Inque dies magis in montem succedere silvas
Cogebant, infraque locum concedere cultis;
Prata, lacus, rivas, segetes, vinetaque lacta
Collibus et campis ut haberent.—Lucr. De Re. Nat., v, 1369.
[16] The Egyptians may have invented the crane (See Herodotus, ii, 125). They also had the balance scale.
[17] The phonetic alphabet came, like other great inventions, at the end of successive efforts. The slow Egyptian, advancing the hieroglyph through its several forms, had reached a syllabus composed of phonetic characters, and at this stage was resting upon his labors. He could write in permanent characters upon stone. Then came in the inquisitive Phœnician, the first navigator and trader on the sea, who, whether previously versed in hieroglyphs or otherwise, seems to have entered at a bound upon the labors of the Egyptian, and by an inspiration of genius to have mastered the problem over which the latter was dreaming. He produced that wondrous alphabet of sixteen letters which in time gave to mankind a written language and the means for literary and historical records.
[18] ἀρχηγέτην εἶναι τῆς γεωγραφικῆς εἶναι Ὅμηρον.—Strabo, I, 2.
[19] Barley κριθὴ, white barley κρῖ λευκόν.—Iliad, v, 196; viii, 564: barley flour ἄλφιτον.—Il., xi, 631: barley meal, made of barley and salt, and used as an oblation οὐλοχύται.—Il., i, 449: wheat πυρός.—Il., xi, 756: rye ὀλῦρα.—Il., v, 196, viii, 564: bread σῖτος.—Il., xxiv, 625: an inclosed 50 acres of land πεντηκοντόγυος.—Il., ix, 579: a fence ἕρκος.—Il., v, 90: a field ἀλωά.—Il., v, 90: stones set for a field boundary.—Il., xxi, 405: plow ἄροτρον.—Il., x, 353; xiii, 703.
[20] The house or mansion δόμος.—Il., vi, 390: odoriferous chambers of cedar, lofty roofed.—Il., vi, 390: house of Priam, in which were fifty chambers of polished stones αὐτὰρ ἐν αὐτῷ πεντήκοντ' ἔνεσαν θάλαμοι ξεστοῖο λίθοιο.—Il., vi, 243.