13　发明文字的人

在人类懂得如何写字的很久以前，希腊曾经有一个叫作卡德摩斯的木匠。有一天，他在建造房屋时，想要用到一件落在家里了的工具。他捡起一块薄木片，在上面写了点东西，递给自己手下的奴隶，让奴隶到他家去，把木片交给他的妻子，说她看到木片就会明白他要的是什么工具。那名奴隶虽然觉得很奇怪，但还是遵命行事。卡德摩斯的妻子看了看木片，不发一言便把工具交给了奴隶；那名奴隶惊讶不已，以为卡德摩斯必定是用某种神秘的方法传达出了信息。带着工具回到卡德摩斯那里之后，他便请主人将那片神奇的木片赐给他；而得到主人赐予之后，他便把木片挂到脖子上，把它当成了护身符。

这就是希腊人关于发明了字母的那个人的传说。然而，我们却认为，卡德摩斯是一个虚构出来的人物，因为希腊人很喜欢虚构这类故事；故我们觉得，发明字母的并不是哪一个人。但卡德摩斯是一个腓尼基人，而我们也确实知道，是腓尼基人发明了最初的字母；我们如今所用的字母，便是在这一基础之上发展而来的。你

Phoenician people invented the alphabet on which ours is based. You probably call it your ABC's,but the Greeks had much harder names for the letters.They called A alpha,B beta,and so on.So the Greek boy spoke of learning his alpha beta,and that is why we call it the alphabet.

You may never have heard of Phoenicia or the Phoenician people. Yet,if there had been no such country as Phoenicia,you might now be learning at school to read and write in hieroglyphics or in cuneiform.

Up to this time,you know,people had very clumsy ways of writing. The Egyptians had to draw pictures,and the Babylonians made writing like chicken tracks.The alphabet that the Phoenicians invented had twenty-two letters,and from it we get the alphabet we use today.

Of course,we do not use just the same alphabet now that the Phoenicians did,but some of the letters are almost,if not quite,like those we now have after three thousand years. For instance the

The Phoenicians lived next door to the Jews；like the Jews,they were Semites.Their

们很可能称之为A、B、C的字母，希腊人给这些字母所起的名称，却要复杂得多。他们称A为“阿尔法”（alpha），称B为“贝它”（beta），诸如此类。因此，希腊孩子说识字就是学习“阿尔法（alpha）-贝它（beta）”，而这也正是我们称之为“字母表”（alphabet）的原因。

你们以前可能从来没有听说过什么腓尼基或者腓尼基人。尽管如此，要是历史上没有腓尼基的话，你们现在可能就是在学校里学习象形文字或者楔形文字的读写呢。

到了如今，你们都知道了，人类曾经有过许多笨拙的书写方法。古埃及人只能画画，古巴比伦人写的字就像是鸡爪印。而腓尼基人发明的字母表，却包括二十二个字母，由此我们才有了今天所用的字母表。

当然，今天我们所用的字母表，与腓尼基人当初所用的字母表并不相同；但腓尼基人的字母表中，有些字母就算不是完全相同，也与三千年后如今我们所用的那些字母差不多是一样的。例如：

腓尼基人的字母A，是侧着写的，即

腓尼基人的字母E，是反过来写的，即

腓尼基人的字母Z，写法与我们的相同，即Z

腓尼基人的字母O，写法与我们的相同，即O

腓尼基人与犹太人比邻而居；与犹太人一样，他们也是闪米特人。他们建立的

country was just north of the kingdom of the Jews；that is,above it on the map and lying along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Phoenicians had a great king named Hiram who lived at the same time as Solomon. In fact,Hiram was a friend of Solomon and sent him some of his best workmen to help build a temple at Jerusalem.Yet Hiram himself and the Phoenicians did not believe in the Jewish God.

The Phoenicians worshiped idols named Baal and Moloch,which they called gods of the sun. They also believed in a goddess of the moon named Astarte and made sacrifices of live children to her idol,Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum；this is a real story and not a fairy tale.Just suppose you had been a child then！

The Phoenicians were great business people. They made many things to sell,such as objects carved from ivory,engraved gold and silver items,and beautiful glassware.They knew how to weave woolen and linen cloth,and were well known for the dyed cloth and robes that they manufactured.

They knew the secret of making a wonderful purple dye from the body of a little shell-fish that lived in the water near the city of Tyre. This dye was known as Tyrian purple from the name of that city,and it was so beautiful that kings'robes were colored with it.

Tyre and Sidon were the two chief cities of Phoenicia,and once upon a time they were two of the busiest cities in the world.

In order to find people to sell to,the Phoenicians traveled in boats all over the

国家，就在犹太王国的北面；也就是说，在地图上，腓尼基在犹太王国的上面，位于地中海沿岸。

腓尼基人曾经有过一位伟大的国王，叫作希兰，他与所罗门生活在同一时代。事实上，希兰还是所罗门的朋友，并且曾经派遣了一些最能干的工匠去协助所罗门在耶路撒冷建造一座神庙哩。不过，希兰和腓尼基人都不信仰犹太人所信仰的上帝。

腓尼基人信仰的神灵，有巴力神和摩洛神，他们称这两个神灵为太阳神。他们还信仰一个叫作阿斯塔蒂的月亮女神，并且用童男童女来向她那座叫作“爱情-生育女神”的神像献祭；这可是真实的历史，并不是神话传说。想想看，如果你们是那个时候的小朋友，该是多么可怕的一件事情啊！

腓尼基人都是些了不起的生意人。他们制造出了许许多多的东西来卖，比如象牙制品、金银雕饰和漂亮的玻璃制品等。他们懂得如何编织羊毛和麻布，并且因为制作出来的印染布匹和长袍而闻名遐迩。

他们还掌握了一种秘诀，能够用一种小贝类制造出一种奇妙的紫色染料来；这种小贝类，生在蒂尔城附近的海域里。于是，这种染料便以该城为名，称为“蒂尔紫”；由于蒂尔紫非常漂亮，因此国王的王袍都是染成这种颜色。

蒂尔和西顿，是腓尼基的两个主要城市，并且它们一度也是世界上商业最为繁忙的两个城市呢。

为了找到买家，腓尼基人驾着小船，走遍了地中海各地，甚至驶出了地中海海域，进入了大西洋。从地中海进入大西洋的那条水道，如今叫作直布罗陀海峡；

Mediterranean Sea and even went outside this sea into the Great Ocean. This opening is now called the Strait of Gibraltar,but was then known as the Pillars of Hercules.They went as far as the British Isles and along the coast of Africa.Many other people in those days had not dared to go so far in boats；they thought they would come to the edge of the ocean and tumble off.But the Phoenicians had no such fear,and so they were the greatest sailors as well as the greatest traders of their times.Their ships were built from the cedar trees that grew on the slopes of their hills.The trees were called the cedars of Lebanon.

In one way,the Phoenicians were very shortsighted. They cut down all their wonderful cedar trees until almost none were left.Then no more ships—or anything else—could be made with the strong wood.Do you think we would ever do anything as foolish as that?

When the Phoenicians found good harbors for their boats,they often started little towns where they traded with the local people. Often they drove a hard bargain,trading purple cloth worth very little for gold or silver or other things worth a great deal.On the coast of north Africa,one of these towns they started was called Carthage.Carthage later grew to be very strong and wealthy—but you will have to wait a while until I come to that story.

但在当时，人们却称之为“赫拉克勒斯之柱”。他们的足迹，远至大不列颠群岛以及非洲海岸。当时，其他许多民族都不敢驾驶船只走这么远；他们认为，走得太远的话，就会来到大洋的边缘，一不小心就会掉下去呢。可腓尼基人却没有这种担忧；因此，他们既是当时最伟大的航海家，又是最了不起的商人。他们驾驶的船只，是用生长在本国山坡上的柏木制成的。这种柏木，被称为黎巴嫩香柏。

从某种意义上来说，腓尼基人的眼光是非常短浅的。他们将那些神奇的香柏木砍伐得几乎一棵不剩了。这样一来，他们就再也没有这样一种牢固的木材去建造船只或者其他东西了。你们觉得，我们会不会像他们一样，再干这种蠢事呢？

腓尼基人一旦发现有适于船只停靠的港口，通常便会在港口建立一个小城镇，开始与当地人进行贸易。他们往往会精打细算，用成本不高的紫色布料，换得金银或者其他贵重物品。他们在非洲北部沿海建立的这种城镇中，有一座叫作迦太基。后来，迦太基还变得非常强大、非常富庶了；不过，你们还得等一等，我等会说到那段历史。