier and less efficient writing systems to the use of alphabetic writing. The author reaches the conclusion that a single man, perhaps from the island of Euboea, invented the Greek alphabet specifically in order to record the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer.

Table of Contents

List of figures	page xiii	(1)
List of tables	xiv	(1)
Acknowledgements	xv	(1)
Abbreviations	xvi	(3)
A note on terms and phonetic transcriptions	xix	(1)
Chronological charts	xx	(2)
Maps	xxii
Foreword: Why was the Greek alphabet invented?	1	(4)
1 Review of criticism: What we know about the origin of the Greek alphabet	5	(63)
Phoenician origins	5	(5)
Single introduction by a single man	10	(2)
The place of adaptation	12	(6)
The date of transmission	18	(2)
The moment of transmission	20	(12)
The names of the signs	32	(6)
The sounds of the signs	38	(4)
The vowels	42	(4)
The problem of the sibilants	46	(2)
The problem of the supplemental XXX X XXX	48	(15)
The adapter's system	63	(3)
Summary and conclusions	66	(2)
2 Argument from the history of writing: How writing worked before the Greek alphabet	68	(51)
Elements in the art of writing	69	(7)
How logo-syllabic writing works: Egyptian hieroglyphic	76	(13)
How syllabic writing works: the Cypriote syllabary	89	(12)
How syllabic writing works: Phoenician	101	(4)
Summary and conclusions	105	(14)
3 Argument from the material remains: Greek inscriptions from the beginning to c. 650 B.C.	119	(68)
The lack of semantic devices in early Greek writing	119	(4)
I. "Short" Greek inscriptions from the beginning to c. 650 B.C.	123	(35)
II. "Long" Greek inscriptions from the beginning to c. 650 B.C.	158	(23)
Conclusions	181	(6)
4 Argument from coincidence: Dating Greece's earliest poet	187	(34)
I. What dates does archaeology give for objects, practices, and social realities mentioned in Homer?	190	(17)
II. Is there anything about the language of the Iliad and the Odyssey that can be dated?	207	(1)
III. What are the earliest outside references to Homer?	208	(9)
IV. Homer's date in ancient tradition	217	(2)
Conclusions: the date of Homer	219	(2)
5 Conclusions from probability: how the Iliad and Odyssey were written down	221	(17)
Writing and traditional song in Homer's day	221	(10)
Conclusions	231	(7)
APPENDIX I: Gelb's theory of the syllabic nature of West Semitic writing	238	(8)
APPENDIX II: Homeric references in poets of the seventh century	246	(3)
Definitions	249	(5)
Bibliography	254	(23)
Index	277