Greek alphabet for Majors?

In another thread, Greg Stanton commented:
"If you want to graft an alphabetical system onto the cards, try the Greek alphabet (wrong number of letters tho)."

I have the Pythagorean Tarot set, but I was wondering . . . If someone was going to approach the Majors as an addition based on a specific culture's alphabet, what could the 2 extra Majors be/depict?

And just now Umbrae chimed in with the comment:

"We assume that the trumps were added to the 52 card deck.

22+52=74 That’s four short of 78. I don’t care how you do the math.

26+52=78

One cannot ignore some pieces of evidence at the expense of others (cherry picking)."

I was considering Neo Platonism, which, in a 15th-century European context, seems to give the cards the imagery and structure they have. In this view it would seem more logical to assign Greek letters to the majors rather than Hebrew. The problems I see are

1. There are 24 letters in the modern Greek alphabet, 2 more than 22 and 2 less than 26. A few additional characters, now obsolete, with specialized uses would have to be considered as well.

2. Greek letters don't have any meanings associated with them like Hebrew (which likely developed from Phoenician). Alpha means "Alpha", but in Hebrew Aleph means "Ox".

3. Assigning letters to the cards would be rather arbitrary using Greek. There is no underlying philosophy that is tied to the Greek alphabet, that I know of.

As far as two extra majors... that's tough. Prudence is an obvious choice. I always thought that the leap from the Magician to the Popess was, well, quite a leap. Maybe a card that would fit in with Plato's class system, say a card called "The Warrior".

cardlady22 said:

I have the Pythagorean Tarot set, but I was wondering . . . If someone was going to approach the Majors as an addition based on a specific culture's alphabet, what could the 2 extra Majors be/depict?

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There is the theory that Juno and Jupiter were dropped from the Majors/melded into other Majors. That would give you 24 Majors. (I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other about the theory. I'm just throwing it out there.)

Rodney

Thanks for the replies, guys!

My mind makes dangerous leaps because I haven't gotten in depth with much of what I've run across. In general terms, I approach any "alphabet" as quite flexible. They do have sounds and symbols added and deleted as usage changes.

It may be blasphemous, but I also consider the meanings assigned to letters to be expedient. Kind of like a modern child's picture book that will show the alphabet in a theme with words that begin with the corresponding letter. Or a young child's lessons on synonyms and antonyms where they have to pick out the one that matches or doesn't belong, etc.

I adore "what ifs"!

I thought Juno and Jupiter were the alter-egos of the Empress and the Emperor.

Morwenna said:

I thought Juno and Jupiter were the alter-egos of the Empress and the Emperor.

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The Popess and the Pope, actually.