Isopsephia

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Isopsephia (also called Isopsephy and Greek Gematria), from the Greek iso (equal/same) and psephos (pebble/count), is the practice of adding up the number values of Greek letters in a word to form a single number.

Working in a similar way to the Hebrew Gematria, a number is associated with each letter of the Greek alphabet, and the sum value obtained for a word or sentence can be used to make mystic and mathematical associations between different words and concepts.

Besides the Hebrew Gematria, other similar techniques exist, such as the Gematria of Nothing and the New Aeon English Qabala, both meant to be used with English words.



Greek Alphabet and associated Isopsephia Values

Value Name Glyphs Transliteration


1 alpha Α α A


2 beta Β β B


3 gamma Γ γ G


4 delta Δ δ D


5 epsilon Ε ε E


6 (500) digamma (1) Ϝ ϝ F


6 (500) stigma (1) Ïš Ï› ST


7 zeta Ζ ζ Z


8 eta Η η H


9 theta Θ θ T


10 iota Ι ι I


20 kappa Κ κ K


30 lambda Λ λ L


40 mu Μ μ M


50 nu Ν ν N


60 xi Ξ ξ X


70 omicron Ο ο O


80 pi Π π P


90 koppa (2) Ϙ ϙ Q


100 rho Ρ ρ R


200 sigma Σ σ ς S


300 tau Τ τ T


400 upsilon Υ υ U


500 phi Φ φ F


600 chi Χ χ C


700 psi Ψ ψ Y


800 omega Ω ω W


900 sampi (2) Ï  Ï¡ SS



(1) Digamma and Stigma are not part of the Greek alphabet and were used as numerals with value 6. These two letters are identified with the later Greek semi-compound letter Stau (Sigma + Tau), being attributed the value 500 (200 + 300) to them. For practical pruposes Digamma, Stigma and Stau are the same letter. In numerals and Isopsephia these letters have always the value 6 Gematria, while for Gematria both values (6 and 500) are used for deppending on the context.
(2) these letters are not part of the Greek alphabet itself, and were used usualy as numerals only and not in words.



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