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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



6465
Herodotus, Histories, 5.58


nanThese Phoenicians who came with Cadmus and of whom the Gephyraeans were a part brought with them to Hellas, among many other kinds of learning, the alphabet, which had been unknown before this, I think, to the Greeks. As time went on the sound and the form of the letters were changed. ,At this time the Greeks who were settled around them were for the most part Ionians, and after being taught the letters by the Phoenicians, they used them with a few changes of form. In so doing, they gave to these characters the name of Phoenician, as was quite fair seeing that the Phoenicians had brought them into Greece. ,The Ionians have also from ancient times called sheets of papyrus skins, since they formerly used the skins of sheep and goats due to the lack of papyrus. Even to this day there are many foreigners who write on such skins.


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

3 results
1. Homer, Iliad, 23.743 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)

23.743. /Then the son of Peleus straightway set forth other prizes for fleetness of foot: a mixingbowl of silver, richly wrought; six measures it held, and in beauty it was far the goodliest in all the earth, seeing that Sidonians, well skilled in deft handiwork, had wrought it cunningly, and men of the Phoenicians brought it over the murky deep, and landed it in harbour
2. Homer, Odyssey, 15.419 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)

3. Herodotus, Histories, 2.49.3, 5.57, 5.59-5.61 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

2.49.3. Nor again will I say that the Egyptians took either this or any other custom from the Greeks. But I believe that Melampus learned the worship of Dionysus chiefly from Cadmus of Tyre and those who came with Cadmus from Phoenicia to the land now called Boeotia . 5.57. Now the Gephyraean clan, of which the slayers of Hipparchus were members, claim to have come at first from Eretria, but my own enquiry shows that they were among the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus to the country now called Boeotia. In that country the lands of Tanagra were allotted to them, and this is where they settled. ,The Cadmeans had first been expelled from there by the Argives, and these Gephyraeans were forced to go to Athens after being expelled in turn by the Boeotians. The Athenians received them as citizens of their own on set terms, debarring them from many practices not deserving of mention here. 5.59. I have myself seen Cadmean writing in the temple of Ismenian Apollo at Thebes of Boeotia engraved on certain tripods and for the most part looking like Ionian letters. On one of the tripods there is this inscription: quote type="inscription" l met="dact" Amphitryon dedicated me from the spoils of Teleboae. /l /quote This would date from about the time of Laius the son of Labdacus, grandson of Polydorus and great-grandson of Cadmus. 5.60. A second tripod says, in hexameter verse: quote type="inscription" l met="dact" Scaeus the boxer, victorious in the contest, /l lGave me to Apollo, the archer god, a lovely offering. /l /quote Scaeus the son of Hippocoon, if he is indeed the dedicator and not another of the same name, would have lived at the time of Oedipus son of Laius. 5.61. The third tripod says, in hexameter verse again: quote type="inscription" l met="dact" Laodamas, while he reigned, dedicated this cauldron /l lTo Apollo, the sure of aim, as a lovely offering. /l /quote ,During the rule of this Laodamas son of Eteocles, the Cadmeans were expelled by the Argives and went away to the Encheleis. The Gephyraeans were left behind but were later compelled by the Boeotians to withdraw to Athens. They have certain set forms of worship at Athens in which the rest of the Athenians take no part, particularly the rites and mysteries of Achaean Demeter.


Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
activities Gruen (2011) 119
alien,wisdom Papadodima (2022) 24
alphabet,introduction of Gruen (2011) 119, 342
aristogeiton Gruen (2011) 342
aristotle Gruen (2011) 119
cadmus Papadodima (2022) 24
carthage,as thebes Giusti (2018) 141
carthage,mirror of rome Giusti (2018) 141
carthaginians,as phoenicians Giusti (2018) 141
carthaginians,as trojans/romans Giusti (2018) 141
carthaginians,portrait of Giusti (2018) 141
civilisation/civilization Papadodima (2022) 24
cults,foreign cult Papadodima (2022) 24
cultural competition,greek-phoenician Gruen (2011) 342
deity,foreign Papadodima (2022) 24
deity Papadodima (2022) 24
egypt Papadodima (2022) 24
egyptian,danaids/danaus/fiancés of the danaids Papadodima (2022) 24
egyptians Papadodima (2022) 24
fictive founder Gruen (2011) 235
foreign,cultures Papadodima (2022) 24
foreign,deity/deities Papadodima (2022) 24
foreign,sages Papadodima (2022) 24
foundation legends,thebes Gruen (2011) 235
governance,carthaginian system of Gruen (2011) 119
greece Papadodima (2022) 24
greek,culture Papadodima (2022) 24
history,historian Faure (2022) 142, 152
king,saneunus Papadodima (2022) 24
neolithic/chalcolithic age (ca. Marek (2019) 654
noble lie,as origin of cadmus Gruen (2011) 235
palai Faure (2022) 152
past Faure (2022) 142, 152
pherecydes Gruen (2011) 235
philo of byblos Gruen (2011) 342
phoenicia and phoenicians,and greeks Gruen (2011) 342
phoenician,cadmus Papadodima (2022) 24
pindar Gruen (2011) 235
practice of circumcision,as traders' Gruen (2011) 119
present Faure (2022) 142
scythian,king saneunus Papadodima (2022) 24
thebes and thebans,foundation legend Gruen (2011) 235
thebes and thebans Gruen (2011) 119
theras Gruen (2011) 342
thracians Papadodima (2022) 24
tyre Gruen (2011) 235