Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet

Contents
Figures
1. An eighteenth-century child’s primer
2. The expected derivation of Greek sibilants from Phoenician
3. The actual derivation of Greek sibilants from Phoenician
4. Jeffery’s reconstruction of the shuffle of the sibilants
5. Historical stemma of φ, χ, ψ (and ξ)
6. The phonetic development of φ, χ, ψ
7. Hypothetical reconstruction of Homer in the adapter’s hand
8. Drawing of the first side of the Idalion tablet
9. The first sentence of the Idalion inscription rearranged to read from left to right, with interlinear transliteration
10. Cypriote and alphabetic writing compared
11. From the Yehomilk inscription (sixth-fourth centuries B.C.)
Tables
I. The place of early Greek letter forms in the development of Phoenician letter forms
II. The Greek and Phoenician signaries
III. Three early abecedaria
IV. Selected epichoric variation in the rendering of certain sounds
V. Selected epichoric variation in the values assigned to hēta, xei, qoppa, and the supplementals
VI. Theoretical reconstruction of the signary of the Cypriote syllabary (Koinē version)
Abbreviations
DR ~ R
RivStorIt ~ Z
A note on terms and phonetic transcriptions
Chronological charts
Maps
I. Greece and the Aegean coasts
II. The Near East c. 800 B.C.
III. South Italy and Sicily
IV. Kirchhoff’s colored map, central portion
Foreword: Why was the Greek alphabet invented?
1. Review of criticism: What we know about the origin of the Greek alphabet
Phoenician origins
Single introduction by a single man
The place of adaptation
The date of transmission
The moment of transmission
How the alphabet was learned
Excursus: the so-called acrophonic principle
The adapter and his informant, face to face
The shapes of the letters
Conclusions from letter shapes
The names of the signs
A note on the Semitic letter names
The forms of the Greek names
Observations
The sounds of the signs
The vowels
Excursus: “matres lectionis”
The problem of the sibilants
The problem of the supplementals φ, χ, ψ
The nature of the problem: shapes, order, values
“Red,” “blue,” and “green” scripts
The supplementals belong to the earliest alphabet; the problem of the primitives
How the values of the supplementals changed in the hands of the adapter’s successors
Conclusion
The adapter’s system
Summary and conclusion
2. Argument from the history of writing: How writing worked before the Greek alphabet
Elements in the art of writing
The history of writing
The terminology and theoretical functioning of lexigraphic writing
Two divisions of phonography: syllabography and alphabetic writing
Auxiliary marks, signs, devices
How logo-syllabic writing works: Egyptian hieroglyphic
An Egyptian word
Lexigraphic ambiguity in Egyptian writing: a connected text of average complexity
Observations
How syllabic writing works: the Cypriote syllabary
The Cypriote syllabary: general description
Annotation to Fig. 10
Observations
How syllabic writing works: Phoenician
The finds
A sample Phoenician text with exegesis
Observations
Summary and conclusion
Conditions for change in writing systems
Syllabic writing used to record hexametric verse
Observations
The idiosyncratic nature of Greek alphabetic writing
3. Argument from the material remains: Greek inscriptions from the beginning to c. 650 B.C.
The lack of semantic devices in early Greek writing
The lack of word, clause, and sentence division
“Back and forth, as the ox turns”
I. “Short” Greek inscriptions from the beginning to 650 B.C.
The Euboian finds: names, parts of names, possible parts of names and simple declarations of ownership
Other simple names
Proprietary inscriptions
Tombstones
Dedications
Fragmentary inscriptions, some hexametric
Abecedaria
II. “Long” Greek inscriptions from the beginning to 650 B.C.
The Dipylon oinochoe inscription: its origin and nature
The reading
The inscriber
The Cup of Nestor
The social background
The Mantiklos inscription
The Nikandre Inscription
The erastic inscriptions of Thera
Conclusions
4. Argument from coincidence: dating Greece’s earliest poet
I. What dates does archaeology give for objects, practices, and social realities mentioned in Homer?
Limitations of method
The use of the spear
The three- and four-horsed chariot
Helen’s silver work-basket
Free-standing temples
The practice of cremation
The prominence of Phoenicians
The absence of literacy
Odysseus’ brooch
The lamp that Athene carries
The Gorgoneion, referred to four times
The alleged description of hoplite tactics
The practice of sending home the ashes of the dead
The procession to place a robe on a seated statue of Athene in the Trojan citadel
Summary
II. Is there anything about the language of the Iliad and the Odyssey that can be dated?
III. What are the earliest outside references to Homer?
Written references
Artistic representations
Representations possibly inspired by the Iliad
Representations possibly inspired by the Odyssey
Representations possibly inspired by the Cycle
Representations possibly inspired by other sagas
Summary and observations
IV. Homer’s date in ancient tradition
Conclusions: the date of Homer
5. Conclusions from probability: how the Iliad and the Odyssey were written down
Writing and traditional song in Homer’s day
The aoidos in context
The unprecedented scope of the Iliad and the Odyssey
Conclusions
Homer’s audience: the Euboian connection
The legend of Palamedes
Envoi
Appendix I. Gelb’s theory of the syllabic nature of West Semitic writing
I. J. Gelb’s description of Egyptian phonetic signs as consisting solely of logograms and syllabograms
Debate on the syllabic nature of West Semitic writing
Observations
Appendix II. Homeric references in poets of the seventh century
Definitions
continuant ~ L
logo-syllabic ~ P
pulmonic ~ W
writing
Bibliography
Bass ~ Boardman
Boardman, J.: 1974 ~ Bundy
Bunnens ~ C
Chantraine, P.: 1968‒80 ~ D
Desborough, V. R. d’A., R. V. Nicholls, and M. R. Popham ~ E
Edwards ~ F
Friis Johansen ~ G
Goedicke ~ H
Hampe ~ Hoffmann
Hommell ~ J
Jeffery, L. H.: 1979 ~ K
Kleingünther ~ L
Lenormant ~ M
Masson, O. ~ Moscati
Moscati, S.: 1980 ~ P
Palmer, L. R.: 1968 ~ Puech
Pullum ~ R
Roscher ~ S
Schweitzer ~ Snodgrass
Snodgrass, A. M.: 1982 ~ V
Vernant, J.-P.: 1986 ~ W
Woolley ~ Z
Index
D ~ J
K ~ S
sibilants ~ Y