Sigma was adopted in the Old Italic alphabets beginning in the 8th century BC.Īt that time a simplified three-stroke version, omitting the lowermost stroke, was already found in Western Greek alphabets,Īnd was incorporated into classical Etruscan and Oscan, as well as in the earliest Latin epigraphy (early Latin S), such as the Duenos inscription.
In Unicode, the above variations of lunate sigma are encoded as U+03F9 Ϲ In Greek inscriptions from the late first century BC onwards, Ͻ was an abbreviation indicating that a man's father's name is the same as his own name, thus Dionysodoros son of Dionysodoros would be written Διονυσόδωρος Ͻ ( Dionysodoros Dionysodorou). A dotted antisigma ( antisigma periestigmenon, Ͽ) may indicate a line after which rearrangements should be made, or to variant readings of uncertain priority. Similarly, a reversed sigma ( antisigma, Ͻ), may mark a line that is out of place. Today, it is known as lunate sigma (uppercase Ϲ, lowercase ϲ), because of its crescent-like shape, and is still widely used in decorative typefaces in Greece, especially in religious and church contexts, as well as in some modern print editions of classical Greek texts.Ī dotted lunate sigma ( sigma periestigmenon, Ͼ) was used by Aristarchus of Samothrace (220–143 BC) as an editorial sign indicating that the line marked as such is at an incorrect position. This became the universal standard form of sigma during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. In handwritten Greek during the Hellenistic period (4th–3rd century BC), the epigraphic form of Σ was simplified into a C-like shape, which has also been found on coins from the 4th century BC onward. Lunate sigma Ī plaque reading " Metochion of Gethsemane" ( Μετόχιον Γεθσημανῆς) in Jerusalem, with a lunate sigma both at the end and in the middle of the word Alternatively, the name may have been a Greek innovation that simply meant 'hissing', from the root of σίζω ( sízō, from Proto-Greek *sig-jō 'I hiss'). Īccording to one hypothesis, the name "sigma" may continue that of Phoenician samekh ( ), the letter continued through Greek xi, represented as Ξ. Herodotus reports that "san" was the name given by the Dorians to the same letter called "sigma" by the Ionians.
Sigma's original name may have been san, but due to the complicated early history of the Greek epichoric alphabets, san came to be identified as a separate letter in the Greek alphabet, represented as Ϻ. The shape (Σς) and alphabetic position of sigma is derived from the Phoenician letter ( shin).
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