Why Greek letters?

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Originally posted by ariesrising
Is there a reason that sororities and fraternities have Greek letters?

I know Phi Beta Kappa was the first Greek letter organization, is there any reason why other organizations, social and non, followed the idea of using Greek letters? I know some groups started with non-Greek letter names (Alpha Delta Pi, Phi Mu etc)....why change to Greek letters? What began the trend of using them as opposed to other names, languages etc?

Back in the olden days, a solid, well-rounded education required the study of Latin and Classical Greek, along with regular (and mandatory) church attendance and religious study. Many of the learned texts and classic literature of the day was studied in the original Greek and Latin.

Phi Beta Kappa was the first college fraternity to use Greek letters in their name; whose initials stood for a classical Greek motto: Filosofia Bion KuberneqeV (Philosophia Bion Kybernethes - Philosophy [is the] Guide to Life).

Many Greek-letter fraternities and sororities followed Phi Beta Kappa's lead and named their fraternities after the initials of their motto or reason for being; often secret and known only to their members. There are a few fraternities and sororities whose Greek-letter initials form an open (non-secret) motto. Example: Delta Upsilon = Dikaia Upoqeke (Dikaia Upotheke - Justice [is] our Foundation.)