It is interesting to note that it was during the centuries immediately preceding this flowering of Greek culture that Phoenician letters were first used in the creation of a Greek alphabet. The Greek alphabet was the first effective alphabetic script in the history of humankind. 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" (1981, p. 8). 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" (1982, p. 6). 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 despi

It is clear that literacy provided many benefits to the Greeks of the Golden Age. In the realm of social evolution, these benefits included the development of increased political freedom. In the words of Peter Green, the Greek alphabet "was one of the great democratizing forces of ancient culture" (Green, 1990, p. 90). In the age of orality, despotic kings were often able to hold sway over the people. This was because there were no adequate means for storing, and thus accurately remembering and using, the laws pertaining to limits on government power. This changed with the rise of alphabetic literacy, when the people at last had the means for increased control over both political affairs and their own lives. According to Oswyn Murray, language in pre-literate times was "fluid" in its descriptions; by contrast, literacy enabled people to "fix" words and their meanings. This had a powerful impact on the development of Greek cultural history. Thus: "The evasions and reinterpretations of the oral tradition ceased, and the resulting gap between written statement and actual experience led to the formation of a critical approach to life based on a notion of the essential rationality of all aspects of reality, public and private" (Murray, 1980, p. 97). This new way of perceiving life resulted in an increased emphasis on the values associated with individualism. As such, the revolution of the alphabet can be seen as contrib