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Alphabet Stones

Alphabet Stones are stones or small tokens made of clay, wood, bone, or resin that are marked with single letters of the Greek alphabet. Each letter is assigned a phrase starting with the same Greek letter. I learned this method from John Opsopaus' book. The most crucial academic sources on this appear to all be in German. If you know German and can/have read them, please let me know! I'd love to have a list based on the inscriptions from the archaeological findings in Nollé's paper for completeness. That said, the below list is based on Heinevetter.

How To

The process of doing an alphabet stone reading is pretty simple. You can keep your stones in a cloth bag (which is what I do) or a box, basket etc. Shuffle them around without looking and pick one out of there. If you have your stones in a bag, you can sort of rustle the bag from the outside until a stone falls out. Make sure to consider the material of your stones to prevent any damage. You can also do this reading using astragaloi (i.e. ungulate knucklebones) or dice.

Meanings

This is a simplified version of Opsopaus' table that excludes his interpretations. I'm not going to list the numerical correspondences for each letter if you use dice or knucklebones instead of alphabet stones for simplicity's sake. If you'd like to see his analyses and the corresponding dice rolls, please see his website linked in the References section.

Greek Letter Meaning
Α: Alpha “The God (Apollo) says you will do everything successfully.”
Β: Beta “With the help of Tychê, you will have an assistant, the Pythian (Apollo).”
Γ: Gamma “Gaia will give you the ripe fruit of your labors.”
Δ: Delta “In customs inopportune strength is weak.”
Ε: Epsilon “You desire to see the offspring of righteous marriages.”
Ζ: Zeta “Flee the very great storm, lest you be disabled in some way.”
Η: Eta “Bright Helios, who watches everything, watches you.”
Θ: Theta “You have the helping Gods of this path.”
Ι: Iota “There is sweat; it excels more than everything.”
Κ: Kappa “To fight with the waves is difficult; endure, friend.”
Λ: Lambda “The one passing on the left bodes well for everything.”
Μ: Mu “It is necessary to labor, but the change will be admirable.”
Ν: Nu “The strife-bearing gift fulfils the oracle.”
Ξ: Xi “There is no fruit to take from a withered shoot.”
Ο: Omicron “There are no crops to be reaped that were not sown.”
Π: Pi “Completing many contests, you will seize the crown.”
Ρ: Rho “You will go on more easily if you wait a short time.”
Σ: Sigma “Phoibos (Apollon) speaks plainly, ‘Stay, friend.’”
Τ: Tau “You will have a parting from the companions now around you.”
Υ: Upsilon “The affair holds a noble undertaking.”
Φ: Phi “Having done something carelessly, you will thereafter blame the Gods.”
Χ: Khi “Succeeding, friend, you will fulfill a golden oracle.”
Ψ: Psi “You have this righteous judgment from the Gods.”
Ω: Omega “You will have a difficult harvest season, not a useful one.”

References