Editing Sigma (section)

==History==
The shape (Σς) and alphabetic position of sigma is derived from the [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] letter <span style="background-color: white;">{{Phoenician letter|sin}}</span> ([[Shin (letter)|''shin'']]).

Sigma's original name may have been ''san'', but due to the complicated early history of the Greek [[Archaic Greek alphabets|epichoric alphabets]], ''san'' came to be identified as a separate letter in the Greek alphabet, represented as [[San (letter)|'''Ϻ''']].<ref name="woodard">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece|editor-first=Nigel Guy|editor-last=Wilson|title=Alphabet|first=Roger D.|last=Woodard|publisher=Routledge|place=London|page=38|date=2006}}<br /></ref>
[[Herodotus]] reports that "san" was the name given by the [[Doric Greek|Dorians]] to the same letter called "sigma" by the [[Ionic Greek|Ionians]].<ref group="lower-roman">"the same letter, which the Dorians call "san", but the Ionians 'sigma'..." [translated from [[Ancient Greek]]: "{{Langx|grc|τὠυτὸ γράμμα, τὸ Δωριέες μὲν σὰν καλέουσι ,Ἴωνες δὲ σίγμα|italic=yes|label=none}}"] ([[Herodotus]] 1.139)</ref><ref>[[Herodotus]], ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' 1.139 — [[Michael Everson|Everson, Michael]] and [[Nicholas Sims-Williams]]. 2002. "[https://archive.today/20120628161421/http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/nonattic.html Non-Attic letters]," transcribed by N. Nicholas. Archived from the [http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/nonattic.html original] 2020-06-28.</ref>

According to one hypothesis,<ref name="jeffery25">{{cite book|last=Jeffery|first=Lilian H.|title=The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece|publisher=Clarendon|year=1961|place=Oxford|pages=25–7}}</ref> the name "sigma" may continue that of Phoenician ''[[samekh]]'' (<span style="background-color: white;">{{Phoenician letter|samekh}}</span>), the letter continued through Greek ''xi'', represented as [[Xi (letter)|'''Ξ''']]. Alternatively, the name may have been a Greek innovation that simply meant 'hissing', from the root of {{lang|grc|σίζω}} ({{Langx|grc|sízō|label=none|italic=yes}}, from [[Proto-Greek language|Proto-Greek]] ''*sig-jō'' 'I hiss').<ref name="woodard" />

=== Lunate sigma ===
[[File:Madaba Jerusalem Mosaic.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Madaba Map]], a sixth-century mosaic of [[Jerusalem]] ({{lang|grc|Η [[Agia (disambiguation)|ΑΓΙΑ]] [[polis|ΠΟΛΙ{{strong|Ϲ}}]]}}) uses the lunate sigma]]
[[File:Metochion Gethsimanis, Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|right|upright|A plaque reading "[[Metochion]] of [[Gethsemane]]" ({{lang|grc|Μετόχιον Γεθσημανῆς}}) in Jerusalem, with a lunate sigma both at the end and in the middle of the word]]
In handwritten Greek during the [[Hellenistic period]] (4th–3rd century BC), the [[epigraphic]] form of Σ was simplified into a C-like shape,<ref>Thompson, Edward M. (1912). ''Introduction to Greek and Latin Paleography.'' Oxford: Clarendon. p.&nbsp;108, 144.</ref> which has also been found on coins from the 4th century BC onward.<ref>Hopkins, Edward C. D. (2004). "[http://www.parthia.com/fonts/letterforms_usage.htm Letterform Usage | Numismatica Font Projects]" ''Parthia''.</ref> This became the universal standard form of sigma during late antiquity and the Middle Ages.

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.

A 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. Similarly, a reversed sigma (''[[antisigma]]'', '''Ͻ'''), may mark a line that is out of place. A dotted antisigma (''antisigma periestigmenon'', '''Ͽ''') may indicate a line after which rearrangements should be made, or to variant readings of uncertain priority.

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'').<ref>{{cite journal |last1=de Lisle |first1=Christopher |title=Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |journal=AIUK |date=2020 |volume=11 |page=11 |url=https://www.atticinscriptions.com/papers/aiuk-11/ |access-date=2 June 2022 |issn=2054-6769}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Follet |first1=Simone |title=Les deux archontes Pamménès du Ier siècle a.c. à Athènes |journal=Revue des Études Grecques |date=2000 |volume=113 |pages=188–192|doi=10.3406/reg.2000.4402 }}</ref>

In [[Unicode]], the above variations of lunate sigma are encoded as {{Unichar|03F9|html=}};
{{Unichar|03FD|size=100%|html=}},
{{Unichar|03FE|size=100%|html=}}, and
{{Unichar|03FF|size=100%|html=}}.

===Derived alphabets===
Sigma was adopted in the [[Old Italic alphabets]] beginning in the 8th century BC.
At that time a simplified three-stroke version, omitting the lowermost stroke, was already found in Western Greek alphabets,
and was incorporated into classical [[Etruscan alphabet|Etruscan]] and [[Old Italic scripts|Oscan]], as well as in the earliest [[History of the Latin script|Latin]] [[epigraphy]] (early Latin ''[[S]]''), such as the [[Duenos inscription]].
The alternation between three and four (and occasionally more than four) strokes was also adopted into the [[Elder Futhark|early runic alphabet]] (early form of the [[Sowilō|''s''-rune]]).
Both the [[Anglo-Saxon runes]] and the [[Younger Futhark]] consistently use the simplified three-stroke version.

The letter [[Es (Cyrillic)|С]] of [[Cyrillic script]] originates in the [[#Lunate sigma|lunate form]] of Sigma.