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htm

Greek Numbers and Numerals (Ancient and Modern)

The present page is part of the author’s set of pages on the Greek language

This page attempts to explain the following topics:

How numbers are written and pronounced in Modern Greek

How numbers used to be written and pronounced in Ancient Greek

First, let us make one observation that is crucial for understanding both the ancient and modern
counting system:

Greeks, throughout recorded history, have used the decimal system

Notice that by “decimal system” I mean a system that uses the number 10 as its so-called “base”; I do
not mean one that uses our familiar Arabic numerals 1, 2, 3, etc. Not all ancient peoples used decimal
systems. The Romans, for example, used a system that resembles more a base-5 system; the Babylonians
used a system that is nearly base-60; some cultures have been known that use the binary system (base-
2, like modern computers). The majority of ancient peoples, however, including the Chinese, the Greeks,
and the Egyptians, used the decimal system. (The reason for this preference is obvious: we have 10
fingers.)

Although for Greeks the base of the system has always been 10, the writing system has been changed
between ancient and modern times.

In Modern Greek, the familiar Arabic numerals are used for writing numbers

In Ancient Greek, a system based on the Greek alphabet was used for writing numbers

Therefore, nothing needs to be explained in Modern Greek regarding the writing of numbers; the latter
needs explanation only in the case of Ancient Greek.
Note, for readers of Biblical Koine Greek: In reading the New Testament in the original Greek (the “koine”
dialect), as well as the Old Testament in the Septuagint (the “official” ancient translation of the Hebrew
original), you will encounter Arabic numerals (for example: 15:27, etc.) You may think that this
contradicts the above statements. It should be understood that Arabic numerals appear only in our
modern printing of the ancient texts. Ancient handwritten texts of the Bible certainly employed the
ancient (alphabetic) style of writing numbers. You may also wonder how to read such numbers. No
matter what writing notation was used, numbers were pronounced as numbers. For example, the
number 12 was written as ιβ in ancient Greek (you will learn why, below); but it was not pronounced
as /ib/, but through the word for number “twelve” (δυοκαίδεκα, in ancient Greek). You may choose to
use either the Ancient, or the Modern way of pronouncing numbers in the Bible whichever seems most
convenient to you.

With the above in mind, let us now proceed to the two cases, Modern and Ancient, separately.

Numbers in Modern Greek

Cardinal Numbers

Cardinal numbers are the ones we use for counting, in the abstract: one, two, three, etc. (as opposed to
ordinal numbers: first, second, third, etc., given below). Assuming the reader is familiar with numbers in
English, the corresponding system in Greek should be perceived as easy, because it is very similar to the
English one. The similarity goes to such things as having special words for eleven and twelve, (and with
tw- hinting at the origin of this word), having the numbers from 13 to 19 formed by a suffix (-teen; it’s a
prefix in Greek), while larger 2-digit numbers are formed by the tens, followed by the digits (e.g., seventy
one). All these characteristics are same in Greek as in English.

One detail that differs is the following: in Greek, the cardinal numbers for one, three, and four, have the
form of adjectives; hence, they can be declined according to gender and case (but obviously not
according to number, since one can be only in the singular, and three and four only in the plural). All the
other numbers have just a single, undeclined form. The following table shows how to count in modern
Greek, from zero to twenty.

0 zero μηδέν

1 one ένα (m: ένας, f: μία, n: ένα)

2 two δύο
3 three τρία (m: τρεις, f: τρεις, n: τρία)

4 four τέσσερα (m: τέσσερις, f: τέσσερις, n: τέσσερα)

5 five πέντε

6 six έξι

7 seven επτά or εφτά

8 eight οκτώ or οχτώ

9 nine εννέα or εννιά

10 ten δέκα

11 eleven έντεκα

12 twelve δώδεκα

13 thirteen δεκατρία

14 fourteen δεκατέσσερα

15 fifteen δεκαπέντε

16 sixteen δεκαέξι or δεκάξι

17 seventeen δεκαεπτά or δεκαεφτά

18 eighteen δεκαοκτώ or δεκαοχτώ

19 nineteen δεκαεννέα or δεκαεννιά

20 twenty είκοσι

Where an alternative form is given, it is the more colloquial one. This means that you will usually
encounter the first form more often in books, or written language in general, while the second form is
usually more common in speech (the emphasis on the word usually means there isn’t any hard-and-fast
rule for when and where to use each form).

To understand how to use the gender-declined forms for one, three, and four, note the following: When
counting in the abstract (for example, seconds of time, printed lines on a page, or any other case where
you don’t care to refer to the noun being counted, but you simply want to say one, two, three, etc.), then
use the neuter form: ένα, δύο, τρία, τέσσερα, etc. When you want to make reference to the counted
noun, however, or (and this is mandatory) if the number appears in front of the counted noun in a
sentence, then the number (one, three, or four) must agree with the noun in gender and case. For
example, if you want to say: one fly, since the word for fly (the insect) in Greek is of feminine gender, you
will say: μία μύγα (not ένα μύγα). If this is in the genitive case, the form will be: μίας μύγας. For three
flies, the correct form is: τρεις μύγες (not τρία μύγες). The declension for the number one is identical to
the indefinite article a/an in Modern Greek (i.e., the two words, one and a/an coincide).

The above remarks hold for every composite number that uses these three simple numbers as a
component, such as 13, 14, 21, 1001, etc.

To count beyond twenty in Greek we follow the same pattern as in English:

21 twenty one είκοσι ένα

22 twenty two είκοσι δύο

23 twenty three είκοσι τρία

... ... ...

30 thirty τριάντα

40 forty σαράντα

50 fifty πενήντα

60 sixty εξήντα

70 seventy εβδομήντα

80 eighty ογδόντα

90 ninety ενενήντα

100 one hundred εκατό

Now, to count beyond 100, one should notice this: although the word for one hundred is εκατό, every
number between 101 and 199 uses the form εκατόν, with that extra nu (ν) at the end. Thus,

101 one hundred and one εκατόν ένα

102 one hundred and two εκατόν δύο

103 one hundred and three εκατόν τρία

... ... ...

110 one hundred and ten εκατόν δέκα

111 one hundred and eleven εκατόν έντεκα

... ... ...

120 one hundred and twenty εκατόν είκοσι

121 one hundred and twenty one εκατόν είκοσι ένα

... ... ...

198 one hundred and ninety eight εκατόν ενενήντα οκτώ

199 one hundred and ninety nine εκατόν ενενήντα εννέα

(This difference occurs because the original (ancient) word for 100 was εκατόν, but the final ν (nu) was
dropped out of use by “erosion”; the other numbers between 101 and 199 were never used as
commonly as 100, so they retained their final consonant.)

Another observation is that, contrary to English, we do not insert the word and between εκατόν and the
number that follows.

The numbers for multiples of 100 up to 1000 all have genders, and are as follows:

200 two hundred διακόσια (m: διακόσιοι, f: διακόσιες, n: διακόσια)

300 three hundred τριακόσια (m: τριακόσιοι, f: τριακόσιες, n: τριακόσια)

400 four hundred τετρακόσια (m: τετρακόσιοι, f: τετρακόσιες, n: τετρακόσια)

500 five hundred πεντακόσια (m: πεντακόσιοι, f: πεντακόσιες, n: πεντακόσια)

600 six hundred εξακόσια (m: εξακόσιοι, εξακόσιες, f: n: εξακόσια)

700 seven hundred επτακόσια (m: επτακόσιοι, f: επτακόσιες, n: επτακόσια)

800 eight hundred οκτακόσια (m: οκτακόσιοι, f: οκτακόσιες, n: οκτακόσια)

900 nine hundred εννιακόσια (m: εννιακόσιοι, f: εννιακόσιες, n: εννιακόσια)

1000 one thousand χίλια (m: χίλιοι, f: χίλιες, n: χίλια)

Now, let us practice with some “random” numbers:

528 five hundred and twenty eight πεντακόσια είκοσι οκτώ

1001 one thousand and one χίλια ένα

1934 one thousand nine hundred and thirty four χίλια εννιακόσια τριάντα τέσσερα

Continuing beyond 1999, the plural of the word for thousand is used, i.e., χιλιάδες (instead of χίλια).
Therefore, the numbers for three and four thousand have to match in gender (feminine) and case with
χιλιάδες:

2000 two thousand δύο χιλιάδες

3000 three thousand τρεις χιλιάδες

4000 four thousand τέσσερις χιλιάδες

5000 five thousand πέντε χιλιάδες

6000 six thousand έξι χιλιάδες

7000 seven thousand επτά χιλιάδες

8000 eight thousand οκτώ χιλιάδες

9000 nine thousand εννέα χιλιάδες

10000 ten thousand δέκα χιλιάδες

11000 eleven thousand έντεκα χιλιάδες

... ... ...

Now let us make some random tests:

4305 τέσσερις χιλιάδες τριακόσια πέντε

10719 δέκα χιλιάδες επτακόσια δεκαεννέα

52860 πενήντα δύο χιλιάδες οκτακόσια εξήντα

844844 οκτακόσιες σαράντα τέσσερις χιλιάδες οκτακόσια σαράντα τέσσερα

Did you notice the tricky part in the last example? Although the word for 800 is οκτακόσια (in the
abstract, or neuter gender), when we want to say eight hundred thousand we have to match the gender
of οκτακόσια with χιλιάδες (feminine), hence: οκτακόσιες χιλιάδες.

We continue with the words for one million, two million, etc. Notice that in Greek numerals, the mark
that separates the thousands is the period, not the comma:

1.000.000 one million ένα εκατομμύριο

2.000.000 two million δύο εκατομμύρια

3.000.000 three million τρία εκατομμύρια

... ... ...

10.000.000 ten million δέκα εκατομμύρια

20.000.000 twenty million είκοσι εκατομμύρια

... ... ...

100.000.000 one hundred million εκατό εκατομμύρια

...

900.000.000 nine hundred million εννιακόσια εκατομμύρια

Continuing beyond that, the Greek system uses the American English convention for billion, trillion, etc.,
i.e., a billion is a thousand million, a trillion is a million million, etc. The words beyond those (quadrillion,
etc.) are seldom used in practice, except in some areas of science.

Note: the word for billion, δισεκατομμύριο, is often seen in its abbreviated form: δισ., and even δις, as if
the abbreviation is the word. Likewise, the word for trillion, τρισεκατομμύριο, is often abbreviated as
τρισ., and even τρις. People often use these abbreviations in speech, too.

1.000.000.000 or 109 one billion ένα δισεκατομμύριο

1.000.000.000.000 or 1012 one trillion ένα τρισεκατομμύριο

1.000.000.000.000.000 or 1015 one quadrillion ένα τετράκις εκατομμύριο

1018 one quintillion ένα πεντάκις εκατομμύριο

1021 one sextillion ένα εξάκις εκατομμύριο

1024 one septillion ένα επτάκις εκατομμύριο

1027 one octillion ένα οκτάκις εκατομμύριο

1030 one nonillion ένα εννεάκις εκατομμύριο

1033 one decillion ένα δεκάκις εκατομμύριο

1036 one undecillion ένα ενδεκάκις εκατομμύριο

1039 one duodecillion ένα δωδεκάκις εκατομμύριο

1042 one tredecillion ένα δεκατριάκις εκατομμύριο

1045 one quattuordecillion ένα δεκατετράκις εκατομμύριο

1048 one quindecillion ένα δεκαπεντάκις εκατομμύριο

1051 one sexdecillionένα δεκαεξάκις εκατομμύριο

1054 one septendecillion ένα δεκαεπτάκις εκατομμύριο

1057 one octodecillion ένα δεκαοκτάκις εκατομμύριο

1060 one novemdecillion ένα δεκαεννεάκις εκατομμύριο

1063 one vigintillion ένα εικοσάκις εκατομμύριο

1066 one unvigintillion ένα εικοσιάπαξ εκατομμύριο

1069 one duovigintillion ένα εικοσιδίς εκατομμύριο

1072 one trevigintillion ένα εικοσιτρίς εκατομμύριο

1075 one quattuorvigintillion ένα εικοσιτετράκις εκατομμύριο

... ... ...

...You get the picture. Even in science, such numbers are almost never spelled out, but written as
numerals with the exponential notation instead. The last number included in the table above is close to
the total number of elementary particles in the universe (at last count, ca. 2000 CE).
Let us make one last practice, with a number considerably “smaller” than the ones of the last rows (its
parts are shown on separate lines, for ease of identification):

5.577.345.001.724.230.294 πέντε πεντάκις εκατομμύρια

πεντακόσια εβδομήντα επτά τετράκις εκατομμύρια

τριακόσια σαράντα πέντε τρισεκατομμύρια

ένα δισεκατομμύριο

επτακόσια είκοσι τέσσερα εκατομμύρια

διακόσιες τριάντα χιλιάδες

διακόσια εννενήντα τέσσερα

Just for the fun of it, let us finally proceed to the limits of the Modern Greek counting system. (Boy, do I
love this trivia!)

1093 one trigintillion ένα τριακοντάκις εκατομμύριο

1096 one untrigintillion ένα τριακοντάπαξ εκατομμύριο

1099 one duotrigintillion ένα τρακονταδίς εκατομμύριο

10100 ten duotrigintillion, or

one googol δέκα τριακονταδίς εκατομμύρια

... ... ...

10123 one quadragintillion ένα τεσσαρακοντάκις εκατομμύριο

10153 one quinquagintillion ένα πεντηκοντάκις εκατομμύριο

10183 one sexagintillion ένα εξηκοντάκις εκατομμύριο

10213 one septuagintillion ένα εβδομηκοντάκις εκατομμύριο

10243 one octogintillion ένα ογδοηκοντάκις εκατομμύριο

10273 one nonagintillion ένα εννενηκοντάκις εκατομμύριο

10303 one centillion ένα εκατοντάκις εκατομμύριο

10603 ένα διακοσάκις εκατομμύριο

10903 ένα τριακοσάκις εκατομμύριο

101203 ένα τετρακοσάκις εκατομμύριο

101503 ένα πεντακοσάκις εκατομμύριο

101803 ένα εξακοσάκις εκατομμύριο

102103 ένα επτακοσάκις εκατομμύριο

102403 ένα οκτακοσάκις εκατομμύριο

102703 ένα εννεακοσάκις εκατομμύριο

103003 one millillion ένα χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

106003 ένα δισχιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

109003 ένα τρισχιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1012003 ένα τετράκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1015003 ένα πεντάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1018003 ένα εξάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1021003 ένα επτάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1024003 ένα οκτάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1027003 ένα εννεάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1030003 one decimillillion ένα δεκάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1033003 ένα ενδεκάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1036003 ένα δωδεκάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1039003 ένα δεκατριάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1042003 ένα δεκατετράκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1045003 ένα δεκαπεντάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1048003 ένα δεκαεξάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1051003 ένα δεκαεπτάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1054003 ένα δεκαοκτάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1057003 ένα δεκαεννεάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1060003 ένα εικοσάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1063003 ένα εικοσιάπαξ χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1066003 ένα εικοσιδίς χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1069003 ένα εικοσιτρίς χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

1072003 ένα εικοσιτετράκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

... ... ...

1090,003 ένα τριακοντάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

10120,003 ένα τεσσαρακοντάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

10150,003 ένα πεντηκοντάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

10180,003 ένα εξηκοντάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

10210,003 ένα εβδομηκοντάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

10240,003 ένα ογδοηκοντάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

10270,003 ένα εννενηκοντάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

10300,003 one centimillillion ένα εκατοντάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

10600,003 ένα διακοσάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

10900,003 ένα τριακοσάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

101,200,003 ένα τετρακοσάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

101,500,003 ένα πεντακοσάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

101,800,003 ένα εξακοσάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

102,100,003 ένα επτακοσάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

102,400,003 ένα οκτακοσάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

102,700,003 ένα εννεακοσάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμύριο

103,000,003 one millimillillion ένα εκατομμυριάκις εκατομμύριο

106,000,003 ένα δισεκατομμυριάκις εκατομμύριο

109,000,003 ένα τρισεκατομμυριάκις εκατομμύριο

1012,000,003 ένα τετράκις εκατομμυριάκις εκατομμύριο

... ... ...

103,000,000,000,003 ένα εκατομμυριάκις εκατομμυριάκις εκατομμύριο

The repetitive pattern in the linguistic system in relation to the denotational system becomes evident:
whenever 6 zeros are “inserted” in the exponent after the first digit (i.e., whenever the exponent is
multiplied by nearly one million it would be exactly 1 million if we ignored the last 3), then the word
εκατομμυριάκις (“million-fold”) is inserted in the linguistic expression after the word ένα.

For those of you who have native level of command of Greek, here is the continuation of the idea of
marching to infinity (in Greek only).

Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal numbers are the ones we use for ordering objects: first, second, third, etc. In Greek, ordinal
numbers have always the form of an adjective; thus, they are declined by gender, case, and number.
(Yes! Such numbers are declined by number, i.e., singular or plural: one can say first, if the object,
person, etc., is one, and something like firsts, if they are many.) The table below gives an idea for what
the words for these numbers look like. The genders appear with the masculine first, the feminine
second, and the neuter third in sequence.

0th zeroth μηδενικός, μηδενική, μηδενικό

1st first πρώτος, πρώτη, πρώτο

2nd second δεύτερος, δεύτερη, δεύτερο

3rd third τρίτος, τρίτη, τρίτο

4th fourth τέταρτος, τέταρτη, τέταρτο

5th fifth πέμπτος, πέμπτη, πέμπτο

6th sixth έκτος, έκτη, έκτο

7th seventhέβδομος, έβδομη, έβδομο

8th eighth όγδοος, όγδοη, όγδοο

9th ninth ένατος, ένατη, ένατο

10th tenth δέκατος, δέκατη, δέκατο

11th eleventh ενδέκατος, ενδέκατη, ενδέκατο

12th twelfth δωδέκατος, δωδέκατη, δωδέκατο

13th thirteenth δέκατος τρίτος, δέκατη τρίτη, δέκατο τρίτο

14th fourteenth δέκατος τέταρτος, δέκατη τέταρτη, δέκατο τέταρτο

... ... ...

20th twentieth εικοστός, εικοστή, εικοστό

21st twenty first εικοστός πρώτος, εικοστή πρώτη, εικοστό πρώτο

... ... ...

30th thirtieth τριακοστός, τριακοστή, τριακοστό

40th fortieth τεσσαρακοστός, τεσσαρακοστή, τεσσαρακοστό

50th fiftieth πεντηκοστός, πεντηκοστή, πεντηκοστό

60th sixtieth εξηκοστός, εξηκοστή, εξηκοστό

70th seventieth εβδομηκοστός, εβδομηκοστή, εβδομηκοστό

80th eightieth ογδοηκοστός, ογδοηκοστή, ογδοηκοστό

90th ninetieth εννενηκοστός, εννενηκοστή, εννενηκοστό

100th hundredth εκατοστός, εκατοστή, εκατοστό

101st hundred and first εκατοστός πρώτος, εκατοστή πρώτη, εκατοστό πρώτο

...

200th two hundredth διακοσιοστός, διακοσιοστή, διακοσιοστό

300th thee hundredth τριακοσιοστός, τριακοσιοστή, τριακοσιοστό

400th four hundredth τετρακοσιοστός, τρετρακοσιοστή, τετρακοσιοστό

500th five hundredth πεντακοσιοστός, πεντακοσιοστή, πεντακοσιοστό

600th six hundredth εξακοσιοστός, εξακοσιοστή, εξακοσιοστό

700th seven hundredth επτακοσιοστός, επτακοσιοστή, επτακοσιοστό

800th eight hundredth οκτακοσιοστός, οκτακοσιοστή, οκτακοσιοστό

900th nine hundredth εννεακοσιοστός, εννεακοσιοστή, εννεακοσιοστό

1000th thousandth χιλιοστός, χιλιοστή, χιλιοστό

1001st thousand and first χιλιοστός πρώτος, χιλιοστή πρώτη, χιλιοστό πρώτο

... ... ...

2000th two thousandthδισχιλιοστός, δισχιλιοστή, δισχιλιοστό

3000th three thousandth τρισχιλιοστός, τρισχιλιοστή, τρισχιλιοστό

4000th four thousandth τετράκις χιλιοστός, τετράκις χιλιοστή, τετράκις χιλιοστό

5000th five thousandth πεντάκις χιλιοστός, πεντάκις χιλιοστή, πεντάκις χιλιοστό

6000th six thousandth εξάκις χιλιοστός, εξάκις χιλιοστή, εξάκις χιλιοστό

7000th seven thousandth επτάκις χιλιοστός, επτάκις χιλιοστή, επτάκις χιλιοστό

8000th eight thousandth οκτάκις χιλιοστός, οκτάκις χιλιοστή, οκτάκις χιλιοστό

9000th nine thousandth εννεάκις χιλιοστός, εννεάκις χιλιοστή, εννεάκις χιλιοστό

10000th ten thousandth δεκάκις χιλιοστός, δεκάκις χιλιοστή, δεκάκις χιλιοστό

20000th twenty thousandth εικοσάκις χιλιοστός, εικοσάκις χιλιοστή, εικοσάκις χιλιοστό

... ... ...

100,000th hundred thousandth εκατοντάκις χιλιοστός, εκατοντάκις χιλιοστή, εκατοντάκις

χιλιοστό

200,000th two hundred thousandth διακοσάκις χιλιοστός, διακοσάκις χιλιοστή, διακοσάκις

χιλιοστό

... ... ...

106th millionth εκατομμυριοστός, εκατομμυριοστή, εκατομμυριοστό

109th billionth δισεκατομμυριοστός, δισεκατομμυριοστή, δισεκατομμυριοστό

1012th trillionth τρισεκατομμυριοστός, τρισεκατομμυριοστή, τρισεκατομμυριοστό

1015th quadrillionth τετράκις εκατομμυριοστός, τετράκις εκατομμυριοστή, τετράκις εκατομμυριοστό

...

The continuation of the pattern should be evident from the above, as well as from the way larger
cardinal numbers are formed (see cardinal numbers, above).

Reading Math Symbols

Negative numbers: The symbol - (minus) is read: μείον in Greek. For example: -12 is read: μείον δώδεκα.

Percent: The symbol % is used in Greek, as in English. It is read: “τοις εκατό”. So, 23% is read: εικοσιτρία
τοις εκατό.

Occasionally, the symbol o/oo is used for “per thousand” (percent times 10, if the numbers are too low).
It is read: “τοις χιλίοις”. (Strange-looking endings such as -οις are relics of the obsolete dative case).

Decimals: The roles of period and comma are switched in Greek relative to English: the period is used for
separating thousands, and the comma is the decimal point.

How to read numbers with decimals: simply pronounce the “comma” between the two parts:

English Greek

12.34 twelve point thirty four 12,34 δώδεκα κόμμα τριάντα τέσσερα

Fractions: Exactly the same system as in English is used: the numerator is a cardinal number (one, two,
three,...), and the denominator is an ordinal number (third, fourth, fifth,..., in the neuter gender). Here
are some examples:

1/2 one half ένα δεύτερο

half (adj.) m: μισός, f: μισή, n: μισό

1/3 one third ένα τρίτο

1/4 one fourth ένα τέταρτο

quarter (adj.) τέταρτο (neuter only)

2/3 two thirds δύο τρίτα

3/4 three fourths τρία τέταρτα

34/56 thirty four fifty sixths τριάντα τέσσερα πεντηκοστά έκτα

Numbers in Ancient Greek

Ancient Greeks used the letters of the Greek alphabet in order to denote numbers. But how can one
represent large numbers with only 24 letters available in the Greek alphabet?

Simple: the letters from alpha to theta, plus one extra symbol in the 6th position (α, β, γ, δ, ε, ς, ζ, η, θ)
were playing the role of the nine digits, 1,2,3,...,9 (the role of the accent-mark, , will be explained in a
moment). The next letter, iota (ι), was standing for 10. Now, ια was 11, ιβ was 12, and so on, up to
ιθwhich was 19. Then, the next letter in order, kappa (κ) was used to denote 20. Likewise, lambda (λ) was
30. And so on, up to pi (π) which was 80, and then an extra symbol, the qoppa (), was used for 90. Then,
the next letter, rho (ρ), was used to denote 100; sigma (σ) was 200; and so on, up to the last letter of the
alphabet, omega (ω), which was standing for 800. One final extra-alphabetic symbol, the sampi ( ) was
used to denote 900. From there on... well, you already noticed the small accent-mark at the upper-right
of each Greek letter, right? This mark was used to mean “this is to be read as a number, not a word of
the Greek language.” Now, when this mark was placed at the lower-left corner of the letter, it meant that
the number was to be multiplied by 1000. Thus, α was denoting 1000. (Note: there have been other
notations, too, such as placing a horizontal bar over the letters of a number. In fact, this was the original
practice; the one with the is a more recent one. There have also been different symbols for the numbers
6 and 90; a good description of the development of symbols for Greek numerals can be found here.)

The table that follows explains all this, and also shows the words ancient Greeks were using for speaking
numbers out loud. As before, wherever genders appear, the masculine gender is shown first, next is the
feminine, and third in row is the neuter.

Arabic

numeral Greek

numeral How the number

was pronounced:
0

1 α

2 β

3 γ

4 δ

5 ε

6 ς

7 ζ

8 η

9 θ

10 ι

11 ια

12 ιβ

13 ιγ

14 ιδ

15 ιε

16 ις

17 ιζ

18 ιη

19 ιθ

20 κ

21 κα
...

30 λ

31 λα

...

As suggested by the top row, ancient Greeks had no symbol for zero, nor was zero considered a number.
Their words for zero, ουδείς and μηδείς, meant “not even one”. The modern symbol for zero (0)
originated from the first letter of the word ουδείς (source), whereas the Modern Greek word for zero
(μηδέν) comes from the neuter form of the ancient word.

From this point on, only the numbers that are multiples of 10 will be shown, assuming the pattern is
understood from the above.

Arabic

numeral Greek

numeral How the number

was pronounced:

40 μ or

50 ν

60 ξ

70 ο

80 π

90

100 ρ

110 ρι

...

190 ρ

200 σ
...

300 τ

400 υ

500 φ

600 χ

700 ψ

800 ω

900

1000

1001

...

2000

3000

4000

...

9000

10000

The ancient Greek system generally stops here: μύρια is the largest unit in counting. Nonetheless, the
Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes (287-212 BCE) was interested in even larger numbers. So
he came up with a system of numbering that went way beyond the one of his contemporaries in fact,
way beyond our modern system of naming numbers. The rest of the ancient Greek numbering shown
below is due to Archimedes.

20000

30000

40000

...
100000

200000

...

900000

1000000 (?)

2000000

3000000

...

107

108

Archimedes went on with his system, reaching the following number (in modern notation):
1080,000,000,000,000,000, or 1 followed by 80 quadrillion zeros, a number that in the Modern Greek
system would be called εκατό εικοσιεξάκις χιλιάκις εκατομμυριάκις εκατομμυριάκις εκατομμύρια (see
the end of the table in the Modern system, above; Archimedes’s system named this number differently).
This was Archimedes alone, however, so his system cannot be considered part of the traditional
numbering system of ancient Greeks.

Some observations are in order:

First, I put a question mark at the symbol for “one million”, because I do not have any idea of what
notation would be used. The fact of the matter is, however, that such large numbers seldom needed to
be referred to in the ancient world; and if there indeed was a need to refer to such numbers, the
reference would be through their linguistic expression, not through the denotational system (and that is
precisely what Archimedes did).

Second, we see that ancient Greeks used a different unit (μύριοι, -αι, -α) for 10000, and all higher
numbers were formed on the basis of this unit. The modern Greek word εκατομμύριο (for “one million”)
actually comes from that unit, meaning “one hundred ten-thousands”. The usage of a different linguistic
unit for 10000 (and basing the rest on it) is reminiscent of the Chinese numbering system (although
there was no communication between the two cultures).

And third, one might be tempted to charge the ancient Greek denotational system for inadequacy to
express numbers larger than one million. This observation, although true from our modern perspective,
is actually diminished in importance if seen in the proper context. The Greek denotational system was
capable of expressing all numbers that would appear in the lives and the everyday dealings of ancient
people. They were concerned neither with the number of atoms in a grain of sand, nor with the number
of stars in the universe (and if they were, they did not have a clue about the actual numbers involved).
Likewise, our “modern” denotational system has its limitations, too. We can easily express numbers that
we consider “very large” from our point of view, by using the exponential (scientific) notation, such as
10100, and such numbers happen to be larger than any notion of number (cardinality) that we could be
concerned with today (e.g., “the number of elementary particles in the universe”), but we cannot keep
on expressing larger and larger numbers with such a system, because the exponents would end lined up
in an awkward up-and-right-rising tower; let alone that our system of naming such numbers (by
multiples of 1000, hence increasing the exponents by 3) does not match well with the fact that the base
of the exponents is 10. (We can see this anomaly in the table for the modern Greek language, above,
where the symbol 1033 is used to represent the number “one decillion”, but the prefix dec- (“ten”) does
not relate straightforwardly to 33.) It is conceivable that cultures of the future will need to refer to even
larger numbers than those that seem large to us today, and hence will find that our denotational system
of numerals (and our language for describing them) is inadequate.

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