Greeks, one of the main consumers of the papyrus, also called it byblos - the name of the city, where it was brought to this material for writing. Papyrus produced in Egypt, from cane growing in abundance in the Nile Delta. But the writing of the Egyptians did not differ a large spread - even in Egypt, it was available to few, and beyond the language of the pharaohs did was unknown.
Phoenicians from the city of Byblos, who were particularly interested in the development of trade with various nations, simplified the Egyptian symbols, after which they become easier to distinguish and reproduce on papyrus. In all such symbols have 20 each of which meant a speech sound. These symbols can be written words of any language, any nation. Later, the Greeks perfected the alphabet of Byblos, which consisted only of consonants. They added to it 5 letters denoting vowel sounds. In this form, the Greek alphabet became the basis for the Latin - the progenitor of the European languages, and later - and Slavonic writing.
Also from the city of Byblos occur and Greek words such as biblion - book, bibliotec - library - the repository of books. And of course the Bible - which means "a collection of books."
