CADMEAN LETTERS, the ancient Greek or Ionic characters, such as they were first brought by Cadmus from Phœnicia; whence Herodotus also calls them Phœnician letters. According to some writers, Cadmus was not the inventor, nor even importer of the Greek letters, but only the modeller and reformer thereof; and it was hence they acquired the appellation Cadmean or Phœnician letters; whereas before that time they had been called Pelasgian letters.