Greek trust, will serve to throw some light upon many points Language. which may come under consideration in the course of the following disquisition.

The Greeks, according to the most authentic accounts, were descended of Javan or Jon, the fourth son of Japhet, the eldest son of the patriarch Noah. The Scriptures of old, and all the orientals to this day, call the Greeks Jonim, or Jaunam, or Javenoth. We have already observed, in the beginning of the article concerning the Hebrew language, that only a few of the descendants of Ham, and the most profigate of the posterity of Shem and Japhet, were concerned in building the tower of Babel. We shall not now resume the arguments then collected in support of that position; but proceed to investigate the character of that branch of the posterity of Javan which inhabited Greece and the neighbouring regions.

At what period the colonists arrived in these parts cannot be certainly determined; nor is it of great importance in the question before us. That they carried along with them into their new settlements the language of Noah and his family, is, we think, a point that cannot be controverted. We have endeavoured to prove that the Hebrew, or at least one or other of its sisterdialects, was the primeval language of mankind. The Hebrew, then, or one of its cognate branches, was the original dialect of the Jonim or Greeks.

Be that as it may, before these people make their appearance in profane history, their language deviates very widely from this original archetype. By what means, at what period, and in what length of time this change was introduced, is, we believe, a matter not easy to be elucidated. That it was progressive, is abundantly certain both from the rules of analogy and

reason.

The colonies, which traversed a large tract of country before they arrived at their destined settlements, must have struggled with numberless difficulties in the course of their peregrinations. The earth, during the period which immediately succeeded the universal deluge, must have been covered with forests, intersected with swamps, lakes, rivers, and numberless other impediments. As the necessaries, and a few of the conveniences of life, will always engross the first cares of mankind, the procuring of these comforts will, of necessity, exclude all concern about arts and sciences which are unconnected with these pursuits. Hence we think it probable, that most of those colonies which migrated to a very great distance from the plains of Shinar, which we believe to have been the original seat of mankind, in a great measure neglected the practice of the polite but unnecessary modes of civilization which their ancestors were acquainted with, and practised before the era of their migration. Certain it is, that those nations which continued to reside in the neighbourhood of that centre of civilization, always appear in a cultivated state; while, at the same time, the 127 colonists who removed to a considerable distance appear who were long a bar to have sunk into barbarism, at a period more early than the annals of profane history can reach.-This appears to have been the situation of the primary inhabitants of

barous people.

Greek

Greece. Their own historians, the most partial to their own countrymen that can well be imagined, exhibit a Language. very unpromising picture of their earliest progenitors. Diodorus Siculus, in delineating the character of the original men, we believe sketches his draught from the first inhabitants of Greece *. He represents them as * Lib. i. absolute savages, going out in small parties to make war upon the wild beasts of the field, which (according to him) kept them in continual alarm. "Necessity obliged them to band together for their mutual security; they had not sagacity enough to distinguish between the wholesome and poisonous vegetables; nor had they skill enough to lay up and preserve the fruits of autumn for their subsistence during the winter." The scholiast on Pindar describes the situation of the inhabitants of Peloponnesus in the following mannert. "Now + Python some have affirmed that the nymphs, who officiated in Ode performing the sacred rites, were called Melissa. Of these Mnaseas of Patara gives the following account. They prevailed upon men to relinquish the abominable practice of eating raw flesh torn from living animals, and persuaded them to use the fruits of trees for food.Melissa, one of them, having discovered bee-hives, ate Progress of of the honey-combs, mingled the honey with water for their cividrink, and taught the other nymphs to use the same lization. beverage. She called bees Midicoai, Melissæ, from her own name, and bestowed much care on the management of them.

"These things (says he) happened in Peloponnesus; nor is the temple of Ceres honoured without nymphs, because they first pointed out the mode of living on the fruits of the earth, and put an end to the barbarous practice of feeding on human flesh. The same ladies, too, from a sense of decency, invented garments made of the bark of trees."

4.

128

Hecatæus the Milesian, treating of the Peloponnesians, affirms*, "that before the arrival of the Hellenes, * Strabo, a race of barbarians inhabited that region; and that al- lib. vii, most all Greece was, in ancient times, inhabited by barbarians t. In the earliest times (says Pausanias) (0) † Id. lib. i barbarians inhabited most part of the country called Hellas." The original Greeks, if we may believe an author of deep research and superior ingenuity ‡, were ‡ Plin. Nat. strangers to all the most useful inventions of life. Even Hist. the use of fire was unknown till it was found out and communicated by Prometheus, who is thought to have been one of the first civilizers of mankind. Hence Eschylus §, introduces Prometheus commemorating & Prometh the benefits which he had conferred upon mankind by verse 441. his inventions, in a strain that indicates the uncultivated state of the world prior to the age in which he flourished. For the entertainment of our readers, we shall translate as much of that passage as suits our present purpose.

In

Greek Language.

* Plato.

In wild confusion: for they neither knew
Tile-cover'd houses standing in the sun,
Nor timber work; but, like the earth-bred ant,
They lodg'd in sunless caves dug under ground:
No certain sign had they of winter cold,
Nor of the flow'ry spring, or summer store,
But blindly manag'd all; till I them taught
What time the stars appear, what time they set,
Hard to be scan'd: then arithmetic rare,
That queen of arts, by dint of patient thought
Descry'd, I taught them; and how vocal sounds
From letters join'd arose."

This character, though applied to mankind in geneIral, was in reality that of the most ancient Greeks. These forbidding features had been transmitted to the poet by tradition as those of his ancestors: he was a Greek, and of consequence imputes them to all mankind without distinction.

Phoroneus, the son and successor of Inachus*, is said to have civilized the Argives, and to have taught them the use of some new inventions. This circumstance raised his character so high among the savage aboriPausan. gines of the country, that succeeding ages † deemed him + the first of men. Pelasgus obtained the like character, because he taught the Arcadians to live upon the fruit of the fagus, to build sheds to shelter them from the cold, and to make garments of the skins of swine.

lib. viii.

C. I.

129

A new coJony arrives in

But what clearly demonstrates the unpolished character of the most ancient Greeks is, the extravagant honours lavished by them upon the inventors of useful and ingenious arts. Most of these were advanced to divine honours, and became the objects of religious worship to succeeding generations. The family of the Titans affords a most striking instance of this species of adulation. Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Apollo, Venus, Diana, &c. were sprung of this family. By the useful inventions which these personages communicated to the uncultivated nations of Greece, they obtained such lasting and such extravagant honours, that they justled out the sidereal divinities of the country, and possessed their high rank as long as Paganism prevailed in those regions. To these testimonies of the savagism of the original Greeks, others almost without number might be added; but those adduced in the preceding part of this inquiry will, we hope, satisfy every candid reader as to the truth of the position advanced.

While matters were in this situation with respect to the primitive Jonim or Greeks, a new colony arrived in Greece cal. those parts, which in a few years considerably changed led Pelas the face of affairs. The people who composed this cologi. ny were called Pelasgi; concerning whose origin, country, character, and adventures, much has been written, and many different opinions exhibited by the learned. It is not our province to enter into a detail of their arguments and systems; we shall only inform our readers, that the general opinion is, that they were natives either of Egypt or Phoenicia. We have seen a ◄ dissertation in manuscript upon this subject, from which we are allowed to extract the following particulars.

The author, we think, has proved by very plausible arguments, that these people could not be descendants of the Egyptians nor Phoenicians. He maintains, that the Pelasgi were a great and numerous tribe; that they overspread all the coast of Asia Minor from Mount My

cale to Troas; that they were masters at one time of Greek all the Asiatic and Grecian islands; that they overran Language. Greece and many of the neighbouring countries; and all this in less than half a century.-These facts he seems to have proved from Homer, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Pausanias, and other Greek authors of approved authenticity. He shows, that they were a civilized generation; that they were well acquainted with military affairs, legislation, agriculture, navigation, architecture, letters, &c. He insists, that Phoenicia could not at any given period have furnished such a numerous body of emigrants, even supposing the whole nation had emigrated, and left their native country a desart. He believes that this event took place before the invasion of Canaan by the Israelites; that consequently the Pelasgic migration was not occasioned by that catastrophe. He has shown, we think by very probable arguments, that the Egyptians in the earliest ages were averse to foreign expeditions, especially by sea; because that people hated this element, and besides could be under no temptation to emigrate add to this, they were accustomed to live on small matters, and their country was exceedingly fertile and easily cultivated. It appears (says he) from Herodotus, that the Pelasgi were not acquainted with the religion of the Zabians, which could not have been the case had they emigrated from either of these countries. He makes it appear, at least to our satisfaction, that Herodotus is mistaken when he supposes that the deities of Greece were derived from Egypt. He demonstrates, that the names of the greatest part of those deities are of Phoenician extraction; and this opinion he establishes by a very plausible etymological deduction. He asserts, that had the Pelasgi been natives of either of the countries above mentioned, it would be absurd to suppose them ignorant of the names and religious rites of their respective nations. He finds, that the Egyptian and Phœnician colonies, which afterwards settled in Greece, were enemies to the Pelasgi, and either subdued or expelled them the country, which, he imagines, would scarce have been the case had both parties sprung from the same ancestors. After settling these points, he concludes, that the people in question were the progeny of the Arabian shepherds, who, at a very early period, invaded and subdued both the Lower and Upper Egypt. After possessing that country about a century and a half, they were conquered by Amenophis king of the Upper Egypt, who drove them out of the country. Upon this the fugitives retired to Palestine, where Manetho the Egyptian historian loses sight of them, and either through malice or ignorance confounds them with the Israelites. This writer supposes that those fugitives gradually directed their course for the west and north-west coasts of Asia Minor, whence they conveyed themselves over to Greece.

Such are the arguments by which the author of the dissertation above mentioned supports his hypothesis. It is, for aught we know, altogether new, and to us it appears by no means improbable. If our curious readers should wish to know more of this subject, they may consult Gebelin's preliminary Discourse to his Greek Dictionary, Lord Monboddo's Inquiry into the Origin and Progress of Language, vol. i. towards the end, and Mr Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, passim.

Be this as it may, nothing is more certain than that the Pelasgi were the first people who in some degree civilized the savages of ancient Greece. It is not our Tt 2 business

Greek

business at present to enumerate the many useful invenLanguage. tions which they communicated to the Greeks, at that time worse than barbarians. We deem it, however, absolutely necessary, as an introduction to our subject, to hazard a few conjectures on the language and letters of those adventurers; a point strictly connected with the that coun- subject soon to fall under consideration.

130 Who introduce letters into

try.

* Lib. i. cap. 59.

Whether we suppose the Pelasgi to have been the offspring of the Phoenicians, Egyptians, or Arabian shepherds, it will make little difference as to their language; every man of learning and research is convinced that those three nations, especially at that early period, spoke a dialect of the Hebrew. The Pelasgi, then, must have spoken a dialect of that language when they arrived in Greece. Perhaps it might have undergone several changes, and acquired some new modifications, during so many years as had passed since they began to be à separate nation, and in the course of so many peregrinations. Some monuments of theirs still extant prove this fact beyond all contradiction. As these people incorporated with the aborigines of Greece, the remains of the original language of mankind, or at least so much of it as had been retained by them, gradually coalesced with that of the new settlers. From this, we think, it is obvious, that prior to the arrival of the new colonists from the East, the language now current among the two united tribes must have been a dialect of the Phoenician, Arabian, Hebrew, &c. Be that as it may, Herodotus affirms that the Pelasgi in his time spoke a barbarous language, quite unintelligible to the modern Greeks.

*

The reason of this difference between the language of the Hellenes or Greeks in the age of Herodotus, and that of the remains of the Pelasgi at that period, seems to be this: Prior to the time of that historian, the Greek language had, from time to time, undergone many changes, and received vast improvements; whereas, on the contrary, that of the remnant of the Pelasgi, who were now reduced to a very low state, had remained stationary, and was then just in the same predicament in which it had been perhaps a century after their arrival in the country.

As the Pelasgi, as was observed above, were a people highly civilized and well instructed in the various arts at that time known in the eastern world, they were skilled in agriculture, architecture, music, &c. (P). The presumption then is that they could not be unacquainted with alphabetical writing. This most useful art was well known in the countries from which they emigrated; and of course it is impossible to imagine that they did not export this art as well as the others above-men+ Lib. iii. tioned. Diodorus Siculus imagines that † the Pelasgi knew not the use of alphabetical letters, but that they received them from Cadmus and his Phoenician followers; that those letters were afterwards called Pelasgic, because the Pelasgi were the first people of Greece who adopted them. This account must go to the score of national vanity, since very soon after he acknowledges that Linus wrote the exploits of the first Bac

Ibid.

chus and several other romantic fables in Pelasgic cha- Greek racters; and that Orpheus, and Pronapides the master Language. of Homer, employed the same kind of letters. Zenobius likewise informs us that Cadmus slew Linus for Apud Dr teaching characters different from his. These letters Gregory could be none other than the Pelasgic ‡. Sharp's Strict

guage

cap. 49.

Pausanias, in his Attics, relates ||, that he himself saw Greek Lan an inscription upon the tomb of Corabus, who lived at the time when Crotopus, who was contemporary with See Plate Deucalion, was king of the Argives. This inscription XVI. then was prior to the arrival of Cadmus; and conse- Lib. i. quently letters were known in Greece before they were introduced by this chief. It likewise appears from Herodotus himself, that the Ionians were in possession of alphabetical characters before the coming of the Phonicians. "For (says he) § the Ionians having received § Lib. i. letters from the Phoenicians, changing the figure and c. 58. sound of some of them, ranged them with their own, and in this manner continued to use them afterwards." If, then, the Ionians (a) ranged the Phoenician characters with their own, it is obvious that they had alphabetical characters of their own.

Besides these historical proofs of the existence of Pelasgic characters, monuments bearing inscriptions in the same letters have been discovered in several parts of Greece and Italy, which place this point beyond the reach of controversy. What characters these were may be easily determined. As the Pelasgi emigrated from Arabia, the presumption is that their letters were Phenician. They are said by Dr Swinton to have been 13 in number, whereas the Phoenician alphabet consists of 16. The three additional letters were probably invented by the latter people after the Pelasgi had left the eastern quarters. The Phoenician letters imported by the Pelasgi were, no doubt, of a coarse and clumsy contexture, unfavourable to expedition in writing, and unpleasant to the sight. Besides, the Phoenician characters had not as yet received their names; and accordingly the Romans, who derived their letters from the Arcadian Pelasgi †, had no names for theirs. The probabi- † Ľėvii, lity is, that prior to this era the Pelasgic letters had not lib. i. c. 7. been distinguished by names. These were of course no other than the original letters of the Phoenicians in their Plate XV. first uncouth and irregular form and for this reason they easily gave way to the Cadmean, which were more beautiful, more regular, and better adapted to expedition.

Hitherto we have seen the Pelasgi and the Ionim incorporated, living under the same laws, speaking the same language, and using the same letters. But another nation, and one too of vast extent and populousness, had at an early period taken possession of a considerable part of the country afterwards distinguished by the name of Hellas or Greece. The Thracians were a great and mighty nation; inferior to none except the Indians ‡,‡ Herod. says the father of Grecian history. These people at a lib. v. c. 3. very early period, had extended their quarters over all the northern parts of that country. They were, in an- cians a cient times, a learned and polished nation. From them, powerful

(a) The Athenians were originally called Ionians.

The Thra

in nation at a very early period.

They intro

After all, it is evident that the oldest Greek letters, Greck which are written from right to left, differ very little Language. from those of the Pelasgi. The four double letters ,, %, %, are said to have been added by Palamedes about 20 years before the war of Troy. Simonides is generally supposed to have added the letters ?, », 4, though it appears by some ancient inscriptions that some of these letters were used before the days of Palamedes and Simonides.

Greck in succeeding ages, the Greeks learned many useful and Language, ornamental sciences. Orpheus (R) the musician, the legislator, the poet, the philosopher, and the divine, is known to have been of Thracian extraction. Thamyris and Linus were his disciples, and highly respected among the Greeks for their learning and ingenuity. That these people spoke the same language with the Greeks, is abundantly evident from the connection between them and these Thracian bards. The Thracian language, then, whatever it was, contributed in a great proportion towards forming that of the Greeks. From the remains of the Thracian dialect there appears to have been a very strong resemblance between it and the Chaldean. This position we could readily support by the most plausible etymological deduction, did the limits prescribed us in this article admit such an inquiry. Strabo, It appears, however, that the Thracians, Getæ, and lib. i.& vii Daci or Davi, spoke nearly the same language. The Goths, so much celebrated in the annals of the lower empire, were the descendants of the Geta and Daci, and consequently retained the dialect of their ancesThe reader, therefore, must not be surprised, if in tracing the materials of which the Greek language is composed, we should sometimes have recourse to the remains of the Gothic.

131 The Greek

language composed of three dif

ferent dia

Jects.

132 Arrival of

Greece.

tors.

We have now found out three branches of the Greek language; that of the Ionim or Aborigines, that of the Pelasgic tribe, and that of the Thracians. These three, we imagine, were only different dialects of the very same original tongue. This assertion we could readily prove by the comparison of a great number of words taken from the two last, were this a proper place for such a discussion.

Some centuries after the arrival of the Pelasgi, CadCadmus in mus, an Egyptian (s) by birth, and a sojourner in Phoenicia, arrived in Boeotia with a multitude of followers. This colony-chief and his countrymen introduced letters and several other useful improvements into the country in question. As these people were natives of Phoenicia and its environs, their alphabet was that of their native country, consisting of 16 letters. That the Phoenician alphabet was nearly the same with the Samaritan and Hebrew, has been so often and so clearly demonstrated by the learned of this and the former century, that it would be altogether superfluous to insist upon it in this short inquiry. The Phoenicians, as is generally known, wrote from right to left, and the old Grecian characters, inverted, exactly resemble the other.

+ Scaliger.

133

The names of the Cadmean characters are Syrian †, which shows the near resemblance between that lan

guage and the Phoenician. They stand thus: alpha, The letters beta, gamla, delta, &c. The Syrians used to add a introduced to the Hebrew vocables; hence alph becomes alpha, by him. beth, betha or beta, &c. In the Cadmean alphabet we find the vowel letters, which is an infallible proof that this was the practice of the Phoenicians in the age of Cadmus ; and this very circumstance furnishes a presumption that the Jews did the same at the same period.

In the year of our Lord 1456 seven brazen tables were discovered at Engubium, a city of Umbria in the Apennines, of which five were written in Pelasgic or Etruscan characters and two in Latin. The first of these tables is thought to have been composed about 168 years after the taking of Troy, or 1206 years before Christ. By comparing the inscription on these tables with the old Ionic characters, the curious have been enabled to discover the resemblance.

134

Ionic character.

lib. viii.

cap. 17.

The old Ionic character wrote from right to left con- The old tinued in general use for several centuries: It was composed of the Cadmean and Pelasgic characters, with some variations of form, position, and sound. The Athenians continued to use this character till the year of Rome 350. The old Ionic was gradually improved into the new, and this quickly became the reigning mode. After the old Ionic was laid aside, the * (BovorgoPadov) Bustro- Pausan. phodon came into custom, which goes backwards and forwards as the ox does with the plough. They carried the line forward from the left, and then back to the right. The words were all placed close together, and few small letters were used before the fourth century. If our curious readers would wish to know more of letters and alphabets, we must remit them to Chishul, Morton, Postellus, the great Montfaucon, Gebelin, Astle, &c. For our part we are chiefly concerned at present with the Phoenician and Cadmean systems; and on these perhaps we may have dwelt too long. 135 Having now, we hope sufficiently proved that the The Greck alphabet Greek alphabet was derived from the Phoenician, in derived order to convince our curious but illiterate readers of from the the certainty of our position, as it were by ocular de- Phoenician. monstration, we shall annex a scheme of both alphabets, to which we shall subjoin some strictures upon such letters of the Greek alphabet as admit any ambiguity in their nature and application.

A, alpha, had two sounds, the one broad like a in the English word all; the other slender, as e in end, spend, defend. The Hebrews certainly used it so, because they had no other letter to express that sound; the Arabs actually call the first of their alphabet elif; and they as well as the Phoenicians employ that letter to express both the sound of A and E promiscuously... The Greeks call their letter E -, that is E slender, which seems to have been introduced to supply the place of A slender.

H, eta, was originally the mark of the spiritus asper, and no doubt answered to the Hebrew. It is still retained in that capacity in the word Hexatov, and in words with the spiritus asper beginning books, chapters, sections,

"the mouth." Though