Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek
Ahem… So, first off, I’m first generation ethnic Greek here in the States. My mother’s side is directly from Greece, so my grandparents came over with her, settled in the Midwest, and built everything from scratch. She was old enough to bring all of our real tradition with her, so when people talk about Greek life, I always laugh a little because for me it’s not just letters, it’s literally my bloodline, our language, our faith, our food, and our family values that survived for thousands of years.
You’re right, Zach. Historically, the Greek alphabet didn’t start in like some vacuum. Like you said, it did evolve from Phoenician scripts, which were heavily influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs. So technically, the letters sororities and fraternities wear today trace back through Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East before they ever showed up on a sorority or fraternity tee. That’s a fact, not just my family pride.
But for the record, I’ll mention what you didn’t, Zach. The Phoenicians weren’t African, they were Levantine, but their writing system was shaped by Egyptian scribes on African soil. That’s how culture works — trade, travel, mixing ideas for centuries. So if you trace your “proud” Greek letters all the way back, yes, you’re gonna hit the shores of the Nile. If you wanna call it Afro-Mediterranean, that’s fine. But it still goes through us — my real, ethnic Greek roots.
So like, this alphabet and all this cultural knowledge physically ran through MY family line. Ancient Greece didn’t just borrow Phoenician symbols, we built an entire language and identity from it.
So, my Greek family line literally carried that alphabet forward. Just sayin..
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