Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/60

38 3S HISTORY OF THE data founded upon written documents, of the period before the com- mencement of the Olympiads. The same circumstance also explains the late introduction of prose composition among the (J reeks, viz., during the time of the seven wise men. The frequent employment of writing for detailed records would of itself have introduced the use of prose. Another proof is afforded by the existing inscriptions, very few of which are of earlier date than the time of Solon ; also by the coins which were struck in Greece from the reign of Phidon, king of Argos (about Olymp. 8), and which continued for some time without any inscription, and only gradually obtained a few letters. Again, the very shape of the letters may be adduced in evidence, as in all monuments until about the time of the Persian war, they exhibit a great uncouthness in their form, and a great variety of character in different districts ; so much so, that we can almost trace their gradual development from the Phoenician character (which the Greeks adopted as the foundation of their alphabet) until they obtained at last a true Hellenic stamp. Even in the time of Herodotus, the term " Phoenician characters"* was still used for writing. If now we return to Homer, it will be found that the form of the text itself, particularly as it appears in the citations of ancient authors, dis- proves the idea of its having been originally committed to writing, since we find a great variety of different readings and discrepancies, which are much more reconcilable with oral than written tradition. Finally, the language of the Homeric poems (as it still appears after the nume- rous revisions of the text), if considered closely and without prejudice, is of itself a proof that they were not committed to writing till many cen- turies after their composition. We allude more particularly to the omis- sion of the van, or (as it is termed) the iEolic digamma, a sound which was pronounced even by Homer strongly or faintly according to cir- cumstances, but was never admitted by the Ionians into written com- position, they having entirely got rid of this sound before the introduc- tion of writing: and hence it was not received in the most ancient copies of Homer, which were, without doubt, made by the Ionians. The licence as to the use of the digamma is, however, only one instance of the freedom which so strongly characterizes the language of Homer ; but it could never have attained that softness and flexibility which render it so well adapted for versification — that variety of longer and shorter forms which existed together — that freedom in contracting and resolving vowels, and of forming the contractions into two syllables — if the practice of writing had at that time exercised the power, which it necessarily pos- sesses, of fixing the forms of a language. Lastly, to return to the point, for the sake of which we have entered into this explanation, the ■poetical style of the ancient epic poems shows the great use it made of those aids of which poetry, preserved and transmitted by means of Dura: Tri-irum.
 * fmhiMia in Herod, v. 58. Likewise in the inscription known 1)}' the name of