mmonius,
fearing that two of the same profession might be matched together,
ordered, without drawing lots, a geometrician to propose questions to a
grammarian, and a master of music to a rhetorician.

First, therefore, Hermeas the geometrician demanded of Protogenes the
grammarian a reason why Alpha was the first letter of the alphabet. And
he returned the common answer of the schools, that it was fit the vowels
should be set before the mutes and semi-vowels. And of the vowels, some
being long, some short, some both long and short, it is just that the
latter should be most esteemed. And of these that are long and short,
that is to be set first which is usually placed before the other two,
but never after either; and that is Alpha. For that put after either
Iota or Upsilon will not be pronounced, will not make one syllable with
them, but as it were resenting the affront and angry at the position,
seeks the first as its proper place. But if you place Alpha before
either of those, they are obedient, and quietly join in one syllable,
as in these words, [Greek omitted] and a thousand others. In these three
respects therefore, as the conquerors in all the five exercises, it
claims the precedence,--that of most other letters by being a vowel,
that of other vowels by being dichronous, and lastly, that of these
double-timed vowels themselves because it is its nature to go before and
never after them.

Protogenes making a pause, Ammonius, speaking to me, said: What! have
you, being a Boeotian, nothing to say for Cadmus, who (as the story
goes) placed Alpha the first in order, because a cow is called Alpha by
the Phoenicians, and they account it not the second or third (as
Hesiod doth) but the first of their necessary things? Nothing at all, I
replied, for it is just that, to the best of my power, I should rather
assist my own than Bacchus's grandfather. For Lamprias my grandfather
said, that the first articulate sound that is made is Alpha; for the air
in the mouth is formed and fashioned by the motion of the lips; now as
soon as those are opened, that sound breaks forth, being very plain and
simple, not requiring or depending upon the motion of the tongue, but
gently breathed forth whilst that lies still. And therefore that is the
first sound that children make. Thus [Greek omitted], TO HEAR, [Greek
omitted], TO SING, [Greek omitted], TO PIPE, [Greek omitted], TO HOLLOW,
begin with the letter Alpha; and I think that [Greek omit