More specifically, Linear B was a syllabary, i.e., a system in which, basically, there is a separate symbol for each syllable. In some ways, then, it was a relatively awkward writing system. For example, the syllables na, ne, ni, no, nu were
respectively. Despite the fact that the first consonant in all of these is n-, the five symbols are all quite different in appearance. It must, therefore, have been comparatively difficult to learn this writing system. There is also the problem that many Greek syllables end in a consonant - but there is no real means of representing such consonants in Linear B.
For a good online survey of Linear B, see Lawrence K. Lo's material at ancientcripts.com .
Among the material recorded in Linear B are the names of various divinities, at least some of which are familiar from Homer and later Greek; cf. Palaima's discussion, TSB, pp. 443-446. Examples are the following:
Poseidon po-se-da-o-ne
Hermes e-ma-ha
Zeus di-we
Ares a-re
Athena Potnia a-ta-na-po-ti-ni-ja
Dionysos di-wo-nu-so
Enyalios e-nu-wa-ri-jo
Artemis a-te-mi-to
Hopefully, the transcription of these various divine names will be more or less transparent, but a few remarks may be in order. (First of all, "j" in syllables such as "ja" and "jo" represents a "y" sound, i.e., "ya" and "yo".) Di-we does not look much like "Zeus", but the name Zeus has a complex pattern of forms in Greek, and di-we is actually fairly straightforward, on the basis of some of the later forms. The phrase a-ta-na-po-ti-ni-ja is also fairly straightforward, with a close parallel being provided by the phrase potni' Athênaiê at Il. 6.305, translated by Lattimore as "lady Athene". (This passage is not in the material from Book 6 which is included by H&P.) In fact, the reference to Athena in the Iliad (composed around 725 BCE) is really very close to the Cnossos tablet from c. 1400 BCE (closer, I would say, than Palaima's translation, p. 444, as "lady of Athens" might suggest).
Somewhat more complicated - perhaps - is the fairly clear Linear B evidence for Dionysos; see Palaima, p. 443 and the note in the index in TSB, p. 496. Dionysos is not prominent in Homer, being mentioned only in a few passages, viz., Il. 6.132, 135, 14.325; Od. 11.325 (=Fitzgerald, line 377), 24.74 (=Fitzgerald, line 86). This god is, however, quite important in later Greek civilization, mythology, and literature. (For example, Athenian tragedy was performed at an annual festival of Dionysos; cf. H&P, pp. 529-542). Before the decipherment of Linear B in 1952, it was fairly generally held that Dionysos was an originally foreign, non-Greek divinity, whose worship was introduced into Greece around 700 BCE; according to this interpretation, the few Homeric references to Dionysos either reflected this transitional period and/or were "spurious", i.e., not part of the original Homeric text. (For a possible reflection of the once-traditional view of Dionysos, cf. H&P, p. 209, where they refer to Dionysos as a "newcomer".) Now, though, it appears that Dionysos was prominent much earlier (as Palaima observes, his name is attested from three separate Bronze Age sites) and that Homer was simply somehow selective in his treatment of this divinity; for discussion of Dionysos from this perspective, see H&P, pp. 260-261.
As Palaima, p. 442 indicates, documents in Linear B were primarily "internal administrative records"; accordingly, as Palaima states toward the bottom of this same page, "The tablets do not give us the narrative stories, histories, or legends that the Greeks of the early historical period called muthoi, the word that gives us our word myths." On the other hand, some tantalizing evidence for the possibility that dactylic hexameter may have been written in Linear B is presented by Albert Tiller.
Finally, it may also be noted that there seems to be a tenuous thread of transmission connecting Linear B with the Cypriot syllabary, which was used in Cyprus as late as the Hellenistic period; at least the Cypriot syllabary has the same basic form as Linear B, and some of the symbols, such as na, pa, po, se, ti are very similar in the two scripts. For a more detailed survey of the Cypriote syllabary, see see Lawrence K. Lo's material at ancientcripts.com .
There was accordingly a kind of quantum leap in the development of writing when the alphabet was introduced into Greece, around 775 BCE. With just 20-30 symbols, the alphabet was far easier to learn. Also, since it represented vowels and consonants as discrete entities, it was a much more efficient way of recording language. Accordingly, sophisticated literary works such as the Iliad and Odyssey could be readily recorded in the Greek alphabet. For a brief but suggestive comment concerning Barry Powell's view of the relationship of Homer and the alphabet, see H&P, p. 31. In contrast, Linear B was used almost exclusively for palace accounts of various sorts. Through its use of a comparatively few symbols to represent human language, the alphabet is one of humanity's principal intellectual achievements, and its use in Greece marks a very important transition from a primarily oral, illiterate society to once in which writing was fairly widespread.
To be sure, most scholarly points involve a good deal of controversy, and the preceding paragraph is no exception.
First of all, there is a good deal of argument about who should get the main "credit" for the alphabet. The Greek alphabet is obviously derived from an eastern Mediterranean, Phoenician prototype (cf. H&P, pp. 65-66) - and some scholars would say that all the important features of the alphabet were already in place in the system which the Greeks adopted, while others say the Greeks made crucial adjustments in it. It is also possible that there was some influence from the Cypriot syllabary, especially from the Cypriot u
to Greek Y.
Secondly, many modern scholars hold that the "acceptance" of the alphabet was much slower in Greece than indicated above, with Greece remaining a basically oral, illiterate society for many centuries.
Actually, the Greek alphabet is not, really, that unfamiliar, in view of the following facts: (1) The Greek alphabet was borrowed by the Etruscans and then the Romans, whose alphabet is, basically, that which we still use. Hence, the fundamental principles of the Greek alphabet are part and parcel of our own civilization. (2) Accordingly, although there have been some changes in letter forms from Greek to English, some still have exactly the same shape. (3) Also, Greek letters are still used as mathematical and scientific symbols and by Greek letter societies. For additional information concerning Greek words which should be readily recognizable in English, see the course handout, p. 14.