Chapter Ensilage to Episemon of E by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

star appeared to the wise men of the East. The 6th January is the Feast of the Epiphany.
    The word is not special to Christianity. One of the names of Zeus was Epiphanes (the manifest one), and festivals in his honour were called "Epiphanies." (Greek, epi-phaino, to shine upon, to be manifest [in creation].)

Episemon in Greek numerals, is a sign standing for a numeral. Thus, epishmou bau generally called Fau, Episemon, stands for 6, and iota-episemon for 16. There are two other symbols - viz. koppa for 90, and sampi [san-pi] for 900. The reason is this: The Greek letters were used for numerals, and were ranged in three columns of nine figures each; but 24 letters will not divide by 9, so the 3 symbols, episemon, koppa, and sampi were added to make up 3 × 9. Col. 1, from 1 to 20; col. 2, from 20 to 100; col. 3, from 100 to 1,000.
   Bau and Fau are identical, the B or F being the dijamma. Thus oiuoz (wine) was pronounced Foinos, called in Latin Vinum, and wou (an egg) was pronounced Ofon, in Latin Ovum.
   A dash under a letter multiplied it a hundredfold. Thus, a = 1, but = 000. For intermediate figures between full tens a mark was made above the unit. Thus i (iota = 10; but ia = 10 + 1 = 11, ib = 10 + 2 = 12; ig = 10 + 3 = 13, and so on.