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Gematria · Greek script · cipher 21 of 23

Isopsephy: the Greek letters as numerals

Isopsephy, "equal pebbles", is the Greek practice: alpha to theta 1 to 9, iota to koppa 10 to 90, rho to sampi 100 to 900, with three old letters kept as numerals for 6, 90 and 900. The numerals date from the 5th century BCE; the summing of words is attested from the 1st century CE.

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A table of the Greek numeral letters in three rows of nine, units, tens and hundreds: alpha 1, beta 2, gamma 3, delta 4, epsilon 5, stigma 6, zeta 7, eta 8, theta 9, iota 10, kappa 20, lambda 30, mu 40, nu 50, xi 60, omicron 70, pi 80, koppa 90, rho 100, sigma 200, tau 300, upsilon 400, phi 500, chi 600, psi 700, omega 800, sampi 900. Isopsephy Α 1 Β 2 Γ 3 Δ 4 Ε 5 Ϛ 6 Ζ 7 Η 8 Θ 9 Ι 10 Κ 20 Λ 30 Μ 40 Ν 50 Ξ 60 Ο 70 Π 80 Ϟ 90 Ρ 100 Σ 200 Τ 300 Υ 400 Φ 500 Χ 600 Ψ 700 Ω 800 Ϡ 900
The Greek letters as numerals, in three rows of nine: units, tens and hundreds, with stigma, koppa and sampi in their places.

Facts

Script
The 24 Greek letters with stigma, koppa and sampi and their archaic forms; accents and breathings stripped
Rule
α to θ 1 to 9 (ϛ 6); ι to ϟ 10 to 90; ρ to ϡ 100 to 900; ς counts as σ
Tier in our chart
Core: shown at once for Greek text
The numerals
Around Miletus, attested by the 5th century BCE; official use by about 200 BCE
The practice
Pompeii graffiti and Leonidas of Alexandria, 1st century CE
Printed by
Agrippa, 1533, Book II, chapter xviii
Examples
ΛΟΓΟΣ 373; ΑΓΑΠΗ 93; ΝΕΡΩΝ 1,005

Meaning

The Greeks wrote numbers with their letters: alpha to theta for 1 to 9, iota to koppa for 10 to 90, rho to sampi for 100 to 900. Three letters that had dropped out of the alphabet, digamma or stigma (6), koppa (90) and sampi (900), were kept for the purpose. The system grew up around Miletus and is attested by the 5th century BCE; it was in official use in Greece by about 200 BCE. Isopsephy, from isos "equal" and psephos "pebble", is the play of setting words with equal sums side by side.

The play is attested later than the numerals. A 3rd-century BCE puzzle by Apollonius of Perga multiplies letter values; summed words appear in the 1st century CE, in graffiti at Pompeii ("I love her whose number is 545"), in the epigrams of Leonidas of Alexandria, and in the Roman joke Suetonius records about Nero: Νέρων and the Greek for "killed his own mother" both make 1005. Christians used the device too. The Epistle of Barnabas reads Abraham's 318 as IH and T, Jesus and the cross; the Sibylline Oracles pose Jesus' name as a riddle whose answer is 888; and Irenaeus, about 180 CE, condemns Gnostics for building doctrine on such sums.

How it is counted

ΛΟΓΟΣ, logos, "word": Λ 30 + Ο 70 + Γ 3 + Ο 70 + Σ 200 = 373; reduced to 13, then to 4.

ΑΓΑΠΗ, agape, "love": Α 1 + Γ 3 + Α 1 + Π 80 + Η 8 = 93; reduced to 12, then to 3.

ΝΕΡΩΝ, Neron, Nero, the 1005 of the Roman joke: Ν 50 + Ε 5 + Ρ 100 + Ω 800 + Ν 50 = 1,005; reduced to 6.

The chart ignores accents and breathings, counts final sigma as sigma, and counts the numeral letters, in their classical or archaic forms, when they occur.

Famous equal values

Holy and good, ἅγιος and ἀγαθός, both make 284; the Nile, Νεῖλος, makes 365, the days of the year; and the dove, περιστερά, makes 801, a sum Irenaeus reports the Marcosians made much of. The sums are correct and our chart checks them; what they were taken to mean belongs to the people who drew them. The chart matches ordinary words only, never a sacred name.

Correspondences

Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.

Nero's lampoon
Νέρων and "killed his own mother" both 1005 (Suetonius, Nero 39) sourced
Barnabas (70 to 132 CE)
Abraham's 318 read as IH and T, Jesus and the cross sourced
Jesus 888
Ἰησοῦς = 888, a Sibylline riddle and a Gnostic doctrine; not shown to be the evangelists' intent disputed
Abraxas 365
The sum is right; that the name was built for it is the ancient account disputed

How the schools read it

Graffiti and epigram
Love notes at Pompeii; Leonidas's couplets of equal sums.
Roman satire
The verse about Nero, recorded by Suetonius.
Early Christian writers
Barnabas on 318; the Sibylline riddle on 888.
Irenaeus (about 180 CE)
Attacks Gnostic speculation on 888 and 801; discusses 666 and 616.
EsoTerrier
For text written in Greek: numeral letters counted, final sigma as sigma, accents ignored.

Claims about it

  • Isopsephy began with Pythagoras at Miletus in the 6th century BCE.

    disputed

    What the record shows: The numerals are attested from the 5th century BCE; no early source has Pythagoras number letters, and the summing of words appears in the Roman period.

  • The Gospel writers meant Jesus' name to make 888.

    unverified

    What the record shows: The sum is right and ancient: the Sibylline Oracles set it as a riddle and the Gnostics Irenaeus attacked built on it. No early source says the evangelists intended it.

  • The name Abraxas was made to give 365.

    told as lore

    What the record shows: Irenaeus links Basilides' Abraxas to 365 heavens, and the sum is right; that the name was built for the number is the ancient account.

  • Greek architects used isopsephy in the proportions of buildings.

    unverified

    What the record shows: No source was found; an architect of the 2nd century CE who wrote isopsephic verse is not evidence that buildings encode names.

  • An English name written in Greek letters one for one has a Greek value.

    false

    What the record shows: Only a name as Greek speakers write it has an isopsephy value.

Elsewhere on EsoTerrier

Sources

Primary texts (5)
  1. Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book II, chapters xviii to xx, translated by J. F. (London, 1651), edited by Joseph H. Peterson; first printed in Latin as De occulta philosophia libri tres, Cologne, 1533. esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agripp2b.htm
  2. Suetonius, Nero 39, in The Lives of the Caesars, translated by J. C. Rolfe (Loeb Classical Library, 1914). penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html
  3. The Epistle of Barnabas, chapter 9, in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (1885). newadvent.org/fathers/0124.htm
  4. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies (about 180 CE), Books I and V, in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, translated by Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut (1885). newadvent.org/fathers/0103530.htm
  5. The Sibylline Oracles, translated by Milton S. Terry. New York: Eaton and Mains, 1899. archive.org/details/cu31924028930200
Studies and other sources (4)
  1. "Isopsephy", Wikipedia (orientation only). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isopsephy
  2. "Greek numerals", Wikipedia (orientation only). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals
  3. Carl Huffman, "Pythagoras", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2024). plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras
  4. Dimitris K. Psychoyos, "The forgotten art of isopsephy and the magic number KZ", Semiotica 154 (2005), 157 to 224 (known through Wikipedia's citation; not read). doi.org/10.1515/semi.2005.2005.154-1-4.157
Our own research (3)
  1. EsoTerrier calculation engine, the gematria service and its documentation.
  2. EsoTerrier, example values of test words under every cipher, computed from the engine's tables (October 2026).
  3. EsoTerrier, validation of the gematria engine: 76 strings against a textbook implementation, open-source packages and three web calculators (October 2026).
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By EsoTerrier. Written with AI assistance from our research and checked against its sources; last revised 24 October 2026. How we write these pages.

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