Pous

Pous

Pous

Ancient Greek unit of length; approximately 0.3 metre


The pous (pl. podes; Greek: πούς, poús) or Greek foot (pl. feet) was a Greek unit of length. It had various subdivisions whose lengths varied by place and over time. 100 podes made up one plethron, 600 podes made up a stade (the Greek furlong) and 5000 made up a milion (the Greek mile). The Greek pous also has long, median and short forms.

The pous spread throughout much of Europe and the Middle East during the Hellenic period preceding and following the conquests of Alexander the Great and remained in use as a Byzantine unit until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Orders of Architecture

Comparative analysis

A pous is divided into digits or fingers (daktyloi) which are multiplied as shown. Generally the sexagesimal or decimal multiples have Mesopotamian origins while the septenary multiples have Egyptian origins.

Greek measures of short median and long podes can be thought of as based on body measures. The lengths may be compared to the Imperial/U.S. foot of 304.8 mm. Stecchini and others propose the Greek podes are different sizes because they are divided into different numbers of different sized daktylos to facilitate different calculations. The most obvious place to observe the relative difference is in the Greek orders of architecture whose canon of proportions is based on column diameters.

More information Unit, no. of daktyloi ...

References

Mathematical and metrological references

  • H Arthur Klein (1976). The World of Measurements. Simon and Schuster.
  • R. A. Cordingley (1951). Norman's Parallel of the Orders of Architecture. Alex Trianti Ltd.
  • Francis H. Moffitt (1987). Surveying. Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-044554-8.
  • Gillings (1972). Mathematics in the time of the Pharaohs. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-07045-6.
  • Lucas N. H. Bunt; Phillip S.Jones; Jack D. Bedient (1976). The Historical Roots of Elementary Mathematics. Dover. ISBN 0-486-25563-8.
  • Somers Clarke & R. Englebach (1990). Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture. Dover. ISBN 0-486-26485-8.
  • Gardiner (1990). Egyptian Grammar. Griffith Institute. ISBN 0-900416-35-1.

Linguistic references

Classical references

  • Vitruvius (1960). The Ten Books on Architecture. Dover.
  • Claudias Ptolemy (1991). The Geography. Dover. ISBN 0-486-26896-9.
  • Herodotus (1952). The History. William Brown.

Archaeological historical references

Medieval references

  • Jean Gimpel (1976). The Medieval Machine. Holt Rheinhart & Winston. ISBN 0-03-014636-4.
  • H Johnathan Riley Smith (1990). The Atlas of the Crusades. Swanston. ISBN 0-7230-0361-0.
  • Elizabeth Hallam (1986). The Plantagenet Chronicles. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 1-55584-018-3.
  • H.W. Koch (1978). Medieval Warfare. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-573600-5.

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