| Alpha (letter) |
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For other uses, see Alpha . Plutarch in '' Moralia '' presents a discussion on the question of why the letter alpha stands first in the alphabet. Plutarch's speaker suggests that Cadmus , the Phoenician who reputedly settled in Thebes and introduced the alphabet to Greece, "placed ''alpha'' first because it is the Phoenician name for Ox , which they, like Hesiod , considered not the second or third, but the first of necessities." This refers to a passage in '' Works And Days '' by Hesiod, who advised the early Greek farmers, "First get an ox, then a woman." A simpler explanation is that it was the first letter in the Phoenician alphabet. According to Plutarch's natural order of attribution of the Vowel s to the Planet s, alpha was connected with the Moon . Oxen were also associated with the Moon in both early Sumerian and Egyptian religious symbolism due to the crescent shape of their horns. Alpha, both as a symbol and term, is used to refer to or describe a variety of things, including the first or most significant occurrence of something. Jesus declares himself to be the "Alpha and Omega , the beginning and the end, the first and the last." ( Revelation 22:13, KJV, and see also 1:8). The uppercase letter alpha is not generally used as a symbol because it tends to be rendered identically to the uppercase Latin A . |
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