Funny quotes

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βῆτα ἄλφα βα
βῆτα εἶ βε
βῆτα ἦτα βη
βῆτα ἰῶτα βι
βῆτα οὖ βο
βῆτα ὖ βυ
βῆτα ὦ βω

(Callias' Alphabet Tragedy -γραµµατικὴ τραγῳδία- as quoted in Athenaeus 10.453d–e)

(Beta alfa "ba", beta ei “be”, beta eta “bē,” beta iota “bi”, beta ou “bo”, beta u “bu”, beta T “bō”).

The letters we call epsilon, upsilon, omicron, and omega were called εἶ, ὖ, οὖ, and ὦ in V century BCE, the time of Callias. This part of Callias' play is imitating the typical method of teaching young Greek children how to read (Cf. Luschnig, 2007, "An Introduction to Ancient Greek", p.11)

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