Alphabet and Phonology at Methone

This study is divided into two parts. Part one is an examination of the several letters of the Greek alphabet that appear in the Methone inscriptions and of their variant forms. Each of these is compared with similar letter forms attested in various local Greek alphabets that are otherwise known. This examination marks the beginning of developing a typology for the Methone alphabet. Part two of the study addresses the graffito of ΜΘ 2248 (Methone Pierias I, no. 2). The name spelled hακεσάνδρο in this graffito is carefully investigated (phonologically, morphologically, semantically) and an alternative interpretation of its sense, in light of the context of its occurrence, is explored, one which draws on a proposed Semitic origin of the Greek noun σάκος, naming a type of large shield. The verb that accompanies the name, στερέω, is examined in its various literary uses - archaic, tragic, Herodotean and Thucydidean - in order to determine what type of object one might expect to be construed with the verb in the functional context of the skyphos on which the graffito appears

Alphabet · Archaeology · Linguistics · Noun · Phonology · Typology · Verb · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Law, logistics, and international trade · Philosophy

• Latin

  Open Access•Rosso Manuel Senesi•Written Language & Literacy•2023

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