Originally Posted by Roger Pearse

I remember seeing a film clip of somewhere on Santorini which had a fresco image of Sappho. I was interested to see that the name written against it rendered 's' like our 'c' -- the familiar Greek s not being used.

Originally Posted by Julian

I am not sure I follow here. Greek majuscule sigma is always written as C and never as Σ, at least, I cannot recall ever having seen it written in the now familiar manner. I will run off to wikipedia and look it up now but I suspect that the sigma that we are used to is a quite modern invention.

Originally Posted by Julian

I am not sure I follow here. Greek majuscule sigma is always written as C and never as Σ, at least, I cannot recall ever having seen it written in the now familiar manner. I will run off to wikipedia and look it up now but I suspect that the sigma that we are used to is a quite modern invention.

Originally Posted by Chris Weimer

No, Σ has a definite antiquity. In the Roman era, however, the lunate sigma C was in popular use. Some texts I have use the lunate sigma exclusively.

Originally Posted by Julian

I just looked through about a hundred papyrus pages across many centuries, literary texts and otherwise, and I was unable to find any instances of Σ of any kind. In very sloppy handwriting the terminal sigma sometimes has a very exaggerated hook but the medial version is always lunate. I realize that sigma was supposed to be derived from W and was turned on its side somehow. I have been unable to find any instances. I am skimming through Thompson's Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography right now to see if he has any light to shed on this but it seems not. I would be quite curious to see any early example of Σ use.

Julian

Originally Posted by Julian

I wonder if it is an epigraphical consideration, avoiding the much harder curve of the lunate in favor of the straight lines of the other form. Does the other form have a name, by the way?

Julian

Originally Posted by Thompson

The different terms which are used to describe various styles of letters may here be explained. In both Greek and Latin palaeography, large letters are called "majuscules"; small letters, "minuscules." Of large letters there are two kinds: Capitals, or large letters, formed, as in inscriptions, chiefly by strokes meeting at angles and avoiding curves, except where the actual forms of the letters absolutely require them, angular characters being more easily cut with the tool on hard substances such as stone or metal; and Uncials, a modification of capitals in which curves are freely introduced as being more readily inscribed with the pen on soft material such as papyrus. For example, the fifth letters is E as a capital, and E (Julian: In the book it looks like a rounded C with a horizontal line) as an uncial. The term "uncial" first appears in St. Jerome's Preface to the Book of Job, and is there applied to Latin letters, "uncialibus, ut vulgo aiunt, litteris," but the derivation of the word is not decided; we know, however, the it refers to the alphabet of curved forms.