Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/295

 General Characteristics of Hittite Civilization. 277 transcriptions which have been obtained from the various lan- guages, the initial letter of the word '' Hittite" is always a strong guttural aspirate, equivalent to the Hebrew n, ch ; now, as we know, the kappa cannot yield an aspirate of any kind. More than this, there is nothing to prove that k7Jt€iol was a proper name ; the theory, therefore, must be set aside as untenable. The stir and commotion which formerly surrounded the Hittites in the Eastern world is only borne to us through the faint echo of the Memnon legend. The neglect which had fallen upon them when the inquisitive mind of the Greeks awoke to consciousness, we have explained as due to the fact that at that time they had ceased to be of any account in Syria, and had been obliged to concentrate themselves in Cappadocia, a number of tribes, the Mysians, Lydians, and Phrygians, interposing between them and the sea. Nevertheless, Homer may have alluded to Hittite hieroglyphs, when he relates of Proetos, king of Argos, who, wishing to rid him- self of Bellerophon, sent him to Lycia with a folded (sealed) tablet, upon which he had written "many murderous signs." As soon as the king of Lycia beheld the characters, he understood the message, and spared nothing to put it in execution.^ It has been sought to prove from this passage, that writing was known and practised when Homer sang his heroic tales in the halls of Ionian chiefs ; but, if so, we should find multitudinous allusions thereto in his immortal poems, in which the life and customs of his time are mirrored. On the other hand, it is clear that the tablet contained more than a  single " sign ; for this would imply a personal inter- view between the two kings, when the deadly token" had been agreed upon. Improbable as this would be at the present hour, it would have been utterly impossible in those early days, when the distance between Asia Minor and Hellas was to be measured by days and weeks of perilous voyage. Nevertheless, we may be sure that if the poet used a similar expression, it was because he knew that his audience would understand that a death-warrant could be conveyed through painted or inscribed characters.' Now, what system of epigraphy was likely to meet their gaze, except the Hi flirt Se fiLv /ivKL-qvhi, voptv h* 5yc (n^fiara Xvyp<£, Tpd{}/a<: €v TTiVaKup vtvkt 6vixo66pa TroAAa. Aristarcus seems to have formed a shrewd guess with regard to the nature of the signs inscribed on the tablet by Prcttos, for in writing of them he uses the term €180X0, images, and not ypo/x/xaTa, letters.
 * Homer, /Had, vi. 168, 169.