Note 641 — Chapter XXI · DECLINE OF THE PHENICIANS. — GROWTH OF CARTHAGE.

The various statements or conjectures to be found in Greek authors (all comparatively recent) respecting the origin of the Greek alphabet, are collected by Franz, Epigraphicê Græca, s. iii, pp. 12-20: “Omnino Græci alphabeti ut certa primordia sunt in origine Phœniciâ, ita certus terminus in litteraturâ Ionicâ seu Simonideâ. Quæ inter utrumque a veteribus ponuntur, incerta omnia et fabulosa.... Non commoramur in iis quæ de litterarum origine et propagatione ex fabulosâ Pelasgorum historiâ (cf. Knight, pp. 119-123; Raoul Rochette, pp. 67-87) neque in iis quæ de Cadmo narrantur quem unquam fuisse hodie jam nemo crediderit.... Alphabeti Phœnicii omnes 22 literas cum antiquis Græcis congruere, hodie nemo est qui ignoret.” (pp. 14-15.) Franz gives valuable information respecting the changes gradually introduced into the Greek alphabet, and the erroneous statements of the Grammatici as to what letters were original, and what were subsequently added.

Kruse also, in his “Hellas,” (vol. i, p. 13, and in the first Beylage, annexed to that volume,) presents an instructive comparison of the Greek, Latin, and Phenician alphabets.

The Greek authors, as might be expected, were generally much more fond of referring the origin of letters to native heroes or gods, such as Palamêdês, Promêtheus, Musæus, Orpheus, Linus, etc., than to the Phenicians. The oldest known statement (that of Stêsichorus, Schol. ap. Bekker. Anecdot. ii, p. 786) ascribes them to Palamêdês.

Both Franz and Kruse contend strenuously for the existence and habit of writing among the Greeks in times long anterior to Homer: in which I dissent from them.