Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet
Cambridge University Press
Edition: New Ed, 12/12/1996
EAN 9780521589079, ISBN10: 052158907X
Paperback, 308 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2 cm
Language: English
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.
Foreword
why was the Greek alphabet invented? 1. Review of criticism
what we know about the origin of the Greek alphabet
2. Argument from the history of writing
how writing worked before the Greek alphabet
3. Argument from the material remains
Greek inscriptions from the beginning to c. 650 BC
4. Argument from coincidence
dating Greece's earliest poet
5. Conclusions from probability
how the Iliad and the Odyssey were written down
Appendix I
Gelb's theory of the syllabic nature of West Semitic writing
Appendix II
Homeric references in poets of the seventh century.
' ... this is a book which is as remarkable for the ingenuity of its answers to difficult questions as it is for its useful review and compelling display of so much of the relevant evidence.' Bryn Mawr Classical Review