BOUSTROPHEDON, a term descriptive of a peculiar form of writing common among the early Greeks. The direction of writing was alternately right to left and left to right in horizontal lines, or, conversely, left to right and right to left. It was a transi tion between the earlier right to left writing and the later left to right style. The term was derived from two Greek words meaning "ox," and "to turn," from the resemblance of the writing to the winding course taken by oxen in ploughing.