TheCodeBreakers
begins the story in the Iliad that includes the world's first conscious
reference to—as distinct from use of—secret writing.
"But Bellerophon was a man of sound principles and refused. So
Anteia went to King Proetus with a lying tale. 'Proetus,' she said,
'Bellerophon has tried to ravish me. Kill him—or die yourself.' The king
was enraged when he
heard this infamous tale. He stopped short of putting Bellerophon to
death—it was a thing he dared not do—but he packed him off to Lycia
with sinister credentials from himself. He gave him a folded tablet on
which he- had traced a number of devices with a deadly meaning, and
told him to hand this to his father-in-law, the Lycian king, and thus
ensure his own death."
The Lycian king feasted Bellerophon for nine days. "But the tenth day
came, and then, in the first rosy light of Dawn, he examined him and
asked to see what credentials he had brought him from his son-in-law
Proetus
annaabi.ee 
