σαν

English (LSJ)

(Greek name prob. σάν (v.

   A Σ ς B. 2), eighteenth letter in the Etruscan abecedaria (IG14.2420) and probably in the oldest Gr. alphabets, occupying the same serial position as the Hebrew Tsade (<*>, Phoenician <*> <*> Syria 6.103), with which it may be identified. In many of the oldest Gr. alphabets it represents the sound s, for which <*> and <*> (twenty-first letter in the Etruscan abecedaria) is an alternative representation preferred in other Gr. alphabets. It is uncertain whether the letter <*> (name and serial position unknown), which represents the sound σς in Schwyzer 707 (Ephesus, vi B.C.), 701A17 (Erythrae, v B.C.), SIG4.6 (Cyzicus, vi B.C.), 45.2, al. (Halic., v B.C.) and the third sound (σς?) in the name of Mesambria in BMus.Cat.Coins Thrace p.132, is to be identified with Μ.    0-0It is also uncertain whether the numerical symbol <*> (= 900), described by Gal.17(1).525, which has this form in PEleph.1 (iv B.C.), PCair.Zen.22.5 (iii B.C.), Rev.Phil.35.138 (Thessaly, iii B.C.), Milet.6.39 (ii B.C.), where it forms part of a symbol for thousands, and later the forms Τ JHS26.287 (Athenian tesserae of iv B.C.), 25.342 (papyri of ii B.C.), SIG695.83 (Magn. Mae., ii B.C.), IG12(1).913 (Rhodes, i B.C.), <*> ib.22.2776.11, al. (ii A.D.), and <*> (medieval Mss., called παρακύϊσμα in Sch.D.T. p.496 H.), is to be identified with either of the foregoing. The numerical symbol, in the form <*>, follows ω in an Attic abecedarium, Bullettino dell' Inst. di corrisp. archeol. 1867.75, and that position tallies with its numerical value, since ω = 800. The extended alphabet used by Archim.Spir.11, Aequil.2.3 for a diagram ends with ω <*>.