Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• σᾶμα ‎(sâma) (Doric)

• (4th AD Koine) IPA^(key): /síma/

• (10th AD Byzantine) IPA^(key): /síma/

• (15th AD Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /síma/

Noun

σῆμα • ‎(sêma) n ‎(genitive σήματος); third declension

1. mark, sign, token
   • Homer, Iliad 10.466
   • Homer, Iliad 23.326
   • Homer, Odyssey 19.250
   • Homer, Iliad 23.455
   • Solon, Collected Works 25.4
   • Archilochus, 49
   1. a sign from the gods, an omen, portent
      • Homer, Iliad 2.353
      • Homer, Iliad 8.171
      • Homer, Iliad 13.244
      • Pindar, Pythian Ode 4.355
      • Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 498, (compare The Libation Bearers 259)
      • Sophocles, Fragments 379
      • Homer, Odyssey 20.111
   2. a sign to begin something, watchword, signal, banner
      • Homer, Odyssey 21.231
      • Hesiod, Works and Days 448
      • Euripides, Rhesus 12
      • Euripides, The Phoenician Women 1377
   3. the sign by which a grave is known, mound, cairn, barrow
      • Homer, Iliad 2.814
      • Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles 477
      • Homer, Odyssey 2.222
      • Homer, Odyssey 11.75
      • Pindar, Olympian Ode 10.30
      • Herodotus, Histories 1.93
      • Herodotus, Histories 4.72
      • Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.34
      • Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 886–888
      • Plato, Gorgias 493.A
   4. a mark to show the case of a quoit or javelin
      • Homer, Iliad 23.843
      • Homer, Odyssey 8.192
      • Dion., P. 18
   5. a token by which one's identity or commission was certified
      • Homer, Iliad 6.176–178
      • Homer, Iliad 7.189
      • Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 387
      • Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 404
      • Euripides, Electra 456
      • Sophocles, Women of Trachis 614
   6. a constellation
      • Euripides, Hecuba 1273
      • Sophocles, Fragments 379

Declension

Derived terms

• σημαίνω ‎(sēmaínō)
• σημεῖον ‎(sēmeîon)

References

• σῆμα in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• «σῆμα» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• «σῆμα» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English-Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • armorial bearings idem, page 40.
  • badge idem, page 58.
  • barrow idem, page 64.
  • blazonry idem, page 82.
  • cemetery idem, page 122.
  • coat idem, page 141.
  • countersign idem, page 178.
  • crest idem, page 184.
  • device idem, page 220.
  • emblem idem, page 267.
  • escutcheon idem, page 282.
  • figure-head idem, page 319.
  • grave idem, page 371.
  • indication idem, page 432.
  • insignia idem, page 444.
  • landmark idem, page 475.
  • mound idem, page 543.
  • omen idem, page 572.
  • password idem, page 597.
  • portent idem, page 627.
  • sepulchre idem, page 754.
  • sign idem, page 774.
  • signal idem, page 775.
  • star idem, page 811.
  • symbol idem, page 850.
  • tomb idem, page 879.
  • watch-word idem, page 966.
• Andrew L. Sihler (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press