Greek Alphabet History

The oldest known inscriptions date back to the 8^th century but the Greeks made major advancements in graphic communication when it came to their alphabet. 

            The story goes like this, Cadamus, King of Phoenicia set out to find his sister.  During his journey, he killed a dragon and planted its teeth like seeds and an army sprouted from them.  And in his return he brought the alphabet to Greece.  The stories main point is that Cadmus used the alphabet to bring his army to power.  He used the alphabet as a communication and information tool. 

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            The Greeks applied Geometry to the structure of letters to the Phoenician alphabet to make them into their own art form.  They first adopted the style of writing from right to left which soon turned into alternating every line so that one could read continuously.  Eventually it became the way that we read English today, left to right.     

            The Greek alphabet was adopted as Athens standard in 400BCE.  Around 700BCE the Greek alphabet became crucial because they developed a representative government.  When citizens voted they used tokens with inscriptions on them so they could vote in secret, instead of raising their hands.  They were also now able to authorize documents with a seal, which would typically be stamped into wax.  This also allowed for personal identification because you would be able to have your own seal.

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             The growth of oral communication to written began to grow in 350 BCE.  This led to the development of libraries.  These libraries contained papyrus scrolls, some of which we still have today.  Without the development of the Greek alphabet we would not have other languages like Latin, which also means English.