kind. Many historians feel that the development of this alphabet represented an event of profound importance in the "Greek Miracle" which followed it. In this regard, Humez and Humez have claimed that "the alphabet was an invention staggering in its implications." Eric A. Havelock has likewise indicated that the Greek alphabet was "a piece of explosive technology, revolutionary in its effects on human culture, in a way not precisely shared by any other invention." The alphabet provided a simple, flexible system for storing and transmitting information, and as such it contributed to the rise of widespread literacy which occurred during the Greek Golden Age. On the basis of this argument, this paper will discuss the role that alphabetic literacy had in influencing Greek culture during the time.
Prior to the rise of the Greek alphabet in the eighth century B.C., the region had experienced a "Dark Age" which was characterized by an oral rather than a literate culture. This occurred despite the fact that a rudimentary system of writing had existed in Greece during the period of the Mycenaean civilization (1600-1200 B.C.). In contrast to the Greek alphabet of the Golden Age, the system of writing in Mycenaean times (known as Linear B) was extremely limited in its function and usefulness. The system was used primarily for keeping business records, and it could only be interpreted by professional scribes. As a result of this situation, historians today are limited in their knowledge of the Mycenaean culture. In the words of Kenneth Dover: "There is a limit to what can be said about a past people to whose thoughts and feelings we have no direct access through literature, laws or private documents." Furthermore, the Mycenaean Linear B script was syllabic rather than alphabetic, and as such it has been described as having been "clumsy" to use. When the Mycenaean civilization disappeared in the thirteenth century B.C., the Linear ...