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Boustrophedon ( ) is a style of writing in which alternate lines of writing are reversed, with letters also written in reverse, mirror-style. This is in contrast to modern European languages, where lines always begin on the same side, usually the left.
The original term comes from , , a composite of βοῦς]], , "ox"; στροφή]], , "turn"; and the adverbial suffix -δόν, -, "like, in the manner of" – that is, "like the ox turns while"., , It is mostly seen in ancient and other Epigraphy. It was a common way of writing on stone in ancient Greece, becoming less and less popular throughout the Hellenistic period. Many ancient scripts, such as Etruscan, Safaitic, and Sabaean language, were frequently or even typically written boustrophedon. (one of the oldest known Latin inscriptions) is written boustrophedon, albeit irregularly: reading from top to bottom, lines 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16 run from right to left; lines 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, and 15, from left to right; 8, 9, and 16 are upside down. (From a rubbing by Domenico Comparetti.)]]
The reader begins at the bottom left-hand corner of a tablet, reads a line from left to right, then rotates the tablet 180 degrees to continue on the next line from left to right again. When reading one line, the lines above and below it appear upside down. However, the writing continues onto the second side of the tablet at the point where it finishes off the first, so if the first side has an odd number of lines, the second will start at the upper left-hand corner, and the direction of writing shifts to top to bottom. Larger tablets and staves may have been read without turning, if the reader were able to read upside-down.
The Hungarian folklorist (1864–1946) writes that ancient boustrophedon writing resembles how the Hungarian rovás-sticks of Old Hungarian script were made by shepherds. A notcher would hold the wooden stick in their left hand, cutting the letters with their right hand from right to left. When the first side was complete, they would flip the stick over vertically and start to notch the opposite side in the same manner. When unfolded horizontally (as in the case of the stone-cut boustrophedon inscriptions), the final result is writing which starts from right to left, and continues from left to right in the next row, with letters turned upside down. Sebestyén suggests that the ancient boustrophedon writings were copied from such wooden sticks with cut letters, applied for epigraphic inscriptions (not recognizing the real meaning of the original wooden type).
Hieroglyphic Luwian is read boustrophedonically, with the direction of any individual line pointing into the front of the animals or body parts constituting certain hieroglyphs. However, unlike Egyptian hieroglyphs with their numerous and , which show an easy directionality, the lineal direction of the text in hieroglyphic Luwian is harder to see.
The Avoiuli script used on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu is written boustrophedonically by design.
Additionally, the Indus script, although still undeciphered, can be written boustrophedonically.
Another example is the boustrophedon transform, known in mathematics.
Sources also indicate that Linear A may have been written left-to-right, right-to-left, and in boustrophedon fashion.
Permanent human teeth are numbered in a boustrophedonic sequence in the American Universal Numbering System.
In art history Marilyn Aronberg Lavin adopted the term to describe a type of Narrative art direction a Fresco cycle may take: "The boustrophedon is found on the surface of single walls linear as well on one or more opposing walls aerial of a given sanctuary. The narrative reads on several tiers, first from left to right, then reversing from right to left, or vice versa."
In digital file compression for spatial data, the GRIB2 compression algorithm packs values "boustrophedonically to make 'consecutive' values more redundant."
The Atlantean language created by Marc Okrand for Disney's 2001 film is written in boustrophedon to recreate the feeling of flowing water.
The code language used in The Montmaray Journals, Kernetin, is written boustrophedonically. It is a combination of Cornish language and Latin and is used for secret communication.
In late writings, J.R.R. Tolkien states many elves were ambidextrous and as such, would write left-to-right or right-to-left as needed.
In the Green Star novels by Lin Carter, the script of the Laonese people is written in boustrophedon style.Lin Carter (1972). Under the Green Star. DAW Books. p. 47. .
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