Early Greek Alphabet (Part 2)

"As The Ox Turns In Plowing"

This was a way of writing in ancient Greece-- back and forth. Notice how the E's and K's get turned around in alternate lines.

This seems to have been what got our letters turned around and headed in the opposite direction from the way that the Phoenicians had originally written them.

But in those days it didn't make much difference which way a letter faced, or even if it stood on its head! (Our letter A is an ox-head turned upside down.)

The line of writing could climb up and down or go around as easily as run horizontally in either direction.

Nothing was "standard" until Athens got the upper hand of the Greek city states and standardized letter-shapes, direction of writing, and the direction a letter faced. They liked the left-to-right better than the other directions. and that's what was passed on to us.