Editing Alpha (section)

==History and symbolism==
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2021}}
{{further|History of the Greek alphabet}}

===Origin===
The [[Phoenician alphabet]] was adopted for Greek in the early 8th century BC, perhaps in [[Euboea]].<ref>The date of the earliest inscribed objects; A.W. Johnston, "The alphabet", in N. Stampolidis and V. Karageorghis, eds, ''Sea Routes from Sidon to Huelva: Interconnections in the Mediterranean'' 2003:263-76, summarizes the present scholarship on the dating.</ref> 
The majority of the letters of the Phoenician alphabet were adopted into Greek with much the same sounds as they had had in Phoenician, but ''[[Aleph (letter)|ʼāleph]]'', the Phoenician letter representing the [[Glottal stop (letter)|glottal stop]] {{IPA|[ʔ]}},
was adopted as representing the vowel {{IPA|[a]}}; similarly, ''[[He (letter)|hē]]'' {{IPA|[h]}} and ''[[Ayin|ʽayin]]'' {{IPA|[ʕ]}} are Phoenician consonants that became Greek vowels, [[epsilon]] {{IPA|[e]}} and [[omicron]] {{IPA|[o]}}, respectively.

===Plutarch===
[[Plutarch]], in ''[[Moralia]]'',<ref>Symposiacs, Book IX, questions II & III [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/p/plutarch/symposiacs/chapter9.html#section91 On-line text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013230602/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/p/plutarch/symposiacs/chapter9.html#section91 |date=13 October 2008 }} at Adelaide library</ref> presents a discussion on why the letter alpha stands first in the alphabet. Ammonius asks Plutarch what he, being a [[Boeotia]]n, has to say for [[Cadmus]], the [[Phoenicia]]n who reputedly settled in [[Thebes (Greece)|Thebes]] and introduced the alphabet to Greece, placing ''alpha'' first because it is the Phoenician name for [[ox]]—which, unlike [[Hesiod]],<ref>Hesiod, in ''[[Works and Days]]'' (see on [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0132:card=405 Perseus Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117133713/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0132%3Acard%3D405 |date=17 January 2021 }}), advises the early Greek farmers, "First of all, get a house, then a woman and third, an ox for the plough."</ref> the Phoenicians considered not the second or third, but the first of all necessities. "Nothing at all," Plutarch replied. He then added that he would rather be assisted by [[Lamprias]], his own grandfather, than by [[Dionysus]]' grandfather, i.e. Cadmus. For Lamprias had said that the first articulate sound made is "alpha", because it is very plain and simple—the air coming off the mouth does not require any motion of the tongue—and therefore this is the first sound that children make.

According to Plutarch's natural order of attribution of the [[vowel]]s to the [[planet]]s, alpha was connected with the [[Moon]].

===Alpha and Omega===
[[Image: Königsberg Marienkirche - Fenster 1a AlphaOmega.jpg|right|thumb|Stained glass featuring Alpha and Omega in the {{ill|Marienkirche (Königsberg in Bayern)|de|lt=Königsberg in Bayern Marienkirche}}]]
{{main|Alpha and Omega}}

As the first letter of the alphabet, Alpha as a [[Greek numeral]] came to represent the number [[1 (number)|1]].
Therefore, Alpha, both as a symbol and term, is used to refer to the "first", or "primary", or "principal" (most significant) occurrence or status of a thing.
 
The New Testament has God declaring himself to be the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." ([[Revelation 22:13]], KJV, and see also [[Revelation 1:8|1:8]]).

Consequently, the term "alpha" has also come to be used to denote "primary" position in social hierarchy, examples being the concept of dominant [[Alpha (ethology)|"alpha"]] members in groups of animals.