«Some Say Phoenicians Were not the First to Make This Discovery»: The “Anti-Phoenician Theory” about the Origin of Writing

Abstract

This article aims to analyse a collection of ancient sources recently interpreted as preserving a memory of Linear B behind the classical Greek expression phoinikeia grammata. Rather than reflecting an earlier scriptural tradition, a careful diachronic analysis shows that these texts can be interpreted as belonging to a coherent “anti-Phoenician” current, emerging from the 4th century BCE. These sources aimed to challenge one of the most influential paradigms explaining the emergence of writing in Greece: the Herodotean theory describing writing as a craft imported from Phoenicia. The article examines how these sources, through reinterpretations of linguistic data, alternative mythical figures, and literary motifs, endeavoured to undermine the role credited to the Phoenicians in this action. By surveying the development of this current, the study demonstrates that it did not preserve a technical memory of pre-alphabetic writing but participated in a dynamic reconfiguration of the discourse on the origins of Greek literacy, negotiating cultural authority and identity within the Hellenic world.