Ancient Greek units of measurement would later create the foundation of Egyptian, and formed the basis of the later Roman system.
Generally speaking, standards of measurement within the ancient Greek world varied according to location and epoch. Systems of ancient weights and measures  evolved as needs changed; Solon

Solon

Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens...

 and other lawgivers also reformed them en bloc. In time, some units of measurement were found to be convenient for trade within the Mediterranean region and these units became more and more common to different city states. Similarly the calibration and use of measuring devices became more sophisticated over time. By about 500 BC, Athens already had its own central depository of official weights and measures — the Tholos — where merchants were required to test their measuring devices against official standards.

Length

Greek measures of length were based on the relative lengths of parts of the body such as the foot and finger segment. The specific values assigned to these units varied according to location and epoch (e.g., in Aegina

Aegina

Aegina is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born in and ruled the island. During ancient times, Aegina was a rival to Athens, the great sea power of the era.-Municipality:The municipality...

 a foot or pous was approximately 13 inches or 333 mm, whereas in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 (Attica) it was about 11.6 inches or 296 mm). The relative proportions, however, were generally the same throughout the Greek world.

Units derived from the dactylos (plural: dactyloi):

Unit	Greek name	Equivalent	Description
daktylos			finger
kondylos		2 daktyloi	middle joint of finger
palaistē or dōron	,	4 daktyloi	palm
dichas or hēmipodion	,	8 daktyloi	half foot
lichas		10 daktyloi	span of thumb
orthodōron		11 daktyloi
spithamē		12 daktyloi	span of all fingers
pous		16 daktyloi	foot; Attic foot ≈ 296 mm; Aeginan foot ≈ 333 mm
pygmē		18 daktyloi	elbow to base of fingers
pygōn		20 daktyloi
pēchys		24 daktyloi	cubit Cubit The cubit is a traditional unit of length, based on the length of the forearm. Cubits of various lengths were employed in many parts of the world in Antiquity, in the Middle Ages and into Early Modern Times....
pēchys basilēïos		27 daktyloi	royal cubit

Larger units derived from the pous (plural: podes):

Unit	Greek name	Equivalent	Description
pous		16 daktyloi	foot; Attic foot ≈ 296 mm
haploun bēma		2.5 podes	single pace
diploun bēma		5 podes	double pace
orgyia		6 podes	fathom Fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems, used especially for measuring the depth of water.There are 2 yards in an imperial or U.S. fathom...  or stretch of both arms
akaina		10 podes
plethron		100 podes	breadth of Greek acre
stadion Stadion (unit of length) The stadion, Latinized as stadium and anglicized as stade, is an ancient Greek unit of length. According to Herodotus, one stade is equal to 600 feet. However, there were several different lengths of “feet”, depending on the country of origin....		600 podes	Attic stadion ≈ 185 m
diaulos Diaulos (running race) Diaulos was a double-stadion race introduced in the 14th Olympiad of the ancient Olympics...		2 stadia
hippikon		4 stadia
dolichos Dolichos (running race) Dolichos or Dolichus in ancient Olympics was a long-race introduced in 720 BC. Separate accounts of the race present conflicting evidence as to the actual length of the dolichos. However, the average stated length of the race was approximately 18-24 laps, or about three miles...		12 stadia
parasang Parasang The parasang is a historical Iranian unit of itinerant distance comparable to the European league.In antiquity, the term was used throughout much of the Middle East, and the Old Iranian language from which it derives can no longer be determined... a		30 stadia	adopted from Persia
schoinos		40 stadia	adopted from Egypt Egypt Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

Area

One plethron was traditionally the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plough in one day (approximately 4 English acres); more specifically, it was any area equal to the area of a square each of whose sides is 100 podes or 10 plethron in length .

Volume

Greeks measured volume according to either dry or liquid capacity, suited respectively to measuring grain and wine. A common unit in both measures throughout historic Greece was the cotyle or cotyla whose absolute value varied from one place to another between 210mL and 330mL (or 7.4-11.6 fl. oz.):

Dry measure

Unit	Greek name	Equivalent	Description
cotyla Cotyla In classical antiquity, the cotyla or cotyle was a measure of capacity among the Romans and Greeks: by the former it was also called hemina; by the latter, and or...	κοτύλη		276ml
choenix		4 cotylae	approx 1 man's daily grain ration
hecteus		8 choenices
medimnos	μέδιμνος	6 hecteis

Liquid measure

Unit	Greek name	Equivalent	Description
cotyla Cotyla In classical antiquity, the cotyla or cotyle was a measure of capacity among the Romans and Greeks: by the former it was also called hemina; by the latter, and or...	κοτύλη		approx a cup
hemichous		6 cotylae
chous		12 cotylae
metretes	μετρητής	144 cotylae	approx 1 amphora Amphora An amphora is a type of vase-shaped, usually ceramic container with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body...  wine

Currency

The basic unit of Athenian currency was the obol:

Unit	Greek name	Equivalent
obol or obolus Obolus The obol was an ancient silver coin. In Classical Athens, there were six obols to the drachma, lioterally "handful"; it could be excahnged for eight chalkoi...	ὀβολός	0.56 g
drachma	δραχμή	6 obols
mina	μνᾶ	100 drachmae
talent Attic talent The Attic talent , also known as the Athenian talent or Greek talent, is an ancient unit of mass equal to 26 kg, as well as a unit of value equal to this amount of pure silver. A talent was originally intended to be the mass of water required to fill an amphora . At the 2009 price of $414/kg, a...	τάλαντον	60 minae

Weight

Weights are often associated with currency since units of currency involve prescribed amounts of a given metal. Thus for example the English pound has been both a unit of weight and a unit of currency. Greek weights similarly bear a nominal resemblance to Greek currency yet the origin of the Greek standards of weights is often disputed. There were two dominant standards of weight in the eastern Mediterranean - a standard that originated in Euboea

Euboea

Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...

 and that was subsequently introduced to Attica

Attica

Attica is a historical region of Greece, containing Athens, the current capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea...

 by Solon

Solon

Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens...

, and also a standard that originated in Aegina

Aegina

Aegina is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born in and ruled the island. During ancient times, Aegina was a rival to Athens, the great sea power of the era.-Municipality:The municipality...

. The Attic/Euboean standard was supposedly based on the barley corn, of which there were supposedly twelve to one obol. However, weights that have been retrieved by historians and archeologists show considerable variations from theoretical standards. A table of standards derived from theory is as follows:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto; background-color: #ffffff"

! Unit
! Greek name
! Equivalent
! Attic/Euboic Standard
! Aeginetic Standard
|-
| obol or obolus

Obolus

The obol was an ancient silver coin. In Classical Athens, there were six obols to the drachma, lioterally "handful"; it could be excahnged for eight chalkoi...

| ὀβολός
|
| 0.72g
| 1.05g
|-
| drachma

Dram (unit)

The dram was historically both a coin and a weight. Currently it is both a small mass in the Apothecaries' system of weights and a small unit of volume...

| δραχμή
| 6 obols
| 4.31g
| 6.3g
|-
| mina
|
| 100 drachmae
| 431g
| 630g
|-
| talent
|τάλαντον
| 60 minae
| 25.86 kg
| 37.8 kg
|}

Time

Athenians measured the day by sundial

Sundial

A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a...

s and unit fractions. Periods during night or day were measured by a water clock

Water clock

A water clock or clepsydra is any timepiece in which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into or out from a vessel where the amount is then measured.Water clocks, along with sundials, are likely to be the oldest time-measuring instruments, with the only exceptions...

 (clepsydra) that dripped at a steady rate and other methods. Whereas the day in our Gregorian calendar

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...

 commences after midnight, the Greek day began after sunset. Athenians named each year after the Archon

Archon

Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler" or "lord", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy, and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In ancient Greece the...

 Eponymos for that year, and in Hellenistic times years were reckoned in quadrennial epochs according to the Olympiad

Olympiad

An Olympiad is a period of four years, associated with the Olympic Games of Classical Greece. In the Hellenistic period, beginning with Ephorus, Olympiads were used as calendar epoch....

. The Athenian year was divided into 12 months, with one additional month (poseideon deuteros, 30 days) being inserted between the sixth and seventh months every second year. Even with this intercalary

Intercalation

Intercalation is the insertion of a leap day, week or month into some calendar years to make the calendar follow the seasons or moon phases. Lunisolar calendars may require intercalations of both days and months.- Solar calendars :...

 month, the Athenian or Attic calendar

Attic calendar

The Attic calendar is a hellenic calendar that was in use in ancient Attica, the ancestral territory of the Athenian polis. This article focuses on the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the classical period that produced some of the most significant works of ancient Greek literature. Because of the...

 was still fairly inaccurate and days had occasionally to be added by the Archon

Archon

Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler" or "lord", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy, and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In ancient Greece the...

 Basileus. The start of the year was at the summer solstice

Summer solstice

The summer solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet's semi-axis in a given hemisphere is most inclined towards the star that it orbits. Earth's maximum axial tilt to our star, the Sun, during a solstice is 23° 26'. Though the summer solstice is an instant in time, the term is also...

 (previously it had been at the winter solstice

Winter solstice

Winter solstice may refer to:* Winter solstice, astronomical event* Winter Solstice , former band* Winter Solstice: North , seasonal songs* Winter Solstice , 2005 American film...

) and months were named after Athenian religious festivals, 27 mentioned in the Hibah Papyrus, circ 275 BCE.

Month	Greek name	Gregorian equivalent
Hecatombaeon		June-July
Metageitnion		July-Aug
Boedromion		Aug-Sept
Pyanepsion		Sept-Oct
Maemacterion		Oct-Nov
Poseideon		Nov-Dec
Gamelion		Dec-Jan
Anthesterion		Jan-Feb
Elaphebolion		Feb-March
Munychion		March-April
Thargelion		April-May
Scirophorion		May-June

Hibeh Papyrus: http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=7565384&tstart=0, http://planetmath.org/encyclopedia/HibehPapyrus.html

External links

• Online Conversion of Ancient Greek Units