The Mathematics of Love

     Something I wasn't particularly aware of until reading A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities, selected/edited/translated by J. C. McKeown, was that the Ancient Greeks had a very particular way of expressing numbers with letters.  (No details are given regarding why, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't just for "number games," but was for actual mathematical purposes--much like the Roman system--since numerals as we think of them didn't exist yet, not in Europe, anyway.)

    The numbers 1-9 were represented with the first eight letters of the Greek alphabet, with the archaic digamma (Ϝ, "w") for 7, presumably indicating that its position (before being excised from the language) was in between zeta and eta.  Then you had the tens:  10, 20, 30, etc., with the next nine letters of the Greek alphabet, including the archaic koppa (ϙ, "k") for 90.  And finally the hundreds started with rho and went up past omega to end with the archaic sampi (ͳ, "ts" or "ss") for 900.  (The inclusion of these archaic letters presumably means that this numeric process was not only developed before those letters (and their associated sounds in the case of digamma) were dropped from use , but was so firmly established that changing it just because the letters were no longer used was simply impractical, if not downright unthinkable.)

    However, unlike the Roman letters-as-numbers system, the Greek system meant that every word and phrase had a numerical value.  And evidently they liked to play around with figuring out the values of various words and phrases, and comparing them to the values of others.  (For example, he cites one ancient source that had gone to the trouble of finding two (contiguous) lines of the Iliad that added up to the same number.)  While a number of these equivalencies are listed in the book, one of them particularly gave me a case of the warm fuzzies:

Αχιλλευς φιλει Πατροκλον (no accent marks 'cause I couldn't find some of them)
Achilleus philei Patroklon
Achilles loves Patroclos

    The first word and the second two both add up to 1276.  The number is immaterial, and even the fact that the phrase adds up isn't what makes me smile:  it's the fact that someone first went to the effort of calculating it, and then felt the need to share that with the world by writing it down.  On top of that, their work was then preserved (in the form of one of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, so only barely), so it's just sort of extra exciting.  :D

    I guess I just can't help sort of squeeing when other people are fans of the same ship I am.  :P  (To put it in modern terms that would baffle any ancient mind...)

    (Their story in Hades also makes me squee uncontrollably:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt7FWky4jh0)

 

    But now, in honor of the day, I plan to download and play the number one most appropriate game:  the demo for the anti-dating sim I Just Want to Be Single.  (From what the devs have posted on discord, it's going to be fantastic.  I've been looking forward to it a lot...)