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