Barry B. Powell

Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

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.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Seitenzahl: 308
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. Januar 1997
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 19mm
• Gewicht: 503g
• ISBN-13: 9780521589079
• ISBN-10: 052158907X
• Artikelnr.: 21662450

Inhaltsangabe

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.