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Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet Reprint Edition

by Barry B. Powell (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
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What caused the invention of the Greek alphabet? Who did it, 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 declares his conclusion to be a possibly surprising one--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.
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  1. ISBN-10
    052158907X
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0521589079
  3. Edition
    Reprint
  4. Publisher
    Cambridge University Press
  5. Publication date
    October 28, 1996
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6 x 0.77 x 9 inches
  8. Print length
    308 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

' … 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

'[This] is an important book, and will be widely read by students of writing in other cultures as well as by Homerists, linguists, historians and archaeologists of early Greece.' Classical Philology

Book Description

A challenging and fascinating enquiry into the genesis of alphabetic writing.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; Reprint edition (October 28, 1996)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 308 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 052158907X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521589079
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.01 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.77 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

About the author

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Barry B. Powell

Barry B. Powell

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Barry B. Powell was born in Sacramento, CA, in 1942. He studied at Berkeley and Harvard and taught for 34 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is Bascom-Halls Professor of Classics Emeritus. He is celebrated for his argument tying the creation of the Greek alphabet to the recording of the Homeric Poems, but is also well known for his textbooks on Greek myth and Greek history and his work on the history of writing. He has published translations of the ILIAD, the ODYSSEY, the AENEID, and the poems of HESIOD. He has published original poetry, many fictional works, including an academic mystery A LAND OF SLAVES, a memoir RAMSES REBORN, and the illustrated TALES OF THE TROJAN WAR.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
13 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Elefthera
5.0 out of 5 stars Greater than Any Other Invention - the Phonetic Alphabet
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2018
Verified Purchase
Everyone in the world should read this book. We speak of the Internet so often and how it has changed everything so quickly … and supposedly there's never been anything that created such change so quickly and opened so many possibilities. But think of the alphabet - not writing - the alphabet. It made everything else possible. With the alphabet, we could create stories and written art that lived on. We could write history. And we could write poetry. The invention of the alphabet gave us culture and civilization.
One person found this helpful
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Molly Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars How one man invents the most important technology ever
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2013
Verified Purchase
This book is a carefully thought out, scholarly presentation uniting a large sum of indirect but consistent evidence into one compelling theory about the origin of our alphabet. The author clearly indicates which conclusions are speculative, which more certain, but he is always persuasive and often fascinating. At the end, he even NAMES the inventor! A highly specialized work that may not be appreciated fully by more casual readers. Also of interest: The Muse Learns to Write by Havelock.
5 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2017
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accurate investigation into the origin of the alphabet we use every day. top flight scholarship.
One person found this helpful
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Driftwin Books
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2017
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A fantastic look at the Greek Alphabet and how we got it.
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Ryan Mease
3.0 out of 5 stars Review of Powell's Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2014
I have to second the sentiment offered in another review here that the conclusions of the book appear very rapidly, suddenly and without clear evidence toward the end of the author's careful history on the development of Greek writing. The book begins at a great pace that introduces the reader to key concepts in linguistics necessary for understanding the author's thesis, but the historical evidence is nowhere clear tied to the conclusion that Homer had a hand in regulating the rise of the new standard in Greek written text.
7 people found this helpful
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Paul V Caetano
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Discussion of Script Evolution
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2000
This book's thesis is that the Greek alphabet was adapted by a single person in order to record Homer. While the idea is interesting, the evidence certainly is not definitive. I found the author's arguments unconvincing and hard to follow. However, the book is a good resource for old inscriptions, including some sexually explicit grafitti. The book also provides a good history of the early Greek alphabet and the the Cypriot syllabary.
18 people found this helpful
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Carlos Jíménez Gil
4.0 out of 5 stars Iniciarte en los inicios del alfabeto griego
Reviewed in Spain on December 25, 2022
Verified Purchase
Está muy bien para ver los inicios del alfabeto griego y su aplicación en la Ilíada y Odisea de Homero y otros breves escritos.
La lástima que el libro en versión tapa blanda no aparezca los colores que hace referencia el texto.
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