Greek Numerals

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Lookup Table and Description

 

units

tens

hundreds

1

A
(alpha)

I
(iota)

R
(rho)

2

B
(beta)

K
(kappa)

S
(sigma)

3

G
(gamma)

L
(lambda)

T
(tau)

4

D
(delta)

M
(mu)

U
(upsilon)

5

E
(epsilon)

N
(nu)

F
(phi)

6

Û, ß
(digamma)

X
(xi)

C
(chi)

7

Z
(zeta)

O
(omicron)

Y
(psi)

8

H
(eta)

P
(pi)

W
(omega)

9

Q
(theta)


(koppa)


(sampi)

For an illustrated discussion of the archaic letters used in numerical sums (digamma, koppa, sampi), click here.

Description of system:

 The following description of the system is quoted from an email message posted to Epigraph by George Pesely, Austin Peay State University, Thursday, 19 June 1997, 9:42 EDT:

In addition to the 24 letters in the Ionic alphabet, three other letters used in some epichoric Greek alphabets are given numerical values--digamma (looks like F and follows E), Qoppa (looks like Q and follows Pi), and Sampi (consists of a crescent with the convex side facing right and two diagonal lines towards the lower left, and follows Omega). The values are:

Numbers one to nine:
Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Digamma, Zeta, Eta, Theta

Numbers ten to ninety:
Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Qoppa

Numbers one hundred to nine hundred:
Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, Omega, Sampi

For example, 334 would be represented by Tau + Lambda + Delta, with a stroke to the right after the last letter (tld/); for numbers of one thousand and above, the letters are re-used but a stroke to the lower left indicates the higher value, Alpha as 1000, etc. (e.g., /a).

Fractions:

By Tom Elliott

Fractions were expressed as sums of unit fractions (e.g., 1/2 + 1/3 would be used to express 5/6). The unit fractions were expressed using the same characters as integers, with the addition of a diacritical mark to indicate the fractional nature of that value. Usage of these marks seems to have varied, but often an acute accent was used immediately after the character (or sometimes after a sum) to mark the numeral or sum as a fraction. Integers were sometimes differentiated from fractions by placing a bar, a dot, or another symbol over the integer.

Bibliography:

Pingree, David. "Numbers," in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.

Richardson, W.F. Numbering and Measuring in the Classical World, Auckland 1985.

Tod, M.N. "The Alphabetic Numeral System in Attica," BSA 45 (1950), 126-139; reprinted in Ancient Greek Numerical Systems: Six Studies. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1979.

This page by Tom Elliott, 2 July 1997. Please email me with suggestions.

Thanks to Charles Crowther, Joaquin Gomez-Pantoja , Dexter Hoyos, David Meadows, George Pesely, Bill Thayer, and everyone else who has contributed to the discussion on epigraph-l.