Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-30T05:18:14.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

36d - The Cypriot syllabary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
T. B. Mitford  and
Olivier Masson
Edited by
John Boardman  and
N. G. L. Hammond
T. B. Mitford
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews
Olivier Masson
Affiliation:
Professor of Greek in the University of Paris X - Nanterres and at the Ecote Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris
Get access

Summary

Cyprus possesses in the Classical Syllabary a unique system of writing. Except for the Phoenician alphabet used by the Semitic element in the island's population, and for the Greek alphabet on certain coins and in the rare epitaphs of foreigners, the syllabary was in almost exclusive use throughout the Archaic and Classical periods. With two early exceptions (Marium, Golgi), only in the Hellenistic period do ‘digraphic’ inscriptions (with the same or a similar text in both alphabet and syllabary) occur, notably at Paphus and Soli, whose kings were among the earliest Cypriot allies of Ptolemy Soter. The syllabary, in the main or ‘Common’ variant and in the South-Western or ‘Paphian’ repertory, was the vehicle of the Cypriot dialect, the eastern branch of the Arcado-Cypriot group; in some parts of the island, especially at Amathus, the syllabary was also used for the still undeciphered ‘Eteo-Cypriot’ language. The Cypriot dialect and the syllabary are complementary, and (save for Eteo-Cypriot) they are not to be found the one without the other.

Decipherment, based on the Phoenician bilingual of Idalium (ICS no. 220) was ingeniously initiated in 1871 by George Smith, later assisted by S. Birch, and rapidly advanced by Brandis, M. Schmidt, Deecke and Siegismund. By 1876, the Bronze Tablet of Idalium (ICS no. 217; see Plates Volume), complete and very legible, with more than 1,000 signs, had received an established alphabetic text and full commentary, and it remains to this day without a rival as a source of knowledge alike of the dialect and of syllabic usage.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Ancient History
, pp. 71 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amadasi, M. G. Guzzo and Karageorghis, V. Excavations at Kition iii. Inscriptions Phéniciennes. Nicosia, 1977.Google Scholar
Bechtel, F. Die griechischen Dialekte I. Berlin, 1921; reprint 1963.Google Scholar
Collitz, H. and Bechtel, F. Sammlung der griechischen Dialekt-Inschriften I–IV. Göttingen, 1884–1915.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, O. Die griechischen Dialekte 1. Göttingen, 1891.Google Scholar
Karageorghis, J. Biblioteca di antichiti cipriote 3 (1976).Google Scholar
Karageorghis, V. Excavations in the Necropolis of Salamis i, ii and iii Nicosia, 1967, 1970, 1973.Google Scholar
Karageorghis, V. ‘Fouilles à l'Ancienne-Paphos de Chypre: les premiers colons grecs’, Comptes-rendues de l' Académic des inscriptions et belles-lettres 1980 (with contributions by , E. and Masson, O. ).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masson, E. ‘Le chypro-minoen 1 …’, Colloquium Mycenaeum, Actes du 6ème colloque international sur les textes mycéniens et égéens…1975. Neuchâtel–Genève, 1979.Google Scholar
Masson, O. and Sznycer, M. Recherches sur les Phéniciens à Chypre Paris, 1972.Google Scholar
Masson, O. Les inscriptions chypriotes syllabiques Paris, 1961.Google Scholar
Masson, O. ‘Kypriaka’, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 92 (1968).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masson, O. ‘Une nouvelle inscription de Paphos concernant le roi Nikoklès’, Kadmos 19 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitford, T. B. ‘Kafizin and the Cypriot Syllabary’, Classical Quarterly 44 (1950).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitford, T. B. Studies in the Signaries of South-Western Cyprus = Univ. of London, Inst. of Class. Studies, Bulletin Suppl. No. 10 (1961).Google Scholar
Mitford, T. B. The Inscriptions of Kourion Philadelphia, 1971.Google Scholar
Mitford, T. B. The Nymphaeum of Kafizin. The Inscribed Pottery Berlin, 1980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neumann, G. ‘Zur Deutung der kyprischen “Bulwer-TafeP”’, Kadmos 2 (1963).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neumann, G. ‘Beiträge zum Kyprischen’, Kamdos 14 (1975).Google Scholar
Schmitt, R. Einführung in die griechischen Dialekte Darmstadt, 1977.Google Scholar
Schwyzer, E. Dialectorum Graecarum exempla epigraphica potiora Leipzig, 1923, reprint 1960.Google Scholar
Thumb, A. and Scherer, A. Handbuch der griechischen Dialekte 11. Heidelberg, 1959.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×