Reblogged: Myths about writing, plus Phaistos discuits

This week on the CREWS project blog (which has a lovely redesigned website!), PhD student Natalia has written about the various different Greek and Roman myths relating to the creation of the alphabet. The most famous mythical progenitor of the alphabet is perhaps Cadmus, who is often credited with inventing or popularising the Greek alphabet. But as Natalia shows there were all kinds of different origin stories relating to the alphabet, often with complicated tales of where Cadmus fit into the chain of the transmission of the alphabet from Phoenicia to Greece to Italy. Follow the CREWS blog to learn more about these fascinating origin stories.

As a special bonus, Philip from the CREWS project has been making biscuits in the shape of the Phaistos disc – Phaistos discuits, if you will – and has taken some truly mouth-watering photographs of them. He’s helpfully written all about how he created them, so you can make your own at home!