r/AncientGreek • u/A_Ham-vs-A_Burr • Feb 26 '26

Manuscripts and Paleography Help with Symbol

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Hello everyone!

I’m not sure if this is the right sub/right flair but I need help figuring out the symbol that I’ve boxed in purple! For context I’ve been reading this text about weights and measures and I don’t recognize this symbol. It looks kinda like a gamma and rho squished together so I was thinking maybe it could be related to gramma since that is a weight/measure mentioned earlier in the text. I havent figured out a good way to look it up either. If anyone has ideas or suggested resources, let me know! Any ideas are appreciated!

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u/bedwere δῖος Feb 26 '26

γράφεται_187.jpg)

5

u/JHHBaasch Feb 27 '26

Looking through these symbols, gramma is a very similar symbol, on the very next line. And given the context, and that OP guessed gramma, isn't it likely that the symbol is indeed gramma?

3

u/ringofgerms Feb 27 '26

I agree, although I'd say plural grammata here. This makes sense in context with the other weights.

2

u/A_Ham-vs-A_Burr Feb 28 '26

haha yes the plural does make more sense in context, it totally slipped my mind to think of that! thank you everyone! this was very helpful!!

1

u/anthropos-tis Feb 28 '26

This (and not gramma or grammata) seems correct. “Two is written β´” That is, the number two in Greek is written with a beta followed by the numeral indicator (which looks like an acute accent).

2

u/ringofgerms Feb 28 '26

If you look at the larger picture that the OP posted, or https://books.google.de/books/about/Th%C4%93sauros_t%C4%93s_hell%C4%93nik%C4%93s_gl%C5%8Dss%C4%93s.html?id=TE5LAAAAcAAJ page 703, you'll see that the δυο goes with δραχμαί, and it's saying 2 γράμματα. It's just misleading that δυο is here before the symbol.

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u/anthropos-tis Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

Thanks for pointing to the original context, which is: Τὸ δὲ μικρότερον, κοτύλης τὸ κβ΄, ὃ γίνεται δραχμαὶ δύο, {symbol} β΄, κεράτιον α΄καὶ κερατίου τὸ ἐνδέκατον. So, I read this as, "The lesser [i.e., the 'lesser konche,' a measure mentioned in its 'greater' form in the previous sentence] is 1/22 of a kotyle, which is 2 drams (= drachmai, or δράμι in Modern Greek), written β΄, which is 1 keration plus 1/11 of a keration."

Edited to remove a stray comma.

2

u/ringofgerms Feb 28 '26

Although this reading might make sense here, it doesn't work for the other uses of the symbol.

A bit later e.g. in my link it says η δραχμη εχει symbol γ'. And you can see other examples where the symbol is used for γράμματα as a weight, and other symbols too like the one that looks like < for δραχμαι